Anxious ‘Waiting Game’ Drags On as SFUSD Delays List of School Closures

San Francisco families anxiously awaiting the list of schools that are set to close or merge will have to wait until next month to find out after the district pushed back its announcement on Sunday.

The delay comes as parent groups and the union representing San Francisco Unified School District teachers continue to put pressure on school officials to provide some certainty. Families had been expecting to begin getting answers this week about which campuses would shutter after the 2024–25 school year as part of the district’s “resource alignment campaign.”

“I know there’s a lot of anticipation and emotions around our recommendation and how SFUSD will support the affected communities, but it is essential that we carefully review everything before making the announcement,” Superintendent Matt Wayne said in a statement postponing the release of the list.

The district had previously said the list of schools recommended for closure would come on Wednesday. The Board of Education is expected to vote on the list of schools in December and close the campuses at the end of the academic year.

Wayne did not specify a new date for the list but said that it would be released next month and that the rest of the expected timeline has not changed.

The decision comes after weeks of pushback from the teachers’ union and parents groups, including United Educators of San Francisco and Parents for Public Schools of San Francisco.

“Closing schools in San Francisco will not save money,” Cassondra Curiel, the president of United Educators, said at a press conference on Monday that was planned before the delay was announced. “There are no costs to be saved. This does not close the deficit. What it has done is cost us a lot of stress.”

The district has said that the goal of closing schools is not to save money but to “improve the experience for students and teachers.”

“By aligning the number of schools we operate with our current enrollment, SFUSD can manage resources more effectively and ensure every school is fully enrolled and well-supported,” Wayne said in his statement, adding that the closures have the potential to decrease operating costs.

Still, Curiel said the district should not discuss closures until it stabilizes other priorities. The district is facing a staffing shortage and massive budget deficit, which has already led to increased state oversight and poses a risk of takeover.

Vanessa Marrero, the executive director of Parents for Public Schools of San Francisco, said that many parents still don’t feel like they have enough information about what the transition will be like if their school is slated to close.

“We don’t have a plan that actually details what that transitional life is like,” she said.

“Other school communities where school would not close will be impacted, generations of families would be impacted, their immediate community would be impacted — businesses, nonprofits — so it’s a big deal.”

Wayne said he decided to move the announcement to ensure that the district is looking at “every angle” of the district’s operations that will be affected, including after-school care, transportation and grant funding.

“We want to make sure we get this right,” he said in the statement.

The district first announced in March that it would close, merge and co-locate a number of schools after this academic year. The closures will be SFUSD’s first in 20 years, spurred by consistent enrollment declines since 1999 that have left about 14,000 empty seats across campuses. More than 4,000 students have left the district since the 2017–18 school year, and SFUSD could lose 4,600 more by 2032, according to the district.

Wayne said that leaders of the initiative are working to ensure that the district’s fiscal analysis is strong, that a transition plan and support systems are in place, and that equity audits conducted are integrated into the recommendation.

“The waiting game is unfair, and parents need stability,” Roberto Hernandez, a parent of a Mission High School 11th-grader, said during the teachers’ union press conference on Monday. “School is supposed to be a safe space for learning, yet the emotional safety of our children is at risk. Not knowing if your school is going to be closed creates anxiety.”