SFUSD superintendent Matt Wayne resigns, school closures on hold
San Francisco Unified School District Superintendent Matt Wayne resigned Friday, amid controversy over plans to close or merge more than a dozen schools amid a massive budget shortfall. The district also announced that the closures are on hold.
At an emergency meeting, the city's Board of Education accepted Wayne's resignation.
"The District is grateful for Dr. Wayne's leadership during a challenging period for the SFUSD. Under Dr. Wayne's leadership, the District has focused on student outcomes and teaching and learning," the district said in a statement Friday night. "He has been an instructional leader with a deep commitment to our students' success. The District agrees with Dr. Wayne that the time is right for new leadership in SFUSD."
In a separate statement, Wayne said, "I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have served SFUSD and proud of all that has been accomplished during my almost two-and-a-half years leading the District."
The board announced that Maria Su, who has served as Executive Director of the Department of Children, Youth and their Families, would be nominated as the new Superintendent. Su was part of a "School Stabilization Team" of city officials appointed by Mayor London Breed last month to help the district.
"I am excited to deepen the work we started three weeks ago to stabilize the school district," Su said. "San Francisco public schools are the city's greatest asset. We must come together as a community to take care of our school district. SFUSD students, families, and staff are counting on us."
Along with the change in leadership, the district announced that there would be no school closures in the 2025-26 school year.
Wayne has faced heat following an Oct. 8 announcement which named 11 elementary schools and two high schools that would be impacted. At the time, the district said that the closures were needed to balance the budget by next school year, or risk a takeover by the California Department of Education.
Under the proposal, three campuses would have closed, another eight schools would be merged with another school, while the remaining schools would be a welcoming school for a closed school.
Earlier this week, Breed weighed in on the closures, saying she had "lost confidence" in the superintendent but stopped short of calling him to step down. Breed also called for a halt to the closures.
"This cannot continue. Whatever this current proposed school closure process was meant to accomplish, or could have accomplished, is lost," the mayor said in a statement released Tuesday. "This has become a distraction from the very real work that must be done to balance the budget in the next two months to prevent a state takeover. It is time to immediately stop this school closure process."
At the same time, Breed said there would be "painful but necessary" decisions ahead to balance the budget and to avoid a state takeover.
Karling Aguilera-Fort, who is currently the Senior Associate Superintendent of Education Services, has been named as Acting Superintendent in the meantime.
