‘Time is of the essence’: San Francisco’s faculty district faces attainable state takeover
For the past year and a half, the San Francisco Unified School District has faced a pandemic and has taken serious product recalls. And now the district is facing a grim new problem: a possible takeover by the state.
After determining that SFUSD may not be able to pay its bills in the coming years, state education officials launched a special process last month, according to documents released this week. Years of rising costs mean that the district has to contend with a deficit of 116 million US dollars for the next school year.
District officials must come up with a plan to cut 13 percent of its $ 1 billion budget by December 15, the California Department of Education warned in a September 15 letter. The state will provide a tax professional to settle its balance sheets and all employment contracts must be reviewed by State Superintendent of Instruction Tony Thurmond.
“If you do not act accordingly, the intervention of the CDE will increase to the point that your authority will be removed,” said Michael Fine, chief executive officer of the state’s Fiscal Crisis Management and Assistance Team, at a special meeting of the school committee Tuesday. “There is nothing good about this process … now is the time to act.”
Fine had plenty of gentle, compassionate advice to the district officials and understood the state of the COVID-in-need, under-enrollment, and resource-poor school districts. He assured them that SFUSD could continue to implement its equity priorities while balancing the budget by extending the timeline for certain plans. He also warned that the tough decisions they make may not be popular, especially with unions, but that maintaining relationships is vital.
Fine also had some serious, sobering words. He noted that COVID remedies were not designed to balance the budget like other counties have, and that the sooner cuts are made, the less painful it will be.
“There was a time to start this process a year ago, but it hasn’t really gotten off the ground in what we think is a well thought-out way,” he said. “So now we’re done. I understand where your schools are from. I don’t want to criticize that. At the same time, time is of the essence here. “
CDE applied for a budget rehabilitation plan in 2020 but did not receive one, the letter said. SFUSD began grappling with its structural deficit earlier this year, sending dismissal notices to educators – some of whom were threatened with strike – weeks before coronavirus housing was ordered. School districts have received state and federal grants that SFUSD used to prevent classroom cuts this year in the name of stability.
But the district’s cost still exceeds its revenue, resulting in a projected deficit of $ 116 million for the 2022-2023 school year and a deficit of $ 112 million for the following year. Enrollments also fell nearly 2 percent from 2019-2020 through the following year, compared to a 3 percent decline in public school enrollment across the country. Attendance and enrollment shape the funding formulas in the country from which most of the district funding comes.
School Board Member Jenny Lam, who serves as Education Advisor to Mayor London Breed, recalled “endless days and nights” spent handling the City College of San Francisco and Oakland Unified School District accreditation crisis during their respective state takeovers remedy.
“I’m getting emotional just thinking about it,” Lam said after Fine’s warnings. “Almost a decade later and they still have to recover. I remember how challenging, just heartbreaking it was sometimes. “
Other school board members were optimistic that they would rise to the challenge and even welcomed the opportunity to revise the district systems.
To prevent a government takeover, SFUSD must first complete a tax health risk assessment by October 15. A board-approved financial stabilization plan for the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 school years must also be submitted to state officials by December 15 before you move to implement it.
The state also has the power to withhold compensation for school board members and Superintendent Vincent Matthews for failing to provide financial information.
The majority of SFUSD’s budget is spent on teaching, related services such as librarians, and associated labor costs. In the meantime, educators have repeatedly reported that they are understaffed and overwhelmed after a year and a half of teaching amid a pandemic that has created numerous vacancies this school year. District officials recommended $ 5 million in classroom cuts in September by eliminating vacancies that were rejected by board members, with some pointing to the need for the bigger picture.
“We find it worrying that management in one of the world’s richest cities has for decades proposed deficits and cuts that are draining valuable resources from our students, classrooms and schools,” said a statement from the United Educators of San Francisco. “We urge the city and state to work with us to ensure our students get more, not less.”
SFUSD may be on the verge of some major relief. The city has raised $ 150 million in revenue from the 2018 Proposition G package tax measure, which is pending litigation and was replaced by Proposition J in 2020. An appeal to the California Supreme Court is pending, district officials said Tuesday.
But it would not solve the district’s structural deficit that has been looming for years.
“My hope is that the staff and the board of directors don’t shoot each other,” said Matthews. “It is important for the students and families in the SF Unified School District that we, the adults in the room, do whatever it takes … to get out of the situation we are in. We are all in this boat together. It is imperative that we look at it that way. “
imojadad@sfexaminer.com
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