San Francisco, CA
Some San Francisco Public Schools Face Closure as Enrollment Plummets
San Francisco’s public school system, grappling with declining enrollment and a looming budget deficit, is set to close or consolidate an unspecified number of schools by fall 2025, Superintendent Matt Wayne announced.
Wayne discussed the plan at a summit Saturday and gave more details in an interview with the Chronicle. “We feel like in order to create the schools our students deserve and our families expect, we need to have fewer schools,” Wayne told the Chronicle’s education reporter, Jill Tucker.
SF public schools currently have about 49,500 students enrolled – down from 53,000 in 2015. Projections show they could lose another 5,000 by 2032.
With fewer students comes decreased state funding, further straining the district’s already stretched resources and the city’s budget crisis. Wayne told the Chronicle that the district faces a “fiscal cliff” after years of overspending. He said the current lack of funds prevents the district form providing consistent support, programs, and necessary repairs across all of SF’s 121 schools. Wayne also noted that the potential for a state takeover if the budget isn’t balanced.
While no specific schools have been identified yet, the district apparently aims to finalize the closure list by September or October 2024, for a potential implementation by fall 2025. The next eight months will reportedly be dedicated to establishing closure criteria, conducting an equity audit to ensure marginalized students aren’t disproportionately affected, and gathering extensive community input.
Feature image via Blackjack48 ♠t ♣c /Wikimedia Commons.
On Wednesday, San Francisco police closed the case of a missing woman who was last seen in the city in 1973.
Police said 27-year-old Cheryl Lanier was last seen in 1973 in San Francisco, and her initial missing person’s report was filed in 2010. For years, the department’s Missing Person Unit worked on the case, but it remained open and unsolved.
In July 2025, police said they received a tip out of Harris County in Houston, Texas, advising that a deceased “Jane Doe” could be Lanier. After a DNA analysis, police determined the “Jane Doe” was Lanier and closed the case after 53 years.
SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — A Silver Alert was activated Thursday by the California Highway Patrol after an 85-year-old man was reported missing from South San Francisco.
Zosimo Carmen is described by authorities as 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighing 155 pounds. He has gray hair and brown eyes.
Carmen was last seen around 2 a.m. on Thursday in the area of James Court and Livingston Place in South San Francisco. He was wearing a brown flannel shirt and blue sweatpants.
The Silver Alert was activated for San Mateo and San Francisco counties.
Anyone who sees Carmen is asked to call 911.
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Giants honor Willie Mays with highway designation on what would have been his 95th birthday
The San Francisco Giants announced a fitting tribute to one of the best players in the history of Major League Baseball on Wednesday afternoon.
Willie Mays, the legendary center fielder and Hall of Famer, would have turned 95 on Wednesday. And the Giants, in conjunction with Mays’ Say Hey Foundation, along with several other sponsoring parties, will be designating a portion of a local freeway as the Willie Mays Highway.
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Hall of Famer Willie Mays tips his cap during introductions for Game 1 of the World Series between the San Francisco Giants and the Detroit Tigers in San Francisco on Oct. 24, 2012. (Paul Kitagaki Jr./The Sacramento Bee/AP)
This designation will cover a portion of Interstate 80 where the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge reaches the city near Oracle Park, the Giants’ home stadium. Signs on I-80 have already been installed with the new designation, a way for Mays to become a permanent part of the San Francisco Bay Area and his home franchise.
Giants personnel spoke about the honor and what it meant to have a “reminder” of his infectious spirit and personality next to the stadium.
DODGERS’ SHOHEI OHTANI BLASTS HOMER IN WIN, ACHIEVES STATISTICAL FEAT UNSEEN SINCE WILLIE MAYS
“What an incredibly special way to honor Willie’s legacy,” said Larry Baer, Giants president and CEO according to MLB.com “For generations, this portion of I-80 on the Bay Bridge has carried Giants fans into San Francisco, and now it will forever carry Willie’s name—a lasting reminder of the joy and inspiration he brought to this city. It is also fitting that this same span of the bridge is named after former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown Jr., two great San Franciscans.”
San Francisco Giants players Orlando Cepeda and Willie Mays stand at the Polo Grounds in New York on Sept. 11, 1963, during a game against the New York Mets. (Bank/NBCUniversal/Getty Images)
Mays came to the Bay with the Giants in 1958, and has a list of accomplishments to rival any other player in MLB history. A 24-time All-Star, two-time MVP, 12-time Gold Glove winner and 660 home runs, the sixth-highest number by an individual player.
Jeff Idelson, the executive director of the Say Hey Foundation, also issued a statement celebrating the announcement.
“Wille was more than a baseball great, he was a part of the fabric that helped define San Francisco culture for more than a half century,” said Idelson. “Not only is this a fitting way to recognize his lasting contribution to the community, but it furthers Willie’s legacy as a national icon.”
Willie Mays visits PS 46 in Harlem, next to the site of the former Polo Grounds where the New York Giants played before moving to San Francisco in 1958, on Jan. 21, 2011, in New York City. (Michael Nagle/Getty Images)
One of the state senators who introduced the bill paving the way for this designation was Bill Dodd from nearby Napa, who also added, “I cannot think of anyone better to welcome people traveling across the Bay Bridge to San Francisco than Willie Mays. He was an inspiration to so many of us growing up. I was so pleased to have had a part in making this happen.”
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The combination of speed, power, defense and joy Mays played the game with is incredibly rare, which is why his legacy is still viewed with such importance today, nearly 53 years after he retired. Hopefully, the next generation of baseball fans will stay familiar with his career thanks to this reminder.
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