{"id":184103,"date":"2026-02-19T05:29:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T05:29:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/184103\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T05:29:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T05:29:33","slug":"s-f-immigrant-students-deliver-valentines-to-superintendent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/184103\/","title":{"rendered":"S.F. immigrant students deliver valentines to superintendent"},"content":{"rendered":"

San Francisco Superintendent Maria Su received an unexpected surprise on Wednesday afternoon, when a group of around 20 educators, parents and students stopped by her office to personally deliver Valentine\u2019s Day cards.<\/p>\n

But the stack of cards, handmade by sixth and seventh graders at Visitacion Valley Middle School, were not so much adoring as urgent, begging Su to stop budget cuts on immigrant student programs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"SFUSD Superintendent Maria Su holds a stack of Valentine\u2019s Day cards given to her by teachers and families at the district offices on Wednesday. Photo by Mariana Garcia.<\/p>\n

San Francisco\u2019s \u201cnewcomer programs,\u201d \u2014\u00a0public school offerings that provide English language aid and academic support to immigrants newly arrived in the country, will be reduced if the current proposed San Francisco Unified School District budget is approved.<\/p>\n

SFUSD blames a budget deficit for the need to make cuts to newcomer programs. Parents and families, however, said that the school district has long undermined<\/a> the newcomer programs even before the current budget woes.<\/p>\n

The goal of Wednesday\u2019s valentine delivery was to remind Su of a promise \u2014 during a Jan. 29 meeting she agreed to meet with teachers to discuss the cuts, and pressure her to set a date and time for them to meet.<\/p>\n

\"AGiufred Garcia, a third grader at Buena Vista Horace Mann K-8, gives Valentine\u2019s Day cards to Maria Su urging her to stop budget cuts on immigrant student programs. Photo by Mariana Garcia. <\/p>\n

The group managed to catch Su, who was between meetings, in a large conference room. One by one, they greeted her with stacks of red, white, and pink valentines.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease don\u2019t make decisions that will hurt us!\u201d read a large, pink card written by a student named Marie.<\/p>\n

\"AA student named Marie wrote a Valentine\u2019s Day card to Maria Su asking her to stop the budget cuts on immigrant student programs. Photo by Mariana Garcia.<\/p>\n

Eighth graders Sofia Benitez and Steicy Mejia, both part of the \u201cnewcomer\u201d program at Visitacion Valley, were nervous to deliver their Valentine\u2019s to Su, but rallied themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to tell her that what she\u2019s doing is wrong,\u201d said Benitez in Spanish. Benitez credits her newcomer program with helping her learn English and become a \u201cmodel\u201d student in class.<\/p>\n

\"TwoEighth graders Steicy Mejia, left, and Sofia Benitez, right, hold valentines made by students in the newcomer and general education programs from Visitacion Valley Middle School. Photo by Mariana Garcia.<\/p>\n

Su appeared caught off guard and touched by the gesture. \u201cI feel so bad!\u201d she exclaimed when she received the first few cards. She gave hugs to each student and parent who delivered a valentine.<\/p>\n

\"TwoSu gave hugs to parents and students who delivered valentines to her at the district office. Photo by Mariana Garcia.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a means of pressure,\u201d said Veronica Coto, an organizer with Bay Area Faith in Action and parent to a former SFUSD student. \u201cWe met the goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Veronica Coto, an organizer with Faith in Action and parent to a former SFUSD student, delivers Valentine\u2019s cards to Su on Wednesday. Photo by Mariana Garcia.<\/p>\n

After hearing the stories of teachers, parents and students, Su expressed that she would \u201clove\u201d to set up a meeting with educators, which they scheduled for early March. \u201cI want as many families in our schools as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Francisco Superintendent Maria Su received an unexpected surprise on Wednesday afternoon, when a group of around 20…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184104,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[27851,15,2646,14,101,103,102,104,106,105,15254,69411],"class_list":{"0":"post-184103","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-board-of-education","9":"tag-education","10":"tag-holidays","11":"tag-immigration","12":"tag-san-francisco","13":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","14":"tag-san-francisco-news","15":"tag-sf","16":"tag-sf-headlines","17":"tag-sf-news","18":"tag-sfusd","19":"tag-valentines-day"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184103","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=184103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}