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Where did it go wrong? Here's how San Francisco Unified's issues led to school closures

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Where did it go wrong? Here's how San Francisco Unified's issues led to school closures


SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — The San Francisco Unified School District announced Tuesday which schools will have to close due to budget concerns. Now, many are asking at what point did things begin to unravel for a district that was once financially stable.

To understand the chaos throughout San Francisco’s School District, let’s start with the central office, the people who run the day-to-day business operation. At a recent Board of Supervisors meeting information was given on how things are not functioning efficiently.

SFUSD releases list of schools that will potentially close

“All of those systems, they are right now unfortunately run by one or two senior people. They don’t have enough staff there,” said Maria Su, who is on the School Stabilization Team. Su was recently appointed by Mayor London Breed to lead a city team that would help stabilize things at the district.

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What we do know is that during the pandemic, some senior staff left or retired.

Susan Saunders, a principal who retired in June 202, told us some of the district’s problems stem from what many refer to as a disconnect between the schools and the central office.

“I think it’s just trust and I think it’s still there, that lack of trust is still there. I think what people at the school sites are asking for is, make us part of the conversation too. Let’s be solution-oriented and work together,” said Saunders.

An example is the lack of information when the district chose to delay the announcement of school closures.

“I think we need to do a better job of explaining our budget crisis and then why school closures fit into our picture of addressing the budget crisis,” said SFUSD Superintendent Dr. Matt Wayne.

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This budget crisis is due, in part, by some families deciding to leave San Francisco Public Schools through the years, meaning schools continue to miss out on millions of dollars from the state.

“We wouldn’t be in this financial crisis if we hadn’t lost so many students. Now, I think a lot of that has to do, as a parent who went through this process, with how long it took to reopen schools after COVID,” said San Francisco Supervisor Hillary Ronen during a recent meeting.

Current Superintendent Matt Wayne was not there at the time, Vincent Matthews was.

Instead of getting schools to reopen safely, some on the school board were focused on other matters they considered important like trying unsuccessfully to rename schools and tearing down historic murals that some deemed insensitive.

Former school board commissioner Gabriela Lopez was one of the school board members eventfully recalled.

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SF mayor’s office steps in to help as school district faces $400M budget deficit, closures

“If I could have done anything to make that faster to improve the timeline so that we could ensure schools are safe, I would have but because it was the pandemic and there’s such a bureaucratic process, it’s difficult to make those moves and then we balanced that with the other discussions that were top of mind for a lot of people,” said Lopez.

That delay also hurt the recruitment of teachers, adding to the shortage that already existed.

A San Francisco civil grand jury found that according to 2020-2021 data, “SFUSD does not employ an adequate number of credentialed teachers to afford a quality education to all San Francisco students.” Only 77 percent were credentialed.

Karen Kennard was the foreperson of that grand jury.

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“We compared it with all of the Bay Area school districts and the Bay Area district generally have about 82 percent, clean credentialed teachers so San Francisco was lagging behind all of the other school district in the Bay Area except for Alameda,” said Kennard.

Another major revelation, SFUSD administrators were initially tight lipped.

“Their administrators dodged us, refused to return phone calls, refused to return emails and we finally had to go to get the city attorney involved,” said Kennard.

Then came a flawed payroll system that cost the district $35 million and another $20 million to implement a new one which should be up and running by July 2025.

And now the latest example of a mismanaged system is an additional $30 million that was needed to hire more special education teachers for this year. $30 million that was not initially in the budget.

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A crisis, that even the district admits, was created by the central office.

“Principals were trying to hire these positions and the budget money was not there,” said School Board President Matt Alexander.

As a result, when schools started last August, the district could not hire the extra special education teachers needed because the funds were not in the budget.

“We failed our students at the beginning of the year,” said Superintendent Wayne to member of the Board of Supervisors.

SFUSD facing 120 teacher vacancies amid looming school closures

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The district has since found the money to hire some special education teachers using one time funds, but there are still vacant positions.

Supervisor Ahsha Safai has asked the city controller to investigate the matter.

“We need to know who made that decision and who broke the law on behalf of the school district because there needs to be accountability,” said Safai.

Now, also unsettling is the city’s proposal to use $8.4 million left over from the Student Success Fund, to begin stabilizing the district.

That did not sit well with some members of the Board of Supervisors.

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“That money is supposed to be used to get students achieving academically and healthy in their minds, body and spirit and the precedent that that is setting, is scaring the life out of me,” said Supervisor Ronen.

But Su suggested that that money would go toward hiring much-needed paraprofessionals and helping families whose schools will be closing.

“Could we use some of these dollars to support schools and young people, children and families who are going to transition from a closed school to a welcoming school. I feel all of these things fall within the scope of the student success fund,” said Su.

The question now is how can families ever trust the district to finally get things right?

“We’re working incredibly hard to rebuild the trust with our community. So I think we’re doing what we can to lay out, here is the situation we’re facing and let’s work through it together,” said Dr. Wayne.

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“And more importantly how do we never get to this place ever again,” said Su.

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San Francisco, CA

Super Bowl Experience coming to San Francisco

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Super Bowl Experience coming to San Francisco


Super Bowl LX Is still more than a week away, but work is underway to prepare for the big game and the crowds it will draw to San Francisco. 

Football fan frenzy

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Inside San Francisco’s Moscone Center, an army of workers is transforming the convention center into a fan center. Just about everywhere you look, crews are hard at work creating the venue for the Super Bowl Experience, a fan-focused experience. 

“Not everybody is lucky enough to go to Levi’s Stadium on February 8th, but this is your opportunity to get into the game,” said Nicki Ewell, who is the VP of Events for NFL.

Plenty to do

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Among the activities, crews are building an indoor football field that will host international competition from 14 countries, a girls’ high school flag football showcase and the Pro-Bowl game bringing together some of the biggest names in the NFL for a flag football showdown. 

“It’s about 500,000 square feet of activities,” Ewell said. “Fans come down, they stay for 4 hours. Kids 12 and under are free every day, no ticket required. It’s really an opportunity to get in the game, see our players with their helmets off, which is an awesome opportunity for autographs and photos and meet and greets.”

Fans will also get a chance to see how they stack up against virtual NFL players in a 40-yard-dash, try kicking an extra point, and see what if they’ve got the rushing skills to catch a punt and weave through defenders to the end zone.

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Organizers say they’re working to make sure the experience for fans is unforgettable. “You can stay three to four hours, there’s amazing content, amazing games, amazing shopping,” Ewell said. “So, we’re excited, something for everybody.”

Sports memorabilia 

Fans will also have a chance to check out Super Bowl rings and the Vince Lombardi Trophy, which will be on display as well.

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All the fun for the Super Bowl experience gets underway here starting Tuesday. Organizers say tickets are available online for $40 for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, prices go up as the week progresses. Kids 12 and under get in for free.

 

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San Francisco, CA

Tuberculosis outbreak at San Francisco high school halts in-person classes

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Tuberculosis outbreak at San Francisco high school halts in-person classes


SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — A third confirmed active case of tuberculosis is forcing Archbishop Riordan High School in San Francisco to cancel classes on Friday and halt in-person classes next week. Many sporting events have also been canceled.

Students and teachers are now in the midst of the alarming outbreak.

“Yeah, you know it’s kind of crazy because it reminds me a bit of COVID,” said Julia O’Neill, a student at Riordan High School.

In a letter to families at Riordan, the school president announced that next week, teachers will be posting student assignments online. From February 9-20, the school will move to a hybrid option where students who test negative will be allowed to attend classes on campus.

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“I’m okay with it because Riordan is trying their best to make sure that we’re safe,” said freshman Emma O’Neill. “We’re having online school for like a week, so everyone can get their tests, which I think is a really good decision to make.”

MORE: CA seeing surge in norovirus cases. The unexpected way it can spread through your household

School leadership is working with the city’s public health department on contact-tracing. They hope to get everyone tested by February 13.

In addition to the three active TB cases, they’ve already identified 50 cases of latent infection, meaning the individuals are infected but have no symptoms.

As for being worried, the students who spoke with ABC7 News said they feel safe.

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“A tiny bit, I know the school has been keeping everyone informed,” said senior Ashling Greene.

The school’s first case of TB was back in November, but then came the holiday break.

MORE: Doctors are ignoring new federal vaccine recommendations

“The problem with TB is it can take a long time to incubate in some people, anywhere from two to 10 weeks,” said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease expert at UCSF. “What might have happened is they checked a lot of back in November, and some people were maybe falsely negative, but it hadn’t incubated yet, and then they got active disease maybe over the holidays.”

Dr. Chin-Hong says there are about 100 cases of TB in San Francisco each year, and that in the U.S., there aren’t enough cases to merit vaccinations.

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“You have these three people in the right conditions in a school where students are studying and learning for hours a day in close contact, they’re laughing, talking, singing, playing sports. It can be transferred even more easily than someone living in a household and don’t go out that many places.”

Public health officials plan to reassess test results every eight weeks until the outbreak is deemed over.


If you’re on the ABC7 News app, click here to watch live


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San Francisco prepares to celebrate Lunar New Year

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San Francisco prepares to celebrate Lunar New Year


San Francisco is preparing to host hundreds of thousands celebrating the Lunar New Year; Thursday, organizers shared their plans for this year’s Chinese New Year parade and festival.

Police shared some of their plans for security preparations for the March parade, at the same time businesses are certainly gearing up in hopes of getting in on the festivities, celebrations and traditions.

At Lion Trading in Chinatown, Lucas Li says the Lunar New Year celebration is an important time for the community and they’re preparing for it.

“I think the most popular thing people come for are our Chinese New Year envelopes, so I think as we welcome the year of the fire horse which is 2026 they are coming to look or these beautiful horse design envelopes,” Li said.

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He’s hoping for success and looking forward to the weeks-long celebration starting in mid-February.

“The Lunar New Year I would say is the single largest economic driver for Chinatown every year, small business Chinatown, workers, restaurant look forward to the month long celebration,” said Donald Luu, president of the SF Chinese Chamber of Commerce. “We have a total of 60 floats approximately 70 units different organization, is going to be a huge event.”

The celebration starts in mid-February, with a parade set for March 7. The SFPD says it’s ready to ensure it will be a safe celebration for the tens of thousands who are expected to gather.

“You can expect that you will see a full complement of uniformed officers what we will expecting in terms of specialized units, plain clothes officers, motorcycles, the full gamut of officers to support festivities in this event,” said SFPD Chief Derrick Lew.

“This season is really important to small family-owned businesses like ours because we depend on the support of the community right and we want to promote these traditions for the younger generations,” Li said.

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