• Office: School Board
• Election Date: November 5, 2024
• Candidate: Jaime Huling Delaye
• Due Date: May 31, 2024
• Printable Version

Thank you for seeking GrowSF's endorsement for the November 5, 2024 election! GrowSF believes in a growing, beautiful, vibrant, healthy, safe, and prosperous city delivered via common sense solutions and effective government. Our work includes running public opinion polls to understand what voters want, advocating for those changes, and ensuring that the SF government represents the people.

The GrowSF endorsement committee will review all completed questionnaires and seek consensus on which candidates best align with our vision for San Francisco.

This questionnaire will be published on growsf.org, and so we hope that you use this opportunity to communicate with voters.

Please complete this questionnaire by May 31, 2024 so we have enough time to adequately review and discuss your answers.

Note: This questionnaire will use the initialism "SFUSD" when referring to the San Francisco Unified School District.

• Your Goals
• Executive experience
• The Issues
  • Budget
  • Curriculum
  • Bullying & violence
  • Teachers
  • School assignment system
  • General information
• Personal
• Thank you

Your Goals

We'd like to get some details about your high-level goals and how you intend to use your elected office to achieve them.

Why are you running for School Board?

​I'm the daughter of a conservative car salesman and a progressive Latina who dropped out of college when she got married. My parents raised me to value education, but I doubt they ever imagined I'd become the first lawyer in our family.

When I was in sixth grade, a chance encounter changed the course of my education and my life, leading me to Stanford Law School. I'm the first woman in my mother's family to graduate from a four-year college. Even as I did well in school, my parents didn't fully understand how to help me on my academic path. I want to make sure all SFUSD students have the chance to succeed in ways their ancestors could only dream about.

I've spent my entire career fighting to protect San Francisco and its residents. I won cases that people once thought were impossible: for marriage equality, against the opioid industry, and against the Trump administration.

I moved to San Francisco nearly twenty years ago, and I've been a public servant for over a decade. I'm the mother of a first grader in a Spanish immersion school and a toddler. I see the potential in my kids and all of our SFUSD students, and I'm ready to be the champion they deserve.

​I'm running for the Board of Education because I believe that every student in our district deserves an educational environment that will support and challenge them so that they can see just how far they can go.

What is your #1 policy goal?

My first priority is stabilizing the budget and preventing state takeover of SFUSD. Growing up, I watched my dad stay up late at the kitchen table trying to figure out how to keep our family's small business open. He knew that avoiding making the hard decisions in the short term wouldn't benefit anyone in the long term, because he needed to keep the lights on.

I know that if we don't right-size the district, we will just end up under state control. The hard decisions we avoid today will be made tomorrow by Sacramento staffers who don't know our city.

The superintendent's resource alignment initiative is going to be hard. But we can do hard things, especially when we're doing the right thing. The district needs to approach these tough decisions by prioritizing equity and excellence.

Through meaningful community engagement, the school district can emerge from this process with better-funded, better-enrolled schools offering all of the enrichment and supportive resources that our kids deserve.

How will you build the coalition and political capital to enact your #1 goal?

I will be very transparent as a school board member about our fiscal realities. When the board doesn't clearly communicate the fiscal reality to our stakeholders and communities, it makes it difficult for everyone to get on board with the need to make difficult decisions.

A lot of groundwork is currently being done to actively seek community input about the resource realignment initiative, to help make sure that the ultimate decisions made reflect community priorities. I will also seek at every opportunity to expand SFUSD's resources, so that the budget can be stabilized through growing our funding and being better stewards of our existing resources, not just making cuts.

Will the power of the office of School Board be enough to achieve this goal?

Yes. Ultimately, the board is responsible for the district's finances. They need to work with the Superintendent and state budget overseer to ensure that the budget solutions proposed by the Superintendent to the board reflect the values of the community and sound governance.

What are your #2 and #3 policy goals?

My second priority is restoring trust and drawing families back to the District.

Nothing matters more to us than our kids and their futures. Parents aren't going to trust the district with their kids if they don't trust it to do the right thing. So in order to increase enrollment, we first need to restore trust. That starts with electing a competent, calm, and communicative school board.

As part of restoring trust, I will work to keep our promise to fix our broken school assignment system. The confusion, uncertainty, and stress of the lottery drives families away. And as the board considers closing and consolidating schools, I will work to protect and work to expand schools that are in high demand.

My third priority goes hand in hand with building trust and growing enrollment—I will work to improve educational outcomes in literacy and math for all SFUSD students.

Every SFUSD student must have access to an excellent education. Families see that we are underperforming in basic markers of achievement, and they vote with their feet.

The district's upcoming adoption of new literacy and math curricula is a good first step toward helping all of our students reach their academic potential.

To increase math and literacy proficiency rates for Black, Latino, and Pacific Islander children—who have significant achievement gaps–I'll support proven, evidence-based methods such as increasing instructional minutes in these subjects and providing in-person high-dosage tutoring by trained educators.

Will the power of the office of School Board be enough to achieve these goals?

As a member of the school board, I will conduct myself and approach decision-making in a way that builds trust and will always promote the district. Together, as a body, we can do a lot to repair broken trust in the district through candor, communication, and by providing results..

The district–with board leadership–can make enrollment an easier, more predictable, and less stressful process. Although the school board does not ultimately design the school assignment system, I will prioritize that shift as one of the Superintendent's major decisions for the year.

Improving educational outcomes is a team effort, involving the school board, administration, educators, and families. The board can't do it alone, but must make decisions that allow everyone to succeed in achieving this key goal. The board's increasing focus on student outcomes is an important first step.

What is an existing Board of Education policy you would like to reform?

I'll push for the district to implement the proposed zone assignment system as soon as possible, ideally before making final decisions on school closures. It won't be equitable if the district closes schools in student-rich neighborhoods before moving to the proposed zone assignment system. Under a zone assignment system, schools that are now under-enrolled should succeed in attracting more students.

Do/Did you have children in SFUSD? If so, what have you learned about SFUSD that other parents would benefit from? If not, why not?

Yes I am a current SFUSD parent. What I've learned about the district, and want to share with all parents and guardians in San Francisco, is that our district is full of amazing school communities. The district gets a lot of bad press, but so many families absolutely love their schools. We want the district to be better because we love it, and we love our kids. But we have amazing students, hardworking and dedicated educators, and programs you can't get anywhere else.

Executive experience

Please describe your experience running or governing large organizations, managing teams (including hiring, firing, and performance management), driving cultural change and clear communication throughout all levels, effective financial management (budgets, reporting, audit, etc.), and any other relevant experience.

As a Deputy City Attorney, I advised elected and appointed officers, department heads, and managers. The City and County ofSan Francisco has approximately 34,000 employees. In San Francisco, I led and argued some of the biggest and most complicated cases in the City, making key strategic decisions on litigations worth up to $1.2 billion. Now, in Oakland, I supervise the three units of attorneys in the Affirmative Litigation Division.

All deputies in both offices are political appointees who serve at the pleasure of the elected City Attorney, and I recruit and make hiring recommendations for my team and am responsible for performance feedback. I also evaluate potential outside contractors, including outside counsel and experts, and draft and negotiate public contract language to engage them.

I've played a leadership role in multiple cultural change efforts in those offices, including as coordinator of the San Francisco City Attorney's Idea Generation Committee, which worked across our office to implement a new model for developing affirmative litigation. I also was part of our Racial Equity Taskforce's development and implementation of an equitable performance evaluation system for all employees, including those with different job classifications and unions.

As a member of the Board of Directors of ScholarMatch, inc, I reviewed and approved our budgets, financial reports, and audits. I also led the hiring of key members of a new executive team, including a new executive director. I spearheaded our successful efforts to make our board more inclusive and reflective of the communities we serve, recruiting new board members and leading a cultural shift in the organization's leadership.

Please describe a time when you had an underperforming subordinate and how you handled the situation, including (and especially) how you were able to increase their performance.

Note: Please remember that this questionnaire will be public, so do not include any personally identifiable information.

I've managed the work of government attorneys, outside counsel and other contractors, professional staff, and nonprofit executive leaders, but I don't feel comfortable sharing particular examples from those experiences in this public forum.

I will share that I taught in the San Francisco Affirmative Litigation Project, a clinic at Yale Law School, for six years. I supervised a wide variety of students who were learning how to be lawyers, some of whom were absolute naturals in picking up legal skills, and others who needed more support in learning how expectations around professionalism, deadlines, research, and writing differ from the more academic environments they are used to.

My approach was to always encourage students to ask questions about the scope of assignments and next steps up front and to communicate any need for extensions early and understand that the realities of litigation don't always allow them. I made sure to provide guidance on not just the question being asked and the work product expected, but also the resources or methods I thought might be most useful to them. When performance issues arose, I would make sure there wasn't a miscommunication about expectations first, and make sure to provide clear and early feedback on the next steps to take to improve performance.

Please describe a time when your organization faced an extreme challenge and how you got the organization through it.

While I was on the board of ScholarMatch, Inc., it faced an existential crisis in the spring of 2020. COVID hit and our budget was depleted as we scrambled to get our scholars across the country the emergency funds that they needed to fly home as their dorms were being closed, and sometimes to get computer and internet access in order to continue their studies remotely. Amidst the Black Lives Matter movement, our young and passionate staff were advocating for systemic change within the organization, while dealing with burnout from serving students in crisis. Our executive leadership was struggling with unprecedented professional demands while also sheltering in place with their children who were suddenly distance-learning.

I served on an ad hoc committee of the board that was created to respond to these crises. which included confidential personnel matters. I coached our executives, led trust building communication with staff, hired professionals including DEI consultants, and helped reshape the board of directors to be more reflective of the communities the organizations serves. In the end, we transitioned into a more mature governance model, recruited and hired new members for the leadership team, stabilized our finances and our staff, and emerged a stronger organization to serve low-income, first-generation students of color in pursuing college.

The Issues

Next, we will cover the issues that voters tell us they care about. We hope to gain a better understanding of your policy positions, and we hope that you use this opportunity to communicate with voters.

Budget

SFUSD faces an existential crisis in its budget deficit. In your view, what factors have led to this crisis?

Instead of addressing the realities of declining enrollment, a bloated and underperforming central office, and poor internal financial controls, the board has for too long kicked the can down the road. Prolonged COVID closures and the board's past aggression toward student and family needs only accelerated our budget woes by driving families away.

SFUSD was deemed to be "no longer a going concern" and to be at risk of insolvency by the 2025-26 fiscal year unless it restructures and corrects its budget deficit. Please explain the current budget situation.

At present, the district is drawing down its reserves and relying on one-time funds to balance its budget for the upcoming fiscal year. However, the state budget watchdog has determined that SFUSD has a high likelihood of becoming insolvent in the 2025-2026 fiscal year.

The state has already exerted authority to stop or reverse any budget decisions the board makes that it disagrees with. With its reserves depleted, the district must make significant structural changes to its budget this year in order to maintain its fiscal solvency and avoid the state actively taking authority to make affirmative financial decisions for the district.

The board must realign its resources by streamlining functions of the central office and closing, co-locating, and merging some schools in order to adopt a budget model for 2025-2026 that fits its now smaller student base. If the board fails to do this, the state will take over.

How does the role of the CDE's Fiscal Advisor to SFUSD inform your perspective and priorities on the responsibilities of a Board of Ed commissioner?

As an education commissioner, I will not dismiss or diminish the risk of fiscal takeover by the state. The threat that we could lose local control of our power to set our district budget is very real. I will work urgently and collaboratively with all stakeholders to resolve our state fiscal advisor's concerns, so that decisions about the district remain with the district.

Please summarize the recommended solutions in the SFUSD Fiscal Health Risk Analysis report, and tell us how you would prioritize them.

In order to avoid state takeover and return to fiscal health, the state recommends that the district adopt a smaller budget that stops deficit spending and aligns with accurate future predictions of enrollment. In order to do that, the state has found that the district also needs a better model of what that future lower enrollment will look like.

To achieve these goals, the state has found that the district needs to stop relying on expensive consultants to fill central office roles, train its own staff better on financial best practices, and hire permanent leadership for key business and budget roles. The state also recommends that the district fix its payroll fiasco and adopt a payroll system that integrates to other key HR and financial systems, adopt better position controls and budgeting systems, and resolve outstanding audit findings.

The budget deficit will require hard and unpopular decisions, like closing schools, laying off teachers, reducing or changing available courses, and renegotiating the teachers' union contract. Regardless of your stance on those specific issues, what credentials or work experience do you have in handling those sorts of challenges?

Negotiating massive, novel, complex, technical and politically sensitive matters with many moving parts and repeat stakeholders is my specialty. I won the California Lawyer Attorney of the Year award last year for my role in San Francisco's $350 million victory in its opioid litigation. That case touched nearly every City department and involved coordination across other cities, counties, and states. It required negotiation against not only some of the biggest and best-represented companies in the world, but also between jurisdictions across the state and with the Attorney General.

I have experience building coalitions to pass and defeat proposals sponsored by folks who I have to continue work alongside no matter what the outcome. As a board member, I'll be ready to fight for and champion what's right for the district, but in a way that respects and preserves relationships.

How do you approach making difficult decisions that you deem necessary even if unpopular? Please share a relevant example, if applicable.

I'm a public-interest lawyer who has spent my career trying to move the law to shape policy and improve our society. I know that at the end of the day, no matter how much you believe in your case, you have to know and confront the facts. As a school board member, I will talk to everyone, even those I disagree with. But ultimately I'll be guided by the evidence.

When making and communicating difficult decisions, my style is to be candid and upfront with people about my positions and the values and evidence that are motivating them. That gives people the opportunity to share information, know that they've been heard, and also trust in future negotiations that I'm being honest and upfront with them.

SFUSD facilities are in poor condition, with reports of some bathrooms being so dirty that students refuse to use them. What will you do to remedy this situation, especially given the budget constraints you will have to operate under?

I will do everything I can as a candidate and as a board member to support the passage of the proposed bond to upgrade our facilities. This requires building public trust in the district, including that the newly-elected board will be better financial stewards of public funds and ensure all necessary oversight of the bond money. If the bond does pass, I will push the superintendent to upgrade our facilities as quickly as possible, to show the public that their money is being put to good use.

One reason for the budget deficit is declining enrollment. Approximately 30% of children attend private schools, and that percentage is growing. Each student not in SFUSD takes away nearly $15,000 in State funding. How will you make SFUSD more attractive to prospective students and parents?

We need to keep our promise to fix our broken school assignment system. The confusion, uncertainty, and stress of the lottery drives families away. And as we consider closing and consolidating schools, we need to protect and expand schools that are in high demand.

Most importantly, we need to make sure that every SFUSD student has access to an excellent education. Parents see that we are underperforming in basic markers of achievement, and they vote with their feet.

The district has had success attracting families with specialized programs such as K-8 schools, language immersion schools, public Montessori, and Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts. Expanding popular programs, especially by expanding language pathways in middle and high school, will help draw students to, and keep them in, the district.

What is your perspective on SFUSD's school closures and approach to pandemic recovery?

The superintendent's resource alignment initiative is going to be hard. But we can do hard things, especially when we're doing the right thing. The district needs to approach these tough decisions by prioritizing equity and excellence.

Through meaningful community engagement, the school district can emerge from this process with better-funded, better-enrolled schools offering all of the enrichment and supportive resources that our kids deserve.

Curriculum

What changes are coming to the SFUSD curriculum over the next few years?

There are many! SFUSD's anticipated curriculum changes include: rolling out a new literacy curriculum next school year and a new math curriculum the year after, piloting the return of 8th grade algebra starting next year, and expanding the ethnic studies offerings in advance of it becoming a statewide graduation requirement.

SFUSD student performance is low, with some of the widest achievement gaps among student populations in the state, with many students being left unprepared for high school and college. How and why are we failing our students?

We know that if students don't meet literacy standards by third grade, it becomes harder and harder for them to learn to read, and prevents them from reading to learn in other subjects. One key way that we're failing our students is by having low rates of 3rd grade reading proficiency for black, brown, and pacific islander students, as well as english language learners.

The district's upcoming adoption of an evidence-based literacy curriculum is a key first step to improving early literacy. Proper professional development for teachers and paras, including a well-executed and supported rollout of the new curriculum is essential to make sure that the new curriculum actually results in improved student outcomes.

Closing our racial achievement gaps also requires: a sense of belonging and inclusion, culturally competent communication with families, consistent support from adults who help kids believe that they are capable and worthy of excellence, and strategic holistic non-academic supports. As we balance the budget, we must protect and support the teachers, para-professionals, and social workers who help provide students with a sense of belonging and possibility.

We also need to evaluate our systems district-wide to make them simple and equitable for all families. This includes looking at: the lottery assignment system, transportation options, and before-and-aftercare. A key driver of our racial achievement gap is chronic absenteeism. The district should investigate whether our complicated and unpredictable school assignment system is making absenteeism worse by making it harder for students to get to and from school.

SFUSD will be reintroducing 8th grade algebra over the next couple school years. Do you support this change?

Yes! We can't succeed in educating students by holding them back. In a district that is 86% students of color, it is profoundly inequitable to deny students opportunities to learn. Without 8th grade algebra, it's harder for students to complete calculus, a key indicator of college readiness. As the greatest hub for technology jobs in the world, we must ensure that all kids in San Francisco have the opportunity to access the prosperity in our city. For many, that starts with algebra.

How should SFUSD balance instructional minutes for core curriculum subjects with access to electives?

The detailed decisions about how school schedules work at individual sites are ones I am inclined to defer to site leaders, or at least to seek the guidance of our educators about what works best. I think there is room in the district for different models at different schools that offer diverse programing and pathways.

That said, I think it is clear that SFUSD is not meeting state minimum guidelines for instructional minutes in math. We know that more math minutes is correlated with higher performance among our focal populations within the district. On the board, I would push for more instructional minutes in math, at least at schools where students are not meeting benchmarks.

Many of SFUSD's language pathways have difficulty hiring and retaining qualified educators and classrooms are under-enrolled as early as grade 4, how would you address this?

Hiring and retaining qualified educators starts with increasing pay, improving our HR function, and providing balanced workloads and necessary professional development opportunities. To expand our limited pool of bilingual educators in our language pathways, especially at the higher grade levels, I would explore potential pathways for experienced educators to become credentialed or have international credentials recognized.

Proficiency in the language pathway is a requirement to transfer into immersion schools at the higher grade levels, which limits the ability of most students to join those programs in 4th and 5th grade. Under enrollment in 4th and 5th grade often stems from students leaving the district in anticipation of middle school, without other students being eligible to transfer into their positions.

In order to ensure language pathway classrooms are better-enrolled in higher grades, I will work to retain families through the middle school transition.

What is your position on supporting lottery-based access to language immersion programs for some versus access to second language instruction for all as part of general education instruction?

My son is in a Spanish language immersion school and I think our language immersion programs are a huge strength of the district, that I will work to protect as a board member. Bilingual education is a gift we give our students–one that promotes inclusion and equity as well as cross-cultural competency and pride.

Many families are drawn to SFUSD by our language immersion programs, but they aren't the best fit for every student's learning style. I support a both/and approach, to continue language immersion programs and add more second language instruction opportunities at earlier grades across the district.

What is the current state of advanced education at SFUSD?

We have pockets of success for advanced education at SFUSD, including Lowell High School and the return of 8th grade algebra. But there is a subset of kids who we are holding back by denying them access to beyond-grade-level opportunities they are ready for.

A broken clock is right twice a day. I don't agree with former president George W. Bush on just about anything, but even he knew that the soft bigotry of low expectations is a form of bias. Too often, debates about opportunities for accelerated learning and academic excellence in SFUSD are framed as if only white and Asian families want or benefit from such programs.

I firmly disagree with that. It's profoundly inequitable to say that only kids whose families can pay for private school are capable and deserving of advanced learning. Our district is 86% students of color–they should not be denied opportunities to learn and achieve their highest academic potential.

What should SFUSD be doing to ensure more students have access to more advanced education, including classes above their grade level, accelerated courses, and advanced subjects including those currently only offered by outside institutions such as community colleges?

As a board member, I will push SFUSD to evaluate its policies, curricula, and staffing models to see where we can create more flexibility for teachers and schools to meet students where they are, including providing them with above-grade-level opportunities. That includes making sure that the district-wide implementation of 8^th grade algebra isn't thwarted by potentially flawed pilot models.

Rather than fighting over limited spots at Lowell High School, we need to create more hubs for academic excellence equitably located throughout the city, and expand access to AP classes in the eastern and southern neighborhoods.

What is the current state of special or remedial education at SFUSD?

Right now, we aren't meeting the needs of most kids in special education or with remedial needs. Special education teachers and paras are often overworked and lack sufficient time to complete the coordination that is required of them. There are staffing problems for providing and coordinating required evaluations and assessments. This results in students not receiving the supports they need, families and educators leaving the district, and opens the district up to liability for not meeting its legal obligations.

What should SFUSD be doing to ensure students who need special education (either due to disability or academic performance) have access and the support they need to thrive?

Special education is in many ways a world unto itself, with very informed parent advocates, unique administrative processes, and specialized educators. I think the solutions for special education within the district need to be informed and designed by those who are closest to the issue–by special education providers and families. I have already begun outreach to parents and educators with expertise in special education.

Increased special educator and evaluator staffing, increased paraeducator pay, better staffing models, and improved communication are all needed within our special education system.

Bullying & violence

Last school year SFUSD was beset by reports of rampant bullying and both in-school and after-school violence. Has the School Board done enough to fix and prevent these issues? And what more should be done, if anything?

As the mom of an SFUSD student, nothing is more important to me than safety at our schools. My older kid is the same age as the children whose lives were cut short at Sandy Hook. Every time there is a violent incident or lock down at a school, we fear for the worst.

As a deputy city attorney, I have worked with Moms Demand Action on legislation to help law offices like mine prevent violent incidents before they happen, by getting civil gun violence restraining orders to take away weapons from people who are a danger in our community.

As long as there is violence in our schools, there is more work for the school board to do to keep our kids safe. Fully funding social-emotional learning coaches to help kids develop conflict resolution skills, as well as social workers to help prevent school disputes from erupting into violence, is key.

I support de-escalation and restorative justice approaches, but teachers need to be properly trained in using them. We also need to upgrade our school facilities to ensure all schools have functioning PA systems and the proper locks if needed.

What failures in administration allowed such violence to happen in our schools?

As with many problems in SFUSD, the writing has been on the wall for a long time, but we haven't made the long-term investments or hard decisions necessary to address our problems. When we have under-enrolled schools, they are also understaffed, and positions like social workers and social-emotional coaches go unfilled. Prolonged school closures during COVID only exacerbated our childrens' mental health needs and diminished our budget for addressing them. And, we've failed to invest in our teachers' professional development needs and in facilities upgrades.

What is your opinion about the new "Say Something Anonymous System"? Are other interventions warranted, as well?

We need more data to know whether the Say Something Anonymous System is working to prevent violent incidents on campus. I think it is a good idea worth trying, as is limiting cell phone access during the school day.

Cyberbullying remains a problem. What is SFUSD doing to stop it, and what else should they be doing?

I appreciate that SFUSD's cyberbullying policy explicitly reaches out of school behavior that affects the learning environment–too often cyberbullying goes unchecked when schools put their heads in the sand about behavior after school hours.

The piloting of Yonder pouches is something that should be explored for helping limit opportunities for cyberbullying during school hours. Collecting data about whether the use of Yonder pouches has led to a measurable decline in cyberbullying is an important next step.

Teachers

State regulators have ordered SFUSD to balance its budget by laying off some teachers. What experience do you have with union negotiations, labor disputes, and corporate finance?

I am a public sector union member of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE Local 21). In my last job as a San Francisco Deputy City Attorney, I was an eight-year member of the Municipal Attorneys Association (MAA). As an MAA member, I helped our bargaining team negotiate for pay raises and greater work flexibility by collecting data about turnover among high-performing union members who had left the office due to insufficient pay and rigid office policies.

When I was on the board of directors of ScholarMatch, Inc., a nonprofit in the Mission that makes college possible for first-generation students, I was on the management side when our staff unionized.

I have significant experience with both government finance and corporate finance, which differ in important ways. I've led negotiations about everything from tax matters to pension liabilities to private lending. To inform my work, I've collaborated with economic experts ranging from public company CEOs and economics professors to the city Controller and staff in the Assessor-Recorder's Office.

Given SFUSD's budget crisis, how will you ensure that we are able to attract and retain the best teachers?

The best thing we can do to recruit educators is to pay them better. Our pay scale needs to account for the high cost of living in San Francisco and recognize that we're competing for talent on a regional basis with other districts that pay better. The recent pay increases were just a first step toward accomplishing that goal.

I'll also push the district to continue to modernize our HR systems and hiring processes, so that we can move quickly to recruit and hire top talent. We're making too many unforced errors that result in vacancies in budgeted positions, contributing to burnout among our existing workers.

School assignment system

Please summarize the changes needed for the SFUSD school assignment system. How do you see it working best for preK through high school?

We know that the lottery system hasn't reduced segregation, but it has driven families away from the district. Sometimes, the lottery drives families out of San Francisco entirely. The district's homework of moving to a zone assignment system is now four years late. It's not equitable to have a school assignment system that feels like you need a law degree to understand it.

We need a simple, predictable system. Families need to know that they're going to be assigned to a school that they can get to and has a schedule that works for them. Families need a resource that shows all of their options in one place to help them choose a school: language pathways, transportation, schedule, and before and aftercare options.

We ask students and parents to white-knuckle it through the second week of classes, hoping that they'll get into the school they want, and to commit to a school without guaranteed before or aftercare. How can we act surprised when we have declining enrollment?

Indicate how you will ensure the changes to the assignment system proceed with minimal problems.

First and foremost, I will work to ensure that any changes to the assignment system preserve sibling preference for existing SFUSD families, so that families can rest assured that their kids will be able to go to the same school.

In the past, the district has made changes that profoundly affect families and teachers, such as altering school start times, after the lottery has already been run. This can put community members in untenable situations that interfere with their ability to maintain their jobs. Learning from these past mistakes, I will advocate for changes to the assignment system to be implemented on a workable schedule that allows for predictability.

In your opinion, how should any changes to the system balance equity concerns with convenience and the needs of children and parents?

It won't be equitable if the district closes schools in student-rich neighborhoods before moving to the proposed zone assignment system. Under a zone assignment system, schools that are now under-enrolled should succeed in attracting more students.

Some schools should remain Citywide. All kids need to have access to unique offerings such as Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts. When certain programs aren't equally distributed geographically across zones, such as language immersion pathways, transportation should be provided for students whose school is outside their zone.

Rather than fighting over limited spots at Lowell High School, we need to create more hubs for academic excellence equitably located throughout the city, and expand access to AP classes in the eastern and southern neighborhoods.

How will you measure if these changes are beneficial for students and parents?

We'll know we've done the job right when we are recruiting more families into SFUSD and retaining them, especially at the middle and high school transition points.

General information

In your view, why were San Francisco Board of Education members Alison Collins, Gabriela López, and Faauuga Moliga recalled?

The school board abandoned its duty to our kids during COVID. They kept schools closed, and made no preparations to open them, long past what common-sense and science recommended. The closures continued even though City-run learning hubs for essential workers showed that kids could learn in person safely. And they were extremely inequitable. The students that school closures hurt the most were already farthest from opportunity.

Public service is a trust. The school board broke that trust through its actions and its tone against its constituents during COVID.

Did you vote for or against the recalls of Board of Education members Alison Collins, Gabriela López, and Faauuga Moliga?

I supported the recall. Generally, I'm opposed to recalls on principle. Once the voters speak, their chosen representatives should be allowed to govern. California's frequent recalls often waste public dollars and distract us from the tough work before us. But the school board recall was different.

We're still dealing with the academic and social-emotional consequences of long-term distance learning to students. The prolonged COVID closures drove a generation of families away from SFUSD and we are now faced with the fiscal consequences of that drop in enrollment. The recall was needed to begin restoring trust in the district.

Who are your mentors? Are there current or former Board of Education commissioners you believe have been most effective, and why?

I've been lucky to be mentored by some exceptional lawyers and public servants with talents, judgment, and character I admire. City Attorney David Chiu and Chief Deputy City Attorney Yvonne Meré have both shown me what it means to serve the public at the highest level with empathy, intelligence, excellence, and incredible dedication.

Board President Lainie Motamedi has been effective and steady by being reasonable, open, and firm.

In what ways are we succeeding in public education?

In many ways our district is like Congress–everyone loves their congressperson, but hates Congress. Likewise, everyone loves their school community, but hates the district. For families who aren't in the district, they don't have the draw of a beloved school to counter the negative press they hear.

In what ways are we failing in public education?

I will work to steward a culture of excellence in the district. District leadership needs to model excellence by getting our own financial and operational house in order, and to expect and foster excellence for our students.

How can the school district use its land to help deliver housing for teachers, school staff, and San Francisco families?

San Francisco must build as much housing as possible as soon as possible so that workers and their families can afford to stay here. We need to have all hands on deck to build as much housing as we need, and that includes SFUSD.

Outrageous housing costs drive away great teachers. My cousin and her husband moved away because of housing costs, and the district lost a beloved TK teacher at a time when we're expanding that program.

I fully support building educator housing on district-owned property. As a school board member, I'd seek state legislation to circumvent local zoning barriers and allow available district-owned property to be converted into educator housing as-of-right, similar to what SB 4 did for churches.

Personal

Tell us a bit about yourself!

Did you attend SFUSD or public primary schools in other cities? How do our schools differ from when you were a student?

I was raised Catholic in Seattle, Washington, and my parents sent me to the Catholic school that was part of our parish for primary school. Nearly every student in my class was a member of the parish, and the school lacked the diversity that is SFUSD's strength. The education was religiously based and included preparation for sacraments and other Catholic milestones. Because the school was focused on teaching students how to be good members of the church, the curriculum also lacked the inclusivity and variety of SFUSD's classroom offerings and varied school cultures.

How long have you lived in San Francisco? What brought you here and what keeps you here?

I moved to San Francisco nearly twenty years ago. I always wanted to live in San Francisco. Having grown up in Seattle, San Francisco just had more of the things that I loved about my hometown. More diversity, more art and cultural institutions, more walkable neighborhoods, more sunny days with beautiful views of the water.

As soon as I graduated college, I moved to the Bay Area and crashed with my then-boyfriend/now-husband in his grad school apartment. We moved together to San Francisco in the spring of 2005. I stayed in the Bay for law school at Stanford, commuting to the City to volunteer and work in the City. After graduating from law school, I spent one year clerking on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena. After that year away, I returned to San Francisco in 2010 and have lived here ever since.

San Francisco is my adopted home–all of my adult memories are here. My community is here, my legal career is here, and my kids were born here. All of the things that brought me here are still here, and I'm not going anywhere.

What do you love most about San Francisco?

It's really hard to narrow it down, and at different points in my life, different aspects of the City have called to me. Right now, what I love most about the City is how it has everything that a world-class City has to offer, but it feels like a small town. I can walk my kid to school, running into classmates who are walking and biking on the way. I'm generally a bike and transit commuter, so I often encounter friends when I'm on my way around town, and I love the sense of community that brings. Our parks and libraries are an amazing resource, and we always run into friends when we're out and about, which makes everyday outings feel joyful.

What do you dislike the most about San Francisco?

Obviously, we have a lot of problems right now, with public education on the brink, a housing crisis, homelessness, an opioid epidemic, public safety concerns, and a stalled economic recovery from COVID–especially downtown. None of those problems are what I dislike about San Francisco, though. What I dislike is that we tend to focus more on quick fixes and scoring political points when addressing those problems, rather than digging in and doing the long-term, sustained work necessary to actually fix them. We need to get away from posturing and back to problem-solving.

Tell us about your current involvement in the community (e.g., volunteer groups, neighborhood associations, civic and professional organizations, etc.).

I am a member of and volunteer for the San Francisco Parent Coalition, and participated in the most recent San Francisco Parent Action Board of Education Bootcamp Fellowship. I am a current member of the Dolores Huerta Elementary Parent Teacher Association, the United Democratic Club, Noe Valley Democratic Club, YIMBY Action, Kid Safe SF, and the State Bar of California. I'm also a proud union member with IFPTE Local 21, and formerly MAA.

For over a decade, I've volunteered with ScholarMatch, Inc., a nonprofit in the Mission that makes college possible for first generation students. I served as a regular weekly volunteer college coach for five years, helping students from SFUSD high schools with their college applications. I later joined the Board of Directors for six years.

As a mom, last year I was a regular parent volunteer to help run the tiendita at Dolores Huerta Elementary--the school store where students can trade plumas they have earned for small prizes, teaching them financial literacy, numeracy, and supporting our social-emotional curriculum. I also chaperone field trips, volunteer in the classroom, and provide classroom snacks and supplies.

As a lawyer, I served as an alternate on the California State Bar's Judicial Nominations Evaluation Committee, and have been a member of the Bar Association of San Francisco, the California Lawyers Association Litigation Section, the American Constitution Society Bay Area Lawyer Chapter, and the Edwin J. McFetridge Inn of Court.

For nearly 20 years, I've been an on and off member of the San Francisco Road Runners Club, and I love contributing to my local Buy Nothing community and SF Families Free Sharing.

Thank you

Thank you for giving us your time and answering our questionnaire. We look forward to reading your answers and considering your candidacy!