SFUSD BOE Meeting Cheat Sheet – 9/30/25

9/30/2025 Regular Meeting: Monitoring Workshop at 6:30pm:

• Full meeting agenda on BoardDocs here. 
• Zoom Link Here – Password: 966872.
• Agenda summary from SF Parent Coalition follows below.

SF PARENT’S SUMMARY: 

SFUSD is reviewing last school year’s performance on Student Outcome Goals 1, 2, and 3, and presenting its plans and timeline for building the 2026–27 budget, which given a growing deficit will require hard decisions, transparency, and clear communication in trade offs to reach a goal of at least $59 million dollars in cuts. The BOE has started including a section in presentations that shows how each agenda item connects to the District’s vision, values, goals, and guardrails — something parents have been requesting for a long time. We are encouraged by this change and hope the Board continues this practice so every agenda item clearly shows how it moves SFUSD closer to achieving its goals.

STUDENT OUTCOMES-RELATED AGENDA ITEMS

Item E.1   Progress monitoring report on Goal 1 on 3rd grade literacy achievement, Goal 2 on 8th grade math achievement, and Goal 3 on 12th grade college and career readiness (presentation link, report link, disaggregated ELA data report link, disaggregated Math data report link is incorrect)

• Goal 1: 3rd grade literacy: the percentage of ALL third grade students reading at grade level as measured by SBAC ELA will increase from 52% proficiency (10/2022) to 70% by October 2027–SIGNIFICANTLY OFF TRACK

• 3rd Graders last school year generally performed weaker than the six preceding cohorts of third graders. Grade 3 Smarter Balanced Assessment (“SBAC”) English Language Arts (ELA) proficiency fell from 49% in School Year (SY) 2023-24 to 47% in SY 2024-25. 

• Goal 2: 8th grade math: the percentage of ALL eighth grade students performing math at grade level as measured by SBAC math will increase from 42% proficiency (10/2022) to 65% proficiency by October 2027–SIGNIFICANTLY OFF TRACK

• 8th graders in the district last school year slightly increased their performance on SBAC Math compared to the previous year’s cohort, from 40.1% to 41.1%. 
• Some key focal groups have made gains:
  • African American students improved from 6.8% to 8.7% (3.7% in SY 2022-23)
  • Latinx students from 12.5% to 14%
  • Multilingual Learner students from 3.5% to 5.2%.
• Goal 3: college/career readiness: the percentage of all high school 12th graders who are “college/career ready (CCR)” as defined by the California Department of Education will increase from 57.5% (6/2020) to 70% by June 2027–PARTIALLY OFF TRACK
  • SFUSD did not share a progress monitoring update for Goal 3; instead, it provided an update for Goal 3’s associated Interim Goals

Our Take: Though 2024–25 Goal 1 and Goal 2 student outcomes are disappointing, we remain hopeful that SFUSD is continuing to lay the foundation needed to systematically increase students’ literacy and math proficiency over time. Implementing new ELA and math curricula with integrity is a multi-year effort, and it will take consistent support and monitoring before we see the results we expect. SFUSD must stay focused on implementation, ensure that every school has the training and resources needed, and track progress closely. 

At-risk high school students also need proactive and frequent college and career readiness support. Interim Associate Superintendent Shipp is now responsible for these significant efforts, and we look forward to her being an active partner with school communities and parents to drive improvements in student outcomes.

 Questions we’re asking:

• How will Interim Associate Superintendent Shipp ensure effective communication and transparency in these initiatives?
• SFUSD has provided a calendar for when student outcome metrics will be available (link here) and a public data visualization webpage (link to Tableau webpage here); however, these resources are only in English and highly technical. Can SFUSD provide family-friendly, school site-specific versions of this information that is more comprehensible and usable for the community?
• How will SFUSD’s budgets in the next few years prioritize sufficient funding to ensure Goals 1, 2, and 3 can be met?
• What is SFUSD doing to take meaningful action on our SF Kids Can’t Wait demands? Ensuring kids are getting high-dosage tutoring if needed, parents understand how their kids are doing, curriculum is being implemented with integrity, and teachers are getting ongoing supports.

We also want to be clear: our SF Kids Can’t Wait campaign is 100% focused on ensuring the District meets its math and literacy goals. Parents will continue organizing, monitoring progress, and pushing for the resources and accountability required to make sure all students get the strong reading and math instruction they deserve. To learn more about the campaign and how to get involved, click here.

BUDGET-RELATED AGENDA ITEMS

Item F.1   Fiscal & Operational Health (presentation link)

• In SFUSD’s  March 2025 Fiscal Stabilization Plan Update (link) and Details (link), SFUSD anticipated having to reduce $13 million from its 2026-27 budget. However, three months later, in June 2025, SFUSD increased the amount needing to be cut to $59 million and 160 FTE (link). 
• There may be an additional loss of 139 FTE positions being paid with restricted funds that will no longer be available at the end of the 2026 school year. These positions–which include instructional coaches and counselors–will end unless SFUSD finds $12.8 million in alternative funding. 
• Superintendent Su will present and discuss the following 2025-26 timeline to create SFUSD’s budget:

Our Take: The 2026-27 Fiscal Stabilization Plan (June 2025 update) specifies cutting 85.1 Certificated full-time equivalent (FTE) teaching staff and 74.94 Classified FTE, resulting in $17.3 million in budget savings; reducing employee benefits by $6.9 million; and another $34.9 million from other expenses. Questions we’re asking:

• How will SFUSD’s declining enrollment impact the 2026-27 budget? The School Year 2025-26 10-Day Count Report (link) shows that enrollment has declined by 605 students since last year.
• How will eliminating 160 FTE positions (per the Fiscal Stabilization Plan) affect SFUSD’s ability to achieve Goals 1, 2, and 3?
• At the same time SFUSD is looking to reduce its budget, it’s also in the process of bargaining with many of its union partners. The current budget forecasts do not include these costs. What fund sources will be used to cover the cost of new contracts with SFUSD’s employee partners? 

How will SFUSD incorporate the FCMAT Special Education report as part of its 2026-27 budgeting? (SFEdUp analysis link)

As a reminder – SF Parents’ community continues to demand from SFUSD:

• AN INCREASED, DEMONSTRATED FOCUS ON STUDENTS: 
  • We want to see the district’s clear plan and commitment to a baseline of excellence and equity across every SFUSD school. Without this clarity and vision, or analysis of how these decisions align with our student outcomes goals, it is impossible to know if this is a truly student-centered plan that will maximize success for our students even despite budget cuts.

• GREATER TRANSPARENCY AND COMMUNITY ACCESSIBILITY: 
  • SFUSD plans need greater detail and transparency. Without an analysis of school site impacts, it’s unclear if SFUSD is prioritizing student success. The Board should not approve budgets or plans without confidence in their accuracy and impacts on teaching and learning. We urge SFUSD to provide more thorough impact analyses to increase transparency on decision-making and build trust with the community.

SFUSD needs to be more open and honest about the budget. SFUSD committed to updating the Fiscal and Operational Health Dashboard last summer, and then abruptly abandoned that commitment in the fall. Fiscal topics from the short-lived Ad Hoc Committee should be included in all regular Board meetings, and the dashboard should be updated monthly until the budget is solvent.