Interim San Francisco schools superintendent aims to bring stability to the district
The new interim head of the San Francisco Unified School District made her first public appearance Monday.
Mayor London Breed stood alongside State Superintendent Tony Thurmond and other local leaders to show support for Dr. Maria Su, the new interim superintendent.
Before Su was introduced, San Francisco School Board President Matt Alexander had a message for the school community.
"I am sorry for what you've been through. It is not acceptable," he said. "And that's why my colleagues and I on the board took swift and decisive action to address those issues."
Dr. Su takes over for Matt Wayne, who resigned under pressure Friday evening following backlash to his school closure plan.
Su said her priority is to bring stability to the district.
"I need to rebuild relationships with our families, with our teachers, with our educators, with our staff. We need to bring back trust and optimism to our schools, she said."
The plans for school closures that were heavily protested by parents and teachers at several of the locations on the list are now on hold. About a dozen schools met the criteria for being closed or merged with other schools.
Dan Fingal-Surma, who has a child at Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy, spoke at Monday's briefing and credited parents with forcing the district to change course.
"Parents are, in fact, grownups. And we want to be treated that way," he said. "So no more plugging some numbers into a formula and then emailing the results out, and pretending to want feedback while knowing nothing about our schools on the ground."
Wayne's resignation came just days after Breed issued a statement critical of the then superintendent and calling for the halt of the school closures.
"And so we have to do our part from an administrative perspective to ensure that we avoid state takeover and demonstrate to the State of California that we know what we're doing," Breed said Monday. "It's going to be a tough time, but we will get through this because we have no choice."
Breed acknowledged that the district may still need to look at closing campuses.
"Well, that is something that is probably going to need to happen," the mayor said. "And ultimately, there has to be clarity as to what that means. A 'score' doesn't take into consideration all the impacts in community. And I think that before we begin the conversation, we've got to know what our criteria are."
Dr. Su previously served as Executive Director of the Department of Children, Youth and their Families. She was announced as the interim replacement at the same Friday meeting where Wayne's resignation was accepted. The San Francisco School Board will vote on her formal appointment Tuesday.
Su's first task will be to balance the budget by mid-December to prevent a state takeover of the district.
