SFUSD’s biggest bond ever has one last step before hitting ballot

San Francisco public schools’ largest-ever bond measure is all but assured of heading to the November ballot after the San Francisco Board of Education unanimously approved the measure Tuesday — but not without debate over its size and priorities.

The board now has until Aug. 9 to submit the approved resolution and text to the Department of Elections.

Matthew Selby, the elections department’s custodian of records, told The Examiner that officials have not received any documentation from the Board of Education. Once submitted, the measure would be considered qualified for the ballot.

The $790 million bond earmarks half of those funds for modernization projects within the San Francisco Unified School District, including classroom repairs and upgraded restrooms, and ongoing construction for a new school in Mission Bay set to open in August 2025. The rest will be allocated toward meal services, schoolyard improvements and security upgrades.

“We’re going to keep doing what we’re doing well,” SFUSD School Bond Program Director Licinia Iberri said Tuesday. “We manage our debt responsibly and repay our bonds quickly. We also have a new, energetic team in the bond program that will bring this vision forward.”

The proposed bond would also fund a large-scale modernization project at one still-undecided high school. Board of Education commissioners will decide among four sites — Mission, Balboa, International and Galileo, the high schools with the “highest need for repairs” — at a later date.

By law, school bonds in California need 55% voter approval to pass. Since 2000, local school bonds across the state have enjoyed high passage rates, but that trend began to reverse in 2020 , according to the Public Policy Institute of California.

Weak voter confidence also indicates that a new bond’s passage won’t be a slam-dunk as SFUSD contends with declining enrollment, potential bankruptcy amid a projected $420 million budget deficit and a backlog of projects from the district’s 2016 bond.

Commissioner Mark Sanchez said the new bond should be larger to address the full scope of SFUSD’s repairs and upgrades, but added that the district is in a “trust-building phase.”

“Luckily for us, we passed bonds with around 70% [voter approval] over the years,” he said. “But we’re now in a tougher position. It’ll be an uphill climb.”

Funds from the $744 million bond in 2016 allowed SFUSD to renovate 14 libraries and 16 kitchens, remove 22 portable classrooms, and add 44 new classrooms at various school sites. But other projects were deferred, leaving parents, students and employees questioning the district’s transparency this time around.

Laurance Lee, a member of the Citizens’ Bond Oversight Committee and a candidate for the school board, said this bond is “definitely different” from previous ones.

“This bond is a big deal, and I’m two minds on it,” he told The Examiner. “For sure our schools really need to be in better shape, and we need more than this amount to get the job done. [But] I can’t tell if the public believes that the district has its fiscal house in order to get to the needed 55% votes.”

SFUSD will need to close or merge schools with low enrollment, according to an audit released last week by state fiscal monitors, and make significant budget cuts. Otherwise, the auditors said, the district risks running out of cash by 2025. They said earlier this month that the district was “nowhere close” to a state takeover.

Lee said that he sees how far the district has come, and how there’s still room for improvement.

SFUSD superintendent Matt Wayne said that this is why the district backtracked from an initially planned $1 billion bond, which would have been the largest voter bond proposed in San Francisco.

“We have a lot of work to do, so we felt like going for this amount now is an appropriate ask and will allow us to get organized around our budget issues,” Wayne said. “The bond program has been well-run. But we’re doing a lot as a district to achieve financial stability.”

A district spokesperson told The Examiner in an email that district leadership will continue outreach to communities and stakeholders to raise awareness of the bond and listen to feedback.