San Francisco, CA
SFUSD superintendent Matt Wayne resigns, school closures on hold
San Francisco Unified School District Superintendent Matt Wayne resigned Friday, amid controversy over plans to close or merge more than a dozen schools amid a massive budget shortfall. The district also announced that the closures are on hold.
At an emergency meeting, the city’s Board of Education accepted Wayne’s resignation.
“The District is grateful for Dr. Wayne’s leadership during a challenging period for the SFUSD. Under Dr. Wayne’s leadership, the District has focused on student outcomes and teaching and learning,” the district said in a statement Friday night. “He has been an instructional leader with a deep commitment to our students’ success. The District agrees with Dr. Wayne that the time is right for new leadership in SFUSD.”
In a separate statement, Wayne said, “I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have served SFUSD and proud of all that has been accomplished during my almost two-and-a-half years leading the District.”
The board announced that Maria Su, who has served as Executive Director of the Department of Children, Youth and their Families, would be nominated as the new Superintendent. Su was part of a “School Stabilization Team” of city officials appointed by Mayor London Breed last month to help the district.
“I am excited to deepen the work we started three weeks ago to stabilize the school district,” Su said. “San Francisco public schools are the city’s greatest asset. We must come together as a community to take care of our school district. SFUSD students, families, and staff are counting on us.”
Along with the change in leadership, the district announced that there would be no school closures in the 2025-26 school year.
Wayne has faced heat following an Oct. 8 announcement which named 11 elementary schools and two high schools that would be impacted. At the time, the district said that the closures were needed to balance the budget by next school year, or risk a takeover by the California Department of Education.
Under the proposal, three campuses would have closed, another eight schools would be merged with another school, while the remaining schools would be a welcoming school for a closed school.
Earlier this week, Breed weighed in on the closures, saying she had “lost confidence” in the superintendent but stopped short of calling him to step down. Breed also called for a halt to the closures.
“This cannot continue. Whatever this current proposed school closure process was meant to accomplish, or could have accomplished, is lost,” the mayor said in a statement released Tuesday. “This has become a distraction from the very real work that must be done to balance the budget in the next two months to prevent a state takeover. It is time to immediately stop this school closure process.”
At the same time, Breed said there would be “painful but necessary” decisions ahead to balance the budget and to avoid a state takeover.
Karling Aguilera-Fort, who is currently the Senior Associate Superintendent of Education Services, has been named as Acting Superintendent in the meantime.
San Francisco, CA
Giants reassign 3B coach Borg; Wotus named interim replacement
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San Francisco, CA
Driver Arrested After Pedestrian Killed, Three Injured In Mission District Crash
One pedestrian died at the hospital and three others suffered non-life-threatening injuries after a driver struck them in SF’s Mission District earlier this week.
The San Francisco Police Department arrested a driver suspected of fatally striking four pedestrians in the area of 16th and Mission streets Monday morning, as KRON4 reports.
Officers responded to the scene at 12:13 am and found medics treating one pedestrian with life-threatening injuries. The person later died at a nearby hospital, and three other pedestrians sustained non-life-threatening injuries.
The driver was reportedly detained soon after the collision. The department has not announced what charges they will receive.
“We hold the victim and their loved ones in our thoughts, and grieve this loss of life on San Francisco’s streets,” said Jodie Medeiros, executive director for Walk SF, in a release. “We all deserve to be able to get around safely in our city.”
This marks the ninth pedestrian death in San Francisco this year. It’s also the second such death in the Mission, following the tragic death of local musician Danielle Spillman at Mission Street and South Van Ness Avenue in April, as SFist reported previously.
Four pedestrians were killed throughout the month of March, including deaths in Chinatown, the Financial District, North Beach, and the Outer Mission. In late February, a two-year-old was run over in Mission Bay.
Anyone with information may contact the SFPD at 415-575-4444 or text “TIP411,” beginning with “SFPD.”
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San Francisco, CA
California Supreme Court ruling on bail sparks debate over what it means for San Francisco’s safety
A recent California Supreme Court ruling is changing how bail is set across the state, and it’s sparking a sharp debate in San Francisco about what it could mean for public safety.
Inside her office, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said every decision carries weight. She views her role through one lens: protecting the public.
“My responsibility to San Francisco is public safety,” Jenkins said. “And to be transparent to me in achieving that safety. This is a ruling that has real-life consequences, and deny that would be untruthful and would not help people understand why we may see retraction from our progress.”
The ruling requires judges to set bail at levels defendants can afford, shifting the focus away from cash bail and toward whether someone poses a risk to public safety.
Jenkins said she believes that shift could have serious consequences.
“I knew it would be immediately be devastating to public safety and the state of California and had a lot of concerns that I thought needed to be shared with the public and other city leaders,” she said.
She warns that the change could make it easier for repeat offenders, particularly those involved in drug-related crimes, to be released before trial.
“These judges don’t live in San Francisco, many of them,” Jenkins said. “They don’t live in places like the Tenderloin that are most affected by these issues. They are ruling in a way that has impacts on other people’s lives.”
But not everyone agrees with that assessment.
San Francisco Defense Attorney Marsanne Weese said the ruling does not eliminate accountability and that courts still have tools to detain people who pose a threat.
“In regards to her statements, there is no basis for it,” Weese said. “And the justices pointed out that there are a number of non-financial tools the lower courts can use and should use.”
Those tools include options like pretrial detention and supervised release, which allow judges to consider risk without relying solely on a person’s ability to pay bail.
“So, in regards to this being a drastic change, yes, it will be a drastic change, but not to safety,” Weese added.
For Jenkins, the concern is not just the intent of the law, but how it will be applied in real-world courtrooms and what that means on city streets.
For now, there is unease for some, optimism for others, and a growing debate over what public safety will look like under this new system.
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