On a Wednesday afternoon in September, during the typical pick-up time for Commodore Sloat Elementary, Robert Byrd was stabbed to death right next to his 8-year-old son, just steps away from the school.<\/p>\n
Sloat\u2019s social worker, McKenna Hendrickson, had the grim responsibility of breaking the news to the third graders that their classmate\u2019s father had been killed.<\/p>\n
Social workers employed by the San Francisco Unified School District have a litany of responsibilities, from holding one-on-one counseling sessions with students to training teachers on emotional support, to building trust and connection with parents. However, none is arguably more crucial than helping a school community through a tragedy.<\/p>\n
This is one of the reasons why SFUSD\u2019s new staffing proposal (opens in new tab)<\/a>, which cuts nearly half of the district\u2019s school-site social workers \u2014 including Sloat\u2019s position \u2014 has been so maddening for district staff and parents. Many of them implored the Board of Education at a meeting last week to reconsider.<\/p>\n There, Hendrickson, whose job is on the line, explained that she has had to support families and students through their pain with \u201creal trauma-informed care and crisis intervention every day.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe district likes to send emails telling students and families to talk to their wellness counselors and social workers,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re essential then, but when budget season rolls around, we\u2019re extra.\u201d<\/p>\n The district has proposed cutting 45 of its 99 school-site social workers as part of widespread layoffs that would include giving pink slips to 56 classroom teachers, 51 security guards, 18 assistant principals, 15 counselors, eight clerks, and eight middle school health teachers. The district expects those layoffs to eliminate $25.6 (opens in new tab)<\/a> million in spending as part of a plan to cut into the district\u2019s projected deficit of $103 million for the next school year. That plan also includes shutting down school bus routes, reducing central office operations, and altering the school day to include six periods instead of seven.<\/p>\n The proposal to cut social workers comes at a dire time for the district, which is attempting to produce a convincing, multi-year Fiscal Stabilization Plan<\/a> so as to exit state oversight and resume local control. In May, the district cancelled widespread layoffs<\/a> at the last minute<\/a> after uproar from employees, instead opting to eliminate vacant positions and offer early retirement plans to more than 300 employees as part of $114 million in cuts.<\/p>\n SFUSD has been applauded by political (opens in new tab)<\/a> and parents groups (opens in new tab)<\/a> for taking the budget crisis seriously, and has little choice but to make serious cuts for the coming school year. But the impact of any cost-savings measures \u2014 including the cuts to social-work positions \u2014 on students is sobering.\u00a0<\/p>\n Already this school year, SFUSD has been enmeshed in criticism of inequitable access to in-person algebra<\/a> and understaffing in its expanded transitional kindergarten (opens in new tab)<\/a> program. Furthermore, the district\u2019s new proposal included a plan to consolidate three school sites or school programs starting in 2027-28, reigniting concerns that school closures<\/a> \u2014 the issue which contributed to the ouster of Superintendent Maria Su\u2019s predecessor \u2014 are back on the table.<\/p>\n During the current school year, all elementary schools with more than 300 students, all middle schools or high schools with over 450 students, and all schools with a chronic absenteeism rate higher than 24% are provided full-time social workers. Others are allotted a half-time social worker. (There are additional centralized social workers, including some who can be mobilized to specific schools as needed in a crisis.)<\/p>\n However, under the newly proposed staffing model, only the district\u2019s schools with a Title 1 designation would be granted a social worker at all. Title 1 is a federal designation for schools with a large proportion of students qualifying for free or reduced-cost meals because of financial need.<\/p>\n Even Title 1 schools that won\u2019t lose a full-time social worker position would still be impacted by the cuts. Layoffs at the district are done by seniority, in a last-in-first-out system. That likely means reshuffling longer-tenured social workers from elsewhere into Title 1 schools.<\/p>\n Autumn Garibay, the parent-teachers association executive vice president at the Title 1 Flynn Elementary in Bernal Heights is concerned that its bilingual social worker will be replaced by someone without the connections and language skills to aid the school\u2019s many English learners.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t just swap one social worker for another one,\u201d Garibay said.<\/p>\n The decision to cut nearly half of the district\u2019s social workers might come as a surprise in particular because Superintendent Su, who holds a doctorate in clinical child psychology, has championed mental health support for students. During an event at Manny\u2019s on Oct. 24, Su said keeping social workers at school sites was one of two non-negotiables for her when the district made cuts last year.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew that we needed to protect our social workers,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The Board of Education has yet to publicly debate the proposed cuts, but is scheduled to do so at its next meeting on Tuesday. In January, the district will issue projected budget allocations to individual schools and engage with the community about planning. An updated Fiscal Stabilization Plan will then be reviewed by the board in March before it adopts the final budget in June.<\/p>\n At a press conference on Dec. 5, district leaders, including Board President Phil Kim and Superintendent Su, acknowledged that the cuts would be a tough pill to swallow but asked the \u201centire city to come together\u201d in support of them. But that hasn\u2019t stopped efforts to save social workers.<\/p>\n