The Facts

San Francisco's school district has about 14,000 empty seats across 125 schools, and that is expected to grow to nearly 19,000 by 2032. The district had been gaining students for about a decade, but enrollment fell dramatically during the pandemic from about 61,000 students to about 55,000, where it remains today. This has resulted in a large number of under-enrolled schools which are expensive to maintain and don't serve students well.

School Board President Phil Kim’s draft “Strong Schools Resolution” would direct Superintendent Maria Su to bring a reorganization plan, which may include school mergers, to the Board by August 2026, for implementation in the 2027–28 school year, and to explicitly promise clearer communication than the 2024 attempt to merge schools.

The Context

SFUSD’s post‑pandemic enrollment story is less about a free‑fall and more about a new, consistently lower level: the district serves roughly the same number of students today as it did in 2009, but on a system that was built for far more, with fixed costs in staffing, utilities, and maintenance spread across too many campuses, too few students, and too few state tax dollars. To escape state fiscal oversight and avoid receivership, the Board adopted a 2025–26 budget that cuts more than $110 million and paired it with a Fiscal Stabilization Plan that calls for tens of millions more in reductions in 2026–27, according to SFUSD’s own budget and solvency updates.

Last year’s aborted closure list highlighted small, under‑enrolled campuses like El Dorado Elementary in Visitacion Valley, Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy in the Castro, and June Jordan School for Equity near the Excelsior, all of which have seen their enrollments fall by a third to half from earlier peaks, based on state enrollment data summarized by The Standard. Even with overall district enrollment holding around 55,000, these individual school‑level declines are what make consolidation hard to avoid.

The GrowSF Take

San Francisco’s kids need stable, academically strong schools more than they need every existing building to stay open. Keeping dozens of half‑empty campuses afloat diverts money from teachers, core classes, and student support into overhead and maintenance. We support a transparent, data‑driven reorganization that uses clear criteria: enrollment trends, facility quality, academic performance, all while guaranteeing affected students a better‑resourced school, and reasonable commute options.

Done well, consolidation can turn today’s thinly stretched offerings into stronger programs with more electives, counselors, and extracurriculars.