John --

I have decided to support the recall effort for the Board of Education because they are responsible for ensuring the children of our City get the very best education possible and they have failed. Too many families were left stranded during the pandemic, and instead of focusing on how to open schools safely, they spent the year bickering with staff, filing frivolous lawsuits, and wasting precious time on short-term political distractions. Parents across the city are furious, and I am too.

It’s impossible to overstate the importance public schools have on the lives of our children. Education is one of the best investments we can make as a society to ensure that our children have the brightest futures possible, and the thousands of San Francisco families in our public school system could not depend on it more.

We owe our educators and staff an incredible debt of gratitude for all that they have endured through the pandemic. Each and every day they are tasked with educating our children while looking out for their physical and mental health, nutritional needs, and social development. Our educators perform miracles, and I cannot thank them enough. They have not received the support they and our children need from those sworn to do so. 

Our schools have suffered without strong leadership and over the last two years, we have seen the enormous toll children and families endure when that leadership is absent. This is why I have decided to support the recall of Commissioners Collins, Lopez, and Moliga.

When faced with pandemic, the members of the Board of Education routinely made decisions that harmed the students they were entrusted to protect. At the outset, they rejected free consulting services to create a safe reopening plan. As a result, the Board of Education continued to keep schools closed long after public health guidance allowed and encouraged reopening. During the unnecessary and extended closure students’ mental health and educational outcomes suffered tremendously.

When presented with data showing that students suffered enormous learning loss in math and reading during the pandemic, did the Board of Education take responsibility? No, in fact the president said the students were “just having different learning experiences.” San Francisco is now in the bottom five percent for academic performance, according to the California Reading Report Card, and there is no plan to close that gap.

While schools across the rest of the country were reopening safely, our Board of Education was doing just the opposite:

- They wasted time and millions of dollars renaming schools, in what has been called a historic travesty; 

- They showed incredible disdain for parents and families, including humiliating a gay father who had applied to be on the parent advisory committee, and

- They ignored the rapidly expanding budget deficit, which grew to about $125 million, and became such a significant issue that the state is now threatening to take over the district.

Commissioner Collins’ hateful behavior, in particular, has no place in public life. Her past statements about Asian families were cruel, demeaning, and deeply misinformed. Her comments resurfaced in a time when violent acts of anti-Asian hate were on the rise, and the Asian community was rightfully terrified for their own safety. Instead of taking responsibility for her actions, she refused to apologize or even remove the offending tweets. When her colleagues stripped her of her vice-presidency for her actions, she sued them and the already cash-strapped district for $87 million because she felt that she had been slandered.

The consequences of this mismanagement could not be more severe. The education, health and well-being of our public school students should be the first priority and focus of our Board of Education, not trying to score cheap political points. Unfortunately, this Board has routinely failed to come close. Instead, they have consistently engaged in wasteful, destructive, and ego-driven side projects while San Francisco families suffered.

I hope you join me in supporting a more functional city government and the stability our children deserve.  I will be voting “yes” on the recall election of Commissioners Collins, Lopez, and Moliga, and I urge you to do the same.

Catherine Stefani
http://www.supervisorstefani.com/