School stabilization team

About

The School Stabilization Team is part of the City’s efforts to help the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) address its school closures, worsening financial outlook, and operational issues. It consists of top City leaders sharing expert knowledge of:

• Children and families
• Education
• Budget
• Fiscal oversight

The team will also have $8.4 million from the Student Success Fund (SSF) to help school communities with emergency needs.

Who we are

Leadership

• Maria Su
  Executive Director, Department of Children, Youth, and Their Families (DCYF)
• Phil Ginsburg
  General Manager, Department of Recreation and Parks

Team members

• ChiaYu Ma, Deputy Controller
  Fiscal expertise
• Susie Smith, Deputy Director for Policy and Planning, Human Services Agency
  Programmatic and family support
• Hong Mei Pang, Mayor’s Youth and Families Advisor
  Communications, policy, and administrative support
• Amanda Kahn Fried, Office of the Treasurer and Tax Collector
  Finance expertise and communication support
• Shawn Sherburne, Assistant Director, Department of Human Resources
  Human resource expertise and coordination

Special advisor

• Dr. Carl Cohn, former member, California Board of Education

Resources

• News: Mayor London Breed Announces School Stabilization Team to Provide Support for San Francisco Public Schools
• An Open Letter to SFUSD Families from Mayor London Breed

More about the school stabilization team

What the School Stabilization Team will work on, and how we will work together:

The School Stabilization Team is in direct and regular conversation with SFUSD leaders and SF Board of Education to assess and meet the needs of the District, and are coalescing resource support to assist the District with critical administrative and system needs.
District staff has been working tirelessly and under tremendous pressure to solve multiple major structural issues at once. The School Stabilization Team will offer a set of collective experience and expertise to be a resource for SFUSD to troubleshoot, review, validate and provide capacity to help the District tackle its most urgent and fundamental challenges related to: 

• Developing trustworthy project plans to communicate and implement necessary resource alignment initiatives
• Advise on budget balancing plans to help the District retain local control
• Address critical operational issues that affect students today, such as staffing

The Board of Education requested the City’s support.

While talented and committed educators, administrators and staff work diligently every day to serve our children and families who attend SF public schools, addressing the recent challenges that came to light is a huge undertaking for SF public schools. The District should not have to do it alone.

To ensure that SFUSD has any and all support available from the City as it undergoes its work during this difficult time, the San Francisco Board of Education requested support from Mayor London Breed. Mayor Breed deployed the Team consisting of top City leaders and trusted subject matter experts in the areas of children, families, education, budgeting, and fiscal oversight.

This does not impact the Board of Education or the Superintendent's authority.

The Board of Education and Superintendent are still in charge of SFUSD. The School Stabilization Team consists of city leaders and experts who have a long history of working with SFUSD through various city-district partnerships. The team will work collaboratively with SFUSD staff to help stabilize the school district.

How the $8.4M will be spent:

On September 22, Mayor Breed announced the release of $8.4 million unspent and unallocated SSF to support SFUSD through the School Stabilization Team. DCYF will administer these dollars according to the intent of the SSF, including but not limited to the following: 

• Address emergency needs (e.g. address non-foundational/core staffing)
• Bolster SFUSD capacity (e.g. communications and/or operational support)
• Resource emergent strategies to support schools (e.g. transition planning and support for students and families in the event of school closures)

The $8.4M allocated to the School Stabilization Team does not impact the availability of Student Success Fund (SSF) grants for schools.

The $8.4M released for the School Stabilization Team does not impact SSF funding available to SFUSD. There are no reductions to current or future SSF funding to SFUSD school sites’ grants.

The $8.4M comprises unspent and unallocated funds in SSF funding categories in 2023 and 2024. DCYF will leverage these critical resources to stabilize SFUSD within the parameters of its intended purposes and will do so at the direction of Mayor London Breed and in partnership with SFUSD.

2024 SSF funding decisions have been released and are available on our website.

Why the $8.4M is used for the School Stabilization Team:

In November 2022, voters passed Proposition G, the Student Success Fund (SSF). The goal of the SSF is to provide vital additional resources from the City for SFUSD, with a dual focus on achieving grade-level success in core academic subjects and enhancing the social and emotional well-being of all SFUSD students. Partnering with SFUSD, DCYF has the authority to administer these funds, which includes spending and allocating encumbered funds within the parameters of SSF.