In November, when San Francisco voters approved a $790 million bond to upgrade school facilities, SF Unified School District officials breathed a sigh of relief.
The new bond had already been delayed – there was talk of it as early as 2022 – and pared back from $1 billion. Leading to last month’s vote, there was more worry that voters would say no. Discontent had killed a smaller transportation bond in 2022, then this summer, backers of a huge affordable housing bond pulled it off the November ballot after seeing grim poll numbers.
With SFUSD’s botched school closure plan unraveling this fall, the school bond could have been next. Instead, voters gave the district a new flow of funds to keep its master facilities planning on track. After the decisive 75 percent approval vote, new superintendent Maria Su called it “a major victory for SFUSD students and staff.”
About $410 million will go toward school modernizations, including a major overhaul of one high school, $225 million will build a new central kitchen and upgrade other food facilities, and $95 million is earmarked for upgrades to basic functions like water, plumbing, and electric systems. There’s also $35 million for tech and network upgrades, $15 million for school security systems, and $10 million on outdoor learning schoolyards.
More specific information may come in early 2025, said SFUSD spokesperson Laura Dudnick. But seven projects that were supposed to be covered by the district’s previous bond, which raised $744 million and passed in 2016, will need the new bond funding to get past the finish line.
The list includes priority for three aging schools: Buena Vista Horace Mann K-8 Community School, Denman Middle School, and West Portal Elementary School. Construction is slated to start next year.
But for one of those schools, the overhaul is not just long overdue, but another headache to solve – and it holds the prospect of another bitter fight that seems to consume so many of the district’s initiatives.
Rats, gas, and falling ceilings
Buena Vista Horace Mann, which takes up a full block along Valencia Street in the Mission District, operates in a 100-year-old building that is falling apart.
BVHM, a bilingual (English-Spanish) school of about 600 students, was on a long list of schools to renovate in 2016. But it didn’t get the green light, and then the pandemic hit. When students returned, reports about terrible conditions began to pile up: excessive levels of lead and arsenic, gas leaks, loose ceiling tiles, rodents, and other indignities.
A fourth grader was shocked by an electrical outlet in 2021. The conditions led the school board that year to reallocate $40 million of remaining funds from the 2016 bond to cover the bulk of the cost.
But for full funding, BVHM needed the 2024 bond to pass. Now that it has, the school will get earthquake safety improvements, roof and window replacement, new electric ventilation, renovated bathrooms, electrical upgrades, and a renovation of its beloved garden. Construction is expected to begin in fall 2025.
We understand that this move causes changes and challenges to the daily logistics for some in the BVHM community.
SFUSD Superintendent maria su, in an email sent last week to buena vista horace mann parents
The complete overhaul is both a long time coming and a bitter pill to swallow. Even though reconstruction was uncertain until last month’s bond vote, the district has planned relocation for some time. Many families have fought those plans, which they say would upend schedules and commutes.
In an email obtained by The Frisc, new SFUSD superintendent Maria Su had an update. She told parents last week that the entire student body will relocate about three miles south, to the former Luther Burbank Middle School campus at the edge of McLaren Park. The move will last three years.
It’s about 15 minutes by car and 30 by Muni between BVHM and the Burbank campus. June Jordan School for Equity, a 250-student high school that was on the list of schools for potential closures this year, is currently housed there.
The BVHM families’ relocation fight isn’t new. In 2023 the district, anticipating the future renovation, floated a plan to send six of the nine BVHM grades to June Jordan and keep three grades on campus. Parents protested the split-up, with one organizer saying it would “destroy the community.”
The district said this month that the June Jordan relocation is happening without splitting up the student body. But families still feel that the community should remain in the Mission and risks diminishing the school community.
The new plan outlined in Su’s email keeps all students together, but families still decry the disruption. They prefer to stay in the Mission.
“They’re completely breaking apart the community that we have,” BVHM parent Maria Nuñez told The Frisc in Spanish through a translator. “We have fought for the school to be in better conditions and all they have done this entire time is ignore us.”
Because of the commute to the Excelsior District from the Mission, where many BVHM families live, Nuñez says she knows many families who could decline to relocate, further splintering the school and potentially shrinking its budget. Nuñez and others want a legally binding guarantee that students can return to the renovated BVHM campus in 2028. Su’s email said SFUSD legal counsel is working “on the best way to affirm this commitment in writing.”
Su added that students who do not relocate would have to go through the regular enrollment process to return to BVHM.
Su also said that SFUSD is analyzing special transportation arrangements. Other unresolved complications include BVHM’s “stayover” program, which shelters homeless families in the school gym, and afterschool programs, which BVHM currently hosts. Su said an update on transportation and the right to return will come on Jan. 6 when students return from winter break.
“We understand that this move causes changes and challenges to the daily logistics for some in the BVHM community,” Su wrote last week. “We will continue to work to contain and address these challenges to allow the transition to be successful and fit in with your family’s lives.”
Nuñez remains skeptical that the district will keep any promises: “There’s no way for us to trust what they have to say. These last few months have been very stressful for us.”
Easier logistics for others
The other two primary schools slated for renovation, James Denman Middle and West Portal Elementary, have less complicated logistics. Located near Balboa Park in the Outer Mission, Denman is also in a bad state with rats and mice, an outdated electrical system, and a boiler instead of an HVAC system. Its bathrooms flood and brown water comes out of the faucets at times, says math teacher Rori Abernethy.
Like BVHM, parents and staff had to lobby to make Denman’s renovation a priority. Abernethy recalls the school being long overdue when she started teaching there a decade ago. “They didn’t even explain why we just kept getting bumped,” says Abernethy. “Our school is really broken down, so I think people are excited.”
The school will also get major seismic improvements, and upgrades to electrical systems, telecommunications, fire sprinklers and alarms. Its roof and heating will be replaced, kitchen and cafeteria upgraded, and bathrooms and staff work areas renovated.
During the renovation, which will include a new roof, kitchen, and heating and electrical systems, eight classrooms at a time will be in portables. Construction is expected to finish in winter 2027.
But being able to keep kids on campus comes at a price. The smaller scale construction means Denman will still need upgrades after this round. District officials plan a second “package” of fixes, but it’s unclear how soon after 2027 it will come.
West Portal has the same trade-off: a first round of construction is underway and a second round, yet to be designed, will be funded by the 2024 bond. In addition to two new “light-filled” buildings and upgraded classrooms, West Portal will get upgrades to its kitchen, lighting, fire sprinkler and alarm systems.
Other 2016 bond projects that the district needs to finish with 2024 bond funds include an athletic field upgrade for the Lincoln High School athletic field, the Thurgood Marshall High School auditorium and gym, and the construction of a central food hub.
School closures are off the table for now, but with SFUSD enrollment in decline – and with state funding tied to enrollment – budget cuts and thinning resources could rekindle talk of closures next year.
Whether closures or other changes, such as a new elementary school lottery system due next year, might affect how SFUSD spends its bond money remains to be seen. After a hard-fought campaign just to pass the bond, it’s perhaps no surprise that, in this city, spending it won’t be easy either.
I just don’t understand fighting for the status quo – toxins, vermin, leaks, and electrical hazards. The sooner it’s closed and the faster the reconstruction is completed, the sooner Mission families can get their kids back into a safer, better BVHM. These attempted delays don’t help anybody, except a handful of community organizers looking to make a name for themselves.