San Francisco’s bruising school board recall is barely in the rear view mirror, but the next board election is coming fast, and it will shape the future of a school district that is at a crossroads.
The board, whose members get a $6,000 annual stipend, isn’t all-powerful. Nevertheless, its decisions and oversight will be a major factor, both now and after the November election, in solving problems that include a continued drop in student enrollment, a long-term budget deficit, and a new district superintendent — the sole finalist for the job was announced today. Then there’s the ongoing recovery from more than a year of virtual pandemic school that has deepened existing inequities.
The city’s influential teachers union, with some 6,000 members, wants to reassert its direction over the board after voters ignored its opposition to the Feb. 15 recall. Even with the election six months away, the union — the United Educators of San Francisco, or UESF — has begun making endorsements. Or potentially just one, because only one candidate, out of five so far, survived the first step of the process at a union meeting convened last weekend.
At the meeting, 50 UESF members — less than 1 percent of total membership — recommended an endorsement for current board member Lisa Weissman-Ward, one of the mayor’s three replacement picks after the recall.
(Update 10/12/22: The union is endorsing Weissman-Ward as well as Alida Fisher, who ran unsuccessfully for the board in 2020.)https://mobile.twitter.com/WWLisaN/status/1503439156462047232
The union has recently backed most winning candidates. All four winners in 2020 had its endorsement, as did two of three in 2018. Union officials also like to remind people that in 2016 they helped oust Jill Wynns, a board member of 24 years, after they decided Wynns was no longer on the union’s side.
One big exception to their influence, though, was the February recall. The union came out against the effort, yet all three commissioners targeted were recalled in a landslide — with at least 69 percent voting yes to oust each one — giving Mayor London Breed the ability to appoint her own choices to the board. All three have pledged to run to keep their seats in November.
Weissman-Ward must now go through two more steps: a majority approval of the union’s 41-member executive board, and approval by a larger union assembly, according to UESF political director Anabel Ibáñez. It would be “unprecedented” for Weissman-Ward not to get the nod after passing the first test, Ibáñez said. That decision should be finalized next week.
When asked if the recall has affected the union’s endorsement strategy, Ibáñez said no and called the February election, in which 36 percent of SF voters participated, “apples and oranges” compared with a primary or general election.
Lock it down
The UESF endorsement process started early, as has happened in recent election cycles, even though candidates have until August 12 to file paperwork with the city. (An advocacy group that emerged during COVID to push to reopen schools is also planning endorsements; it kicks off its process later this month.)
But UESF’s Ibáñez stressed that the union likes to lock down its choices early as a signal to other political and labor entities. Someone entering the race later would have to be well known, she said: “It takes money and resources and people to win.”
At the meeting Saturday, UESF members, including the seven leaders who took the union’s reins last year, showed up to hear stump speeches and ask questions of five candidates, including the three recall replacements. Any member could attend, and voting required paying a couple bucks a month in dues to the union’s Committee on Political Education (COPE) fund.
Breed’s other board appointees, Lainie Motamedi and Ann Hsu, did not make the cut, nor did two other candidates, who, like all of Breed’s appointees, are parents of students in the district. One of those parents, Alida Fisher, is a special-education advocate and has run for school board before. The second, Deldelp “Del” Medina, was encouraged to join one day before the meeting.
Hsu, who helped run the recall campaign, told The Frisc she “wasn’t surprised” that she didn’t make the cut.
The union could still back other candidates who declare by the August deadline. According to UESF rules, the executive board can make endorsements with a two-thirds approval and bypass the type of meeting that took place Saturday.
The timing — starting six months before the November election — is similar to 2018 and 2020. But the timing spurred some objections, including an attempt within the union to delay the start of the process until August to allow more candidates to emerge.
A resolution calling for delay, obtained by The Frisc, cited the “unusual turmoil” of the past couple years, including the pandemic shutdown of schools and the recall. “There is the possibility that there will be candidates for … the Board of Education who will not have declared their candidacy for an election that will take place in six months,” the resolution said.
It was rejected by the UESF executive board, but only after a tie-breaking vote.
It’s at least the second time in recent months that an internal vote has reflected some amount of unrest in the union. In February, members ratified a one-year contract extension with a notably low 57 percent approval. (Contracts are typically ratified with much higher approval, like the 78 percent in 2014.) The contract canceled sabbaticals and shifted $6.5 million away from high schools that teach Advanced Placement (AP) courses to help pay one-time bonuses for teachers across the district. The deal has an outsized effect on Lowell High, where about 40 percent of APs take place.
Since then, there has been mixed news for the city’s teachers, who have struggled through two years of pandemic stress layered atop declining district-wide enrollment. The district, facing a $125 million budget deficit, warned in March of a worst-case scenario of 151 teacher layoffs. But this week, with state windfalls helping close this year’s gap, the district said all but five layoffs had been averted, in large part because so many teachers had resigned or retired.
Meanwhile, teachers continue to cope with the failure of a new payroll system, which has left them with missing pay and botched benefits, forcing them to scrutinize their own stubs for errors, and in some cases pay fees and penalties.
It’s a sign that, despite the short-term budget fix and avoidance of layoffs, the district’s new superintendent and top staff have a ton of work to do, often in tandem with the school board. The November election could also determine how strong the teachers union’s hand will be.
Alex Lash is editor in chief of The Frisc.
