SFParents Board of Education Meeting Summary – 6/17

6/17/25 – SF BOE Meeting Summary

Public comment was short & sweet, with the best comment of the year coming from a young student who thanked the BOE by saying “last year I asked you for a PE teacher, this year I had one, thank you” – no ask, no followup, just coming to a meeting in the summer to say “thank you.” Nicely done!

After that we heard from the LCAP Advisory Committee, Special ED CAC, and the PEEF CAC which were, oddly enough, all clustered together on the same evening ahead of Public Comment on the First Draft Recommended Budget – more on that later. From these volunteer-run committees that only get to present once a year, we heard / learned the following:

• Recommendations are generally aligned with BOE recommendations to the district (per the BOE)
• Dr. Su seems to be pushing to merge the LCAP and PEEF groups to increase information-sharing, and reduce duplication of efforts of the volunteers in these groups while also optimizing her own time spent with them, though the groups and Commissioner Fisher don’t seem to want this
• The Special Ed CAC called out that the district claims that a key part of SPED support is the use of ARTIFs, yet ARTIFs not allowed by current staffing model, and asked that the district be honest in its communication
• In talking about the SPED hiring processes, the CAC also highlighted that there were 53 certificated vacancies this last year, and an additional 47 took SERP this year, so SFUSD essentially doubled the vacancy problem – given the relatively modest savings from SERP, accelerating vacancies in SPED (and general ed) continues to look like the least student-centered way to save money
• The PEEF CAC wanted to better understand why $25M for SPED came from PEEF this year, when it was just $0 a few years ago.
• The PEEF CAC also questioned why the district was not hiring more nurses if they were cutting (the more expensive) outside contractors

Superintendent and Board Evaluations

• Next week talking about Superintendent’s progress
• BOE Self-Evaluation – while it was mentioned as an agenda item, the only evaluation came from their coach AJ shared that the BOE should move quickly to build robust processes for ongoing community engagement, school visits, & public comment so they can move away from using BOE meetings as the only forum for communication

Public hearing on SFUSD 2025-26 First Draft Recommended Budget

This is the first hearing on the recommended budget, the second will be presented next week and voted on by the BOE. Hopefully they can have the budget as the first item next week so we can all get a little sleep!

• Consistent with the last budget meeting, Dr. Su stated that 16% of funds are going to Central Office, down from 25% this last year
• The budget presented today is still in progress, but is “nearly final” (will be final next week)
• The budget presented today is within a few million dollars of projections, but…
  • Revenue a little short given lower than expected state budget COLA
  • District staff still learning how to use Frontline
  • Multiyear plan does not reflect assumptions around salary increases
• Elliot Duchon weighed in with a few concerns:
  • Data going into Frontline being accurate
  • Continued large projected annual net shortfalls (line D on Slide 18)
  • Understanding why our deficit is so large
  • Ann Marie is leaving District (and has done a great job managing the chaos of what was in place prior)
• Let’s add our rough take here:
  • What seems good:
    • We met the goal for reductions. 
    • Budget presentations are clearer and more accessible to families, starting with a vision for student success and what SFUSD is committed to.
    • There is a plan in place or at least conversation around how they will handle future raises and additional expenses moving forward, and how that will affect the budget.
    • The state monitor was very complimentary of the work done so far and seems happy with the district’s progress.
  • What seems worrisome:
    • What will school look like in the new school year? Because of the SERP and teacher movement we have schools with double digit vacancies going into the new school year. We will see combined grades across elementaries with teachers who aren’t necessarily supported to know how to teach combo-grade classrooms. We have reduced PD/training time but two huge new curriculum changes (math and literacy). The state still has partial control, when the goal was to get positive certification but SFUSD fell short. 

Adoption of the Special Education Local Plan (SELPA)

• The total proposed budget is up 21% for next year from this past year –  to $279M 
• Staffing numbers have been increased as well:
  • Teachers: 500 FTEs (+4.8 for coming year)
  • Paraeducators: 1,330 positions (increasing to 1,392)
• $41.2M allocated for nonpublic schools, NPAs, and consultants
• SELPA is serving 7,004 SFUSD students with IEPs (14% of student population)
  • 66.5% of IEP students spend majority of time in general education
• The district also presented their goals for the SELPA.
• The board also approved the staff recommendation for the DIBELS reading screener implementation for one year.
  • Some commissioners expressed concerns about computer based testing for younger learners, and ELL student accessibility.  

Personnel Updates

The major personnel update was the approved employment agreement for Christopher Dane Mount Benitez as Deputy Superintendent of Business Services

• Term: 8/1/2025 – 6/30/2028
• Annual salary: $320,000
• The board noted that this marks significant milestone in establishing stable leadership moving forward

Late Night Meeting Operations

There was some discussion about how late the meeting went, and how making important decisions at 11:00 pm and later affects parent participation. 

-Eliot Kent-Uritam