SAN FRANCISCO – Families and teachers in San Francisco’s public schools will have to wait longer than expected to find out if their school could close next year.

SFUSD Superintendent Matt Wayne was expected to reveal a list of schools that may close or merge at this week’s board meeting. However, on Sunday, Wayne announced that the list would not be made public until sometime in October.

In a notice issued Sunday morning, Wayne said, “The process of closing and merging schools is complicated, and I want to make sure we’ve looked at it from every angle, including how after-school care, grant funding, and transportation will be affected.”

Sara Meskin, a member of the SF Parent Coalition, voiced disappointment, saying, “Not necessarily surprising, but it was disappointing because I think people were really counting on getting information this week.” She added, “The longer we go without answers, it just makes it really difficult for schools to plan, for teachers to have security, and for parents fundraising for their school.”

The nonprofit advocacy group SF Parent Coalition is hosting a mayoral debate tomorrow evening, with all five major candidates expected to attend.

SFUSD remains under financial supervision by the state, a result of years of overspending and declining enrollment.

The San Francisco 49ers still have not won in Minneapolis since all the way back in 1992.

San Francisco took to U.S. Bank Stadium on Sunday riding high on a short week following Monday’s win over the New York Jets. Kyle Shanahan’s squad ended up falling to the Minnesota Vikings by the score of 23-17 in a mistake-filled game.

Defensively, the 49ers gave up an absud 97-yard touchdown to star Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson. It was part of a broader lackluster effort for this unit.

Though, it was the 49ers’ offense that stood out in a bad way Sunday in Minnesota. Without star running back Christian McCaffrey, quarterback Brock Purdy looked lackluster. Meanwhile, the 49ers’ offensive line was overwhelmed by the scheme of Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores.

There certainly are a lot more questions than answers after this lackluster effort from the defending NFC champions.

Top Takeaways From 49ers Loss To The Vikings

From Purdy’s performance to the absence of McCaffrey and what we saw on defense, there are certainly a lot takeaways for the 49ers. As noted above, there are also a ton of questions. Let’s look at four takeaways here.

San Francisco 49ers Missed Christian McCaffrey

Yes, and the sun comes up in the morning. McCaffrey put up north of 2,000 total yards and 21 touchdowns for a reason last season. He’s among the most dominant skill-position players in the game.

That showed in his absence on Sunday. Sure, Jordan Mason put up triple-digit rushing yards for the second time in McCaffrey’s stead on Sunday. But the 49ers missed their starting running back in the passing game.

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Mason caught just one pass for four yards on one target. Purdy missed him open on the flat at times, a clear indication that he doesn’t have the same connection with Mason as he does with McCaffrey.

CMC’s dual-threat ability made the 49ers’ offense nearly unstoppable last season. Without him in the mix on Sunday, that certainly was not the case.

Sloppy Play All The Way Around

San Francisco put up its sloppiest performance since a Week 16 loss to the Baltimore Ravens last season.

Purdy lost a fumble and threw an interception. Break downs from safeties George Odum and Ji’Ayir Brown led directly to the 49ers giving up the longest play in franchise history, that 97-yard touchdown from the aforementioned Jefferson.

A break down in punt coverage led directly to a long return and more points for the Vikings. This is not a winning formula. San Francisco’s head coach agrees.

“They (the Vikings) played really well, but it was too sloppy on our part,” Kyle Shanahan told reporters after the game.

Playing on a short week can lead to some iss]ues. But that’s not an excuse. Shanahan just didn’t have his team ready to play in this one.

49ers Overlooked The Vikings

This is an obvious takeaway. Fresh off a blowout win over the Jets, San Francisco simply overlooked what is now a pretty good Vikings team on the road. It’s extremely disappointing in the grand scheme of things.

Were the 49ers looking ahead to next week’s rivalry game against the Rams in Los Angeles? It’s possible. But it’s any given Sunday in the NFL. San Francisco found that out first hand.

Pass Protection Issues, Brock Purdy Struggles

After going down just two times in last week’s win over the Jets, Purdy was sacked a whopping six times. That included Pat Jones and Andrew Van Ginkel both getting to him for two sacks.

Schematically, Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores had his way with Shanahan from a play-calling perspective. That’s a rarity.

However, it’s the 49ers’ offensive line that deserves most of the blame here. It was, too, confused by what Flores threw at this unit. In particular, struggling right tackle Colton McKivitz continued to act as a turnstile. One now has to wonder if San Francisco looks outside of the organization for a replacement.

49ers Pass Rush Steps Up

Nick Bosa had two sacks. Fred Warner added another. All said, San Francisco took down Sam Darnold four times in the loss.

For Bosa, this represented his first two sacks of the season. He’ll need to continue making an impact with San Francisco’s depth out on the edge in question.

As for Warner, he created two turnovers. That included an interceptions of Darnold with the Vikings driving and up 10-0. It led to San Francisco’s first touchdown of the game. Warner is the best defensive player in the NFL right now. It’s not necessarily that close. It’s also one positive takeaway from Sunday’s loss.

Mike Doughty sure knows how to get a crowd on his side.

“I just want you to know that you are literally the most attractive people we have ever seen in our lives,” the Soul Coughing frontman said. “You freak me out — too (expletive) beautiful.”

Yet, he didn’t really need the sweet talk to gain the audience’s favor on Saturday night (Sept. 14) at The Fillmore. The thousand-plus fans that filled the legendary San Francisco venue to capacity for the first of two nights were clearly already in his corner and ready to enjoy their first Soul Coughing concert in at least a quarter of a century.

And the vocalist-guitarist and his formerly estranged Soul Coughing mates — keyboardist/sampler Mark Degli Antoni, bassist Sebastian Steinberg and drummer Yuval Gabay — certainly sounded great during this local stop on their long overdue reunion tour, powering through 21 numbers of jazzy hip alt-rock tunes in roughly 90 minutes.

The whole thing felt so natural and, well, necessary that it left one wondering how it could’ve possibly taken the band members 25 years to get this show back on the road. Sure, the New York City outfit parted on acrimonious terms in 2000, after putting out three highly enjoyable records during a five-year span, but other acts have certainly buried the hatchet much quicker than this when there was a payday involved.

Still, the consensus mood at The Fillmore was “better late than never” as fans swayed to the music in the packed room and sang along to Doughty’s curiously appealing vocal work, which mixes goofy Beat poetry, rap, one-liners, scatting, deadpan delivery, repetition for the sake of repetition, pure nonsense and rare insight.

Granted, that latter doesn’t always factor into the equation — as Doughty illustrated, first in English, as he sang “Bus to Beelzebub.”

“Get on to the bus that’s gonna take you back to Beelzebub,” he sang. “Get on to the bus that’s gonna make you stop going rub-a-dub.”

And it didn’t sound any more insightful when he mixed in a little French — “Voulez-vous the bus,” he sang — even though, we know, that usually does the trick.

The Soul Coughing songbook is littered with those type of oddities — this is probably a good place to mention that that same song ends with Doughty just repeating “Yellow No. 5” (yes, as in the controversial food dye) over and over again. Yet, he gets away with those lines — in part, due to that great deadpan delivery, but, probably more so, because he often wears cool Beat poetry/jazz cafe hats.

Taking the stage right around 8:30 p.m., the band kicked off its first Bay Area show of the 21st century with a fine version of “Is Chicago, Is Not Chicago.” It was the first of 10 tracks that hailed from “Ruby Vroom,” the group’s 1994 full-length studio debut that turns 30 later this month.

Continuing into “Down to This” (another “Ruby Vroom” offering), Doughty sold his lyrics almost entirely with pure rhythm and cadence, dropping words like notes plucked from Steinberg’s upright bass. Things got even groovier as the troupe ventured into “Irresistible Bliss” — the 1996 sophomore outing that lives up to its title and stands as the band’s best album — for “Collapse,” which proved to be a fine showcase for Gabay’s towering mix of power and technique on the kit.

Even the second (and third) tier Soul Coughing material — “White Girl,” “Sugar Free Jazz,” etc. — was well worth hearing on this night, since the band was operating in such a zone and, well, it just felt so good to be hearing Soul Coughing back in the live arena.

Doughty can be quite chatty in his solo shows, which might have something to do with the fact that there is a lot of space to fill when it’s just you and a guitar up there on the stage, but he was pretty quiet, for the most part, between songs.

He also seemed to downplay the whole front man vibe, instead just coasting through the gig in low gear and showing relatively little energy. I kept wanting him to cut loose, and take the whole thing to a higher level, but he never did — even during what should have been a barnburner of a encore with the Soul Coughing anthem “Super Bon Bon.”

Yet, there were so many highlights — including “Casiotone Nation,” “St. Louise Is Listening” and the main-set-ending  “Screenwriter’s Blues” — that it would be wrong to categorize this show as anything but a success, as Soul Coughing rose from its long slumber to once again delight Bay Area fans.

Here’s hoping this is a reunion with legs.

Setlist

1. “Is Chicago, Is Not Chicago”
2. “Down to This”
3. “Collapse”
4. “White Girl”
5. “Sugar Free Jazz”
6. “The Idiot Kings”
7. “Blue Eyed Devil”
8. “Disseminated”
9. “Rolling”
10. “Lazybones”
11. “Misinformed”
12. “Bus to Beelzebub”
13. “Casiotone Nation”
14. “St. Louise Is Listening”
15. “True Dreams of Wichita”
16. “Mr. Bitterness”
17. “I Miss the Girl”
18. “Moon Sammy”
19. “Screenwriter’s Blues”

Encore

20. “Circles”
21. “Super Bon Bon”

Originally Published: September 15, 2024 at 9:36 a.m.