Even before any of the votes have been counted in the June 2 primary election, the November election for three seats on the San Francisco school board is well underway.
On Saturday, the San Francisco Parent Coalition convened for the first time nine of the major candidates running in November for the three school board seats. Meanwhile, the teachers’ union, whose slogan during its recent historic strike was “We Can’t Wait,” has unveiled its endorsements for the fall election. The official deadline to become a candidate is not until Aug. 7.
The November school board election is made more complex by the possibility of two separate votes. Current school board president Phil Kim appears on Tuesday’s primary ballot to complete the term of prior school board president Lainie Motamedi, to which he was appointed by former Mayor London Breed in August 2024. He is running against two challengers — nonprofit school educator Virginia Cheung and public school parent Brandee Marckmann — and has been endorsed by Mayor Daniel Lurie, the Democratic Party, six supervisors, and the city’s current Assembly members and state senator. Cheung is endorsed by the United Educators union and the Green Party, while Marckmann is endorsed by an array of progressive former and current officeholders, including Art Agnos, Aaron Peskin, Eric Mar, and Shamann Walton, as well as progressive Democratic clubs.
If none of the three wins a majority of the vote in June, the top two candidates will run again in November for what by then will be the final two months of Kim’s term. Because all three candidates are also running for four-year terms in November, it is possible that the candidate who comes up short in the runoff can still land among the top three vote getters in the other election and win a seat on the school board.
Four years ago, San Francisco voters took the unprecedented step to recall three incumbent school board members. Since that time, the school district has lurched from crisis to crisis related to learning loss after Covid; loss of students to private schools; plans and the suspension of plans to close schools; the prior superintendent’s abrupt resignation; state monitoring of its budget; a persistent payroll failure that kept educators from receiving their correct monthly pay; and the first teachers strike in almost half a century. After stripping away $114 million from its annual budget, the school district now has a clearer path to fiscal solvency and less scrutiny from the California Department of Education about its budget decisions.
The turmoil has taken its toll. At least at its early stages, the November election contest appears to lack the urgency that characterized the election of three new board members in 2024 or the recall and election contests of 2022. Yet there is much to be done to improve student outcomes. At its next meeting in June, the school board will be presented with data showing higher chronic absenteeism rates and with assessments that schools remain off track toward meeting goals for higher literacy among third-grade students, math proficiency among eighth graders; and college and career readiness among high school seniors.
Commissioner Lisa Weissman-Ward is not expected to join Commissioners Alida Fisher and Kim in the fall race. That means at least one nonincumbent will be elected. Joining Cheung on the union-backed slate are Reina Tello, a community organizer with PODER, and Ryan Hazelton, director of the Mariposa Kids after-school youth recreation program. During the recent teacher strike, Tello and members of her organization picketed on the sidewalk in front of Superintendent Su’s home in support of the teachers’ union’s negotiation stances. Hazelton was critical of some parents who urged the teachers’ union to postpone the strike and continue negotiating with the school district.
Two other candidates are amassing considerable support based on their involvement with the school district. Laurance Lee is vice chair of the panel that provides citizen oversight of the district’s spending of over $1 billion in construction bonds and is a leader in the Lowell High School alumni community. Autumn Brown Garibay is an elementary and middle school PTA leader and a board member of the San Francisco Parent Coalition.
Marckmann, a candidate in the June race, has filed for November. The current field is rounded out by Michael Turon, who pledges to retain teachers, fix special education staffing, and improve budget oversight; Kevin Bess, a parent leader at Paul Revere School; and Deldelp Medina, whose recent and current activities revolve around coaching and providing strategic advice to minority entrepreneurs.
Although voters might feel exhausted by the June election, the school board candidates have little time to lose in making their pitches. By the fall, the campaigns will have to compete with the gubernatorial and congressional runoff elections; at least four intense district supervisorial races; and highly visible and heated local, regional, and state ballot measures.
