With three new San Francisco school board members tapped Friday following a historic recall, many families in the district want to know what the political shuffling will mean for Lowell High School and whether the new members could tip the scales back to a merit-based admission policy at the academically elite school.

The San Francisco Unified School District is expected to reopen the debate this spring over stripping the academically prestigious school of merit-based admissions in favor of a lottery, reviving arguments over equity, racism and achievement in public schools.

The three new board members say they want an open and deliberative process to consider restoring some kind of merit-based admissions at Lowell.

Mayor London Breed tapped Ann Hsu, an entrepreneur; Lainie Motamedi, a government policy analyst; and Lisa Weissman-Ward, an immigrant rights law professor, to replace the recalled commissioners.

Hsu is the most vocal of the three in her support for an academically based admissions process.

“Merit-based should be restored,” she said Friday after the swearing-in ceremony. “And things need to be done to prepare more kids from the underserved communities.”

Motamedi said she wants to embark on a public process to determine Lowell’s future but is focused on ensuring all high schools are able to offer what families want and need to make them feel confident about their child’s future.

Weissman-Ward said she is not opposed to merit-based admissions, but the real issue is increasing access to academically rigorous programs and looking at whether test scores are the best way to evaluate students.

Lowell was a key factor in the recall, according to a recent data analysis.

During the pandemic, the school board voted to switch Lowell’s admissions to a lottery-based system for one year to address concerns about the lack of grades and test scores.

The board then voted to make the switch permanent, sparking a lawsuit from opponents who argued that the school board failed to give the public adequate notice about the vote.

After a judge denied the board’s decision to switch to a permanent lottery system, the district adopted a short-term fix: a one-year extension of the lottery.

The new board is expected to decide on a permanent process moving forward.

Over the past few years, opponents of the academic admissions policy argued it was elitist and racist against Black and brown students, who were underrepresented in the school compared with their presence in the district. After switching to a lottery, the school saw diversity soar, with more Black and brown students enrolled.

But supporters said moving to a lottery would harm Asian American students, who are overrepresented at Lowell, and harm high-achieving students.

There’s also the question of whether merit-based admissions are legal: A 1990s state law generally prohibits the use of academic achievement for admission to regular public schools. The school’s alumni association recently sent a letter to the district arguing the policy is in fact legal.

Recalled board members Alison Collins, Gabriela López and Faauuga Moliga supported converting Lowell admissions to a lottery, largely to address the disproportionately low numbers of Black and brown students in the school. Current board members Matt Alexander and Mark Sanchez also supported the change. Jenny Lam, who is taking over from López as board president, and board member Kevine Boggess opposed the decision.

It’s unclear if the new board would want to keep the lottery-based process, revert to the old system of test scores and grades, or find a third, merit-based approach that might result in more diversity than the old system.

Lam said that while Lowell is a topic for the board to address, the priorities for the coming weeks and months will be hiring a new superintendent and taking a deep dive into achievement gaps and how to tackle them, using data.

“In San Francisco, we care deeply about our public schools,” Lam said after the mayor’s announcement and the swearing-in of the board members. “We have some core things we need to address first. We need to govern.”

Jill Tucker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jtucker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jilltucker

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