For many students, the first week of January is about showing off new Christmas kicks and recovering from a two-week video-game marathon. For Maria Su, though, it\u2019s time to lock in.<\/p>\n
The San Francisco Unified School District superintendent was given an extended contract<\/a> in November, giving her the power and political capital to make structural changes that could fundamentally shape the future of public education in the city.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n She must contend with a multimillion-dollar budget gap, stagnant math and reading scores, and growing labor strife. Meanwhile, she must rebuild confidence that a system that has lost thousands of students since the pandemic is still capable of providing high-quality education.<\/p>\n Here are the burning questions facing SFUSD at the start of 2026.<\/p>\n Will there be more cuts and layoffs?<\/p>\n Unfortunately, yes.<\/p>\n While the district halted a controversial plan<\/a> to eliminate social workers at half of its schools<\/a>, staffing reductions, program changes, and bus route eliminations are likely necessary.<\/p>\n Staff and board members claim the district is poised to close a long-standing deficit, currently pegged at $51 million, and fully exit state fiscal oversight by the end of this school year. But SFUSD\u2019s record of inaccurate projections calls that timeline into question.<\/a><\/p>\n Talks around the budget will heat up in March, when the district will present its updated plan to the public. A finalized budget will be approved in June after months of cajoling, weeks of backroom negotiations, and hours of public meetings.<\/p>\n So there might be a teachers strike?<\/p>\n It\u2019s possible.<\/p>\n Even tentative cuts have been met with strong responses by the district\u2019s powerful unions.<\/a> <\/a>Teachers authorized a strike<\/a> in December, citing issues with pay and benefits. If union members vote to follow through on the threat, SFUSD could have its first walkout in half a century.<\/p>\n However, the district and unions might be hamstrung in negotiations by the ongoing state oversight, since auditors have the ability to reject certain proposals.<\/p>\n What about school closures?<\/p>\n SFUSD paused a plan to implement widespread closures in the fall of 2024 after a chaotic and widely criticized process. Still, the post-Covid drop in enrollment has not been resolved, leaving several campuses far below capacity.<\/p>\n Those who support closing schools say the move would\u00a0 increase course access and more efficiently use resources. Many parents and the teachers union strongly oppose the idea.<\/p>\n Is the confusing enrollment system due for more tweaks?<\/p>\n Time will tell.<\/p>\n The district has said it plans to change its enrollment system<\/a> alongside school reorganization (read: closures), though it\u2019s unclear what this will mean in practice. The district abandoned a plan (opens in new tab)<\/a> for the 2026-27 school year to primarily weigh location when doling out elementary school assignments.<\/p>\n The current enrollment system uses a lottery that prioritizes those who live close to a selected campus, as well as students living in areas that rank lower in certain socioeconomic metrics.\u00a0<\/p>\n There are scores of Facebook groups that\u00a0 help parents strategize on how to win the lottery or deal with issues like being assigned to a school with a late start time on the other side of the city.<\/p>\n Methods to game the system include entering the lottery<\/a> with fake addresses. According to many parents, SFUSD\u2019s enrollment chaos motivates many families<\/a> to opt for private school or to move so kids can attend public schools in Marin or the East Bay<\/a>.<\/p>\n Has the district decided how it intends to fight our AI overlords?Are smartphones still allowed?<\/p>\n Yes and no.<\/p>\n The district requires schools to prohibit phone use during class and in passing periods, but teachers say this is effective only with strict enforcement and total buy-in from the school community, including parents. For now, the policy has been enforced differently at each school.<\/p>\n Teachers have cited frustration with inconsistent enforcement and complain that\u00a0 curbing phone use takes up much of their time and energy.<\/p>\n Larger districts, like New York City Public Schools, have instituted bans, so SFUSD could follow course if it has the will. As of now, though, it has no stated plans.<\/p>\n How does the district plan to increase math and reading scores?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For many students, the first week of January is about showing off new Christmas kicks and recovering from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,44339,104,106,105,15254],"class_list":{"0":"post-122167","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-san-francisco","9":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","10":"tag-san-francisco-news","11":"tag-school-wars","12":"tag-sf","13":"tag-sf-headlines","14":"tag-sf-news","15":"tag-sfusd"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}