The San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) has exactly seven days to form a budget that passes state muster. Seven days to avoid additional state intervention, a situation Michael Fine, CEO of California’s Financial Crisis & Management Assistance Team (FCMAT), comically called “not good.” Seven days to ensure San Franciscans, and not the State, control our childrens’ futures.
But this Board of Education (SFBoE) cannot get out of its own way.
The California Department of Education gave SFUSD help. It assigned a fiscal expert, Elliott Duchon, a long-time superintendent of Jurupa Unified in Riverside. After numerous outreach meetings and consultations with FCMAT and Mr. Duchon, SFUSD Staff made its budget recommendation. A menu of four recommendations to be precise.
But then Board Commissioners Alexander and Sanchez presented their own slide deck. A deck released to the public only late last Friday. A deck that, if adopted, Mr. Duchon made clear would result in a “semi-takeover”—the first step in a loss of local control.
What transpired was hours of Board and public debate.
If you’re asking yourself “how did we get here,” you’re not alone.
How Did We Get Here?
On September 15, 2021, the California Department of Education informed SFUSD it was “no longer a going concern.” Not good—but not completely shocking either. SFUSD’s budget woes are not new. SFUSD ran a deficit for years, but was covered by its reserves (we can discuss later if that, itself, was prudent). But recently, it spiraled out of control.
Figure 1: Slide from SFUSD slide deck about budget context and projections (Source: http://go.boarddocs.com/ca/sfusd/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=C7WS7A714605)
(spoiler: in the best case, the yellow line should be below the blue line; it should never be above the red line).
That letter cannot have been a surprise. Mr. Fine candidly told the Board on October 5, 2021, that “there was time a year ago to start this process…in a way we consider a thoughtful manner.”
Given the magnitude of the threat to SFUSD and our students, you would think the SFBoE would be working as a coherent team.
You’d be wrong.
Staff and the Board
SFUSD Staff quickly implemented a plan to consult with stakeholders and ultimately presented the community a working draft of four budget proposals that required tough decisions and asked everyone to shoulder some unpalatable cuts. Key to Staff’s recommendations was the guidance and perspective of FCMAT and Mr. Duchon.
But something funny happened on the way to the forum.
With days to go, Commissioners Sanchez and Alexander presented their own competing budget proposal. It’s admirable, demanding no budget cuts at school sites. That is, all cuts be made at our “bloated central office.” I don’t disagree with the idea.
But Mr. Sanchez and Mr. Alexander never fully formed a budget. Instead, they offered a proposal never vetted during SFUSD’s Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) task force stakeholder process. They offered a proposal never included in the crucial December 1, 2021 presentation. They offered a proposal that violated the California Brown Act. And worse, they offered a proposal that risked disrupting a deliberative process carefully formed after SFUSD received that September 15th letter.
The proposal was pilloried online.
The Budget Aftermath
Last night’s Board meeting was long, even by SFUSD standards. Sure, much of it was tied up with issues around Lowell admissions, but the first half was all about budget.
You can learn the basics from Jill Tucker at The Chronicle. But here’s the bottom line:
1. SFUSD is facing a serious, but not insurmountable, financial problem.
2. The State (and Mr. Duchon) are deadly serious: if SFUSD fails to act, it faces State intervention.
3. SFUSD Staff picked up the mantle, engaged experts and stakeholders, took a long, hard look in the mirror, and made painful recommendations.
4. The SFBoE did not, recommending and/or considering for hours ideas that Mr. Duchon assured would result in a “semi-takeover.”
The SFBoE must take the threat of State intervention seriously. The SFBoE must leave politics at the door. The SFBoE must work as a team to solve the problems it created. And the SFBoE must understand that, when deciding between difficult decisions and State takeover, there simply cannot be anything “off the table.”
Because if it fails…if another last-minute proposal or some other sideshow derails this process and leads to State involvement…it only has itself to blame.
Always appreciate your content! I don't see how a state take over DOES NOT happen. Have you done any research to see how a CA state takeover has impacted other districts? THX