San Francisco Board of Education

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San Francisco Board of Education
School board overview
Formed1851 (1851)
JurisdictionSan Francisco Unified School District
Headquarters555 Franklin Street
San Francisco, CA, 94102
School board executives
  • Gabriela López, President
  • Faauuga Moliga, Vice President[1]
Websitewww.sfusd.edu/about/board-of-education

The San Francisco Board of Education is the school board for the City and County of San Francisco. It is composed of seven Commissioners, elected by voters across the city to serve 4-year terms. It is subject to local, state, and federal laws, and determines policy for all the K-12 public schools in the San Francisco Unified School District.

Responsibilities[]

The Board's responsibilities include:[2]

  • Establishing educational goals and standards
  • Approving curriculum
  • Setting the district budget, which is independent of the city's budget
  • Confirming appointment of all personnel
  • Approving purchases of equipment, supplies, services, leases, renovation, construction, and union contracts
  • Appointing a superintendent of schools to manage the day-to-day administration of the district

Pay[]

Board members are paid around $6,000 a year.[3]

Early history[]

Founding[]

In October 1849, John C. Pelton opened a school in a Baptist church in San Francisco. It was funded by voluntary donations and tuition, with poor children able to attend for free. In 1850, the city council adopted an ordinance making it free public school for all children, a first in California. In September 1851, the school was reorganized under an ordinance providing for a San Francisco Board of Education and a superintendent.[4]

Segregation[]

With Japanese immigration to the United States increasing in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the Board ordered Japanese American and Korean American students attending public schools to transfer to the Oriental Public School, which serviced Chinese students, in 1905. This drew ire from the Empire of Japan and forced Theodore Roosevelt to intervene, who was wary of Japan's recent victory in the Russo-Japanese War. After Roosevelt realized that this was a matter of immigration and that the ordinance affected only 93 students, he brokered the Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907, whereby the students would be allowed into the schools and the Japanese government would stop issuing passports for laborers to the United States, after initially failing to persuade the Board to rescind their decision.[5]

Response to 1906 earthquake[]

On April 18, 1906, the morning after the 1906 earthquake, members of the Board of Education, including Aaron Altmann, David Oliver, Thomas F. Boyle, and Lawrence F. Walsh, Superintendent Alfred Roncovieri, Secretary E. C. Leffingwell, along with and all employees of the Department, reported at the repair shop of the Board of Education at corner Pine and Larkin streets to rebuild.

The group spent the next two days guarding SFUSD property, checking up on teachers, and ensuring that all of their employees had proper shelter.

Out of a total of 74 school buildings controlled by the SFUSD in 1906, 29 were destroyed by fire, and many of the remainder were seriously damaged by the severity of the earthquake. The Girls' High School, located at Scott and O'Farrell streets, was totally wrecked by the temblor. Mission High School, located at Eighteenth and Dolores streets was badly damaged as well.

The Oriental School was also opened after the 1906 earthquake to solely serve children of Chinese, Korean, and Japanese descent.

Modern history[]

2000–2006: Arlene Ackerman era[]

Arlene Ackerman began her tenure as the superintendent of SFUSD on August 1, 2000, succeeding Superintendent Bill Rojas. Under her tenure, Ackerman overhauled the district's facilities department, which was misappropriating city funds. Further investigations led to financial settlements for the district by companies who were defrauding them and the federal government, garnering the district more than $45 million dollars. Her fiscal management garnered praise from even her critics.[6][7][8]

Ackerman faced opposition from the Board's liberal members. Mark Sanchez and Sarah Lipson were both members of the Green Party and, along with Eric Mar, were allied with the new liberal majority on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.[9][10][11] Ackerman was supported by the San Francisco Parent Teacher Association.[9][importance?] The San Francisco Chronicle editorialized in support of Ackerman and opined that the "Three board members in particular—Eric Mar, Sarah Lipson and Mark Sanchez—need to start working with Ackerman, not fighting with her virtually on a daily basis.”[12] Commissioners Eddie Chin, Dan Kelly, and Jill Wynns supported Ackerman. Norman Yee, who was elected in 2004, was considered the swing vote.[13]

Toward the end of her tenure, Ackerman was approved a raise, which included a salary of $250,000 and a $375,000 severance package among other benefits, by a 4 to 3 vote during a projected budget shortfall of $22 million which closed four schools.[14] In June 2005,[15] Supervisor Matt Gonzalez sued Ackerman with law partner Whitney Leigh, claiming that the raise was illegal as she had not given the public at least 24-hour prior to the raise in accordance with state law. SFUSD counsel David Campos argued that Ackerman was exempt as she serves as a district superintendent and perform duties as a county superintendent.[14] Ackerman stated that the cost of her legal defense would have cost the SFUSD more than her severance package was worth.[13]

The Board unanimously invoked the "compatibility clause" in Ackerman's contract in September 2005, mutually agreeing to Ackerman's resignation within the next year. Ackerman officially quit in June 2006. Commissioner Daniel P. Kelly, an ally of Ackerman's, said that she was "being forced out" due to the "intolerable" infighting. Her opponents, Lipson and Mar, expressed relief over her resignation.[16] Gwen Chan was appointed interim superintendent in February 2006, becoming the district's first Chinese American superintendent.[17]

2006–2019[]

The Board voted 6-1 in June 2007 to hire Carlos Garcia as the new superintendent, signing a contract that was less costly than Ackerman's. Commissioner Kim-Shree Maufas dissenting, citing a need for more time to consider his appointment.[18]

JROTC[]

In November 2006, the Board voted 4-2 to eliminate the JROTC program altogether in the entire city within two years,[19] stating that "armed forces should have no place in public schools, and the military's discriminatory stance on gays makes the presence of JROTC unacceptable."[20]

In December 2007, the Board decided to continue JROTC for one more year so the JROTC task force could continue its search for a replacement program without punishing current JROTC students.[21] A non-binding measure called Proposition V was placed on the November 4, 2008 general ballot in San Francisco that supported the reinstatement of the JROTC program in the City. The proposition passed. In May 2009, the school board voted to reinstate the program.[22] In June 2009, the San Francisco School board voted 4 to 3 in favor of reinstating physical education credit for students enrolled in JROTC.[23]

Programs[]

In March 2019, the Board unanimously voted to expand the pilot program at Buena Vista Horace Mann K-8 Community School that housed that school's homeless families to include eligibility across the school district. The program up until that point suffered from lack of use, with the shelter averaging less than two families per night out of a 20 family capacity.[24][25]

Life of Washington mural destruction attempt[]

In September 2016, Board President Matt Haney began the effort to remove the Life of Washington mural by Victor Arnautoff at George Washington High School, citing objections to its depictions of slaves and dead Native Americans. Furthermore, he suggested that the school be renamed after a San Francisco native such as Maya Angelou, who is an alumna, because George Washington was a slave owner.[26][27] The mural had previously been the subject of controversy in the 1960s and 1970s when student activists demanded that the mural be taken down. Instead, the school board and the San Francisco Arts Commission hired Dewey Crumpler to paint a "response mural" at the school, which depicted the historical struggles of Black, Native, and Latin Americans.[28]

In June 2019, the Board unanimously[29] voted to paint over the mural, with a provision that allowed the mural to be obfuscated instead if painting over it resulted in delays or other legal issues.[30] The Board reversed its decision in August 2019 by voting 4 to 3 to instead cover the mural with a tarp after public outcry.[29] The high school's alumni association sued the school district in October 2019,[31] contending that it violated California Environmental Quality Act by not conducting an environmental impact report.[32] In July 2021, superior court judge Anne-Christine Massullo agreed that the district did not follow state environmental regulations, which included the studying of alternatives prior to a decision.[31][33] In her order blocking the board from covering the mural, she emphasized the adherence to the rule of law over any "parochial political agendas".[32]

Supporters of the murals have argued that they provide an immersive experience for educating students about America's racist past, and covering them up would amount to censoring artistic expression and editing historical facts. Indeed Victor Arnautoff, who was a communist born in Russia, embedded messages critical of Washington in these murals to call attention to unsavory aspects of the US history.[34][35] African American artist Dewey Crumpler, advocating for keeping the murals, has stated that “Art’s role, if it’s any good, is to make us uncomfortable with the status quo”. [36][37]

2020–present: COVID-19 era[]

School renaming attempt[]

In 2018, the Board created a task force to study the names of schools within the SFUSD in the wake of Charlottesville car attack.[38] The 12-person committee, chaired by a first grade teacher and activist Jeremiah Jeffries,[39] was assembled in 2020 and recommended 44 names that met the criteria of being associated with the European colonization of the Americas, slavery in the United States, exploitation, racism, or abuse for renaming. Early estimates priced the entire process to at least US$1,000,000. By a 6 to 1 vote on January 26, 2021, the Board approved the entire list, which included all schools named after U.S. presidents and founding fathers, and asked schools to submit replacement names up until April 2021. Commissioner Mark Sanchez, stated that although he did not anticipate all 44 schools to be renamed, those on the list "should be prepared."[40][41][42] The decision drew criticism in the national press[43][3] and was covered internationally.[44][45]

Critics called the effort ill-timed, amateurish and wasteful—citing factual errors, the absence of historians on the committee, inadequate amount of public input, and the US$1,000,000 price tag during a budget deficit estimated to be at around US$75,000,000 as primary issues. Mayor London Breed, State Senator Scott Wiener, and Supervisor Hillary Ronen called for a refocusing on school re-openings during the COVID-19 pandemic in the San Francisco Bay Area rather than the renaming effort.[40][46] The San Francisco Chronicle editorialized, "While most of the country is rightly engaged in removing racist monuments to the Confederacy, only in San Francisco must the heroes of the Union be toppled: The board’s list includes Lincoln, Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, and the abolitionist poet and editor James Russell Lowell."[47]

Proponents of the renaming argued that it was necessary "given the country’s reckoning with a racist past" and that students shouldn't attend schools named after slaveholders such as George Washington, racists like Adolph Sutro, or colonizers like Junípero Serra.[40][43] Board President Gabriela López affirmed that the Board can focus to "dismantle racist symbols and white supremacy culture...and other pressing matters" and saw the process as an opportunity to highlight individuals who are often not acknowledged within the school curriculum.[48][49]

Abraham Lincoln High School was one of the 44 schools nominated for renaming.

Commentators have expressed puzzlement over how the committee compiled the list. The San Francisco Chronicle noted that schools named after Cesar Chavez, who called undocumented workers "wetback" and other pejoratives,[50] and Malcolm X, who had worked as a pimp, were excluded from renaming.[51] On the other hand, schools named after the mythical El Dorado and California senator Dianne Feinstein were included. The latter was included because a stolen Confederate flag from a historic exhibit outside City Hall was initially replaced by the Parks Department in 1984, while Feinstein was mayor of San Francisco, before she ordered the flag to be removed permanently.[52][50][51]

The most controversial school on the list was Abraham Lincoln High School, with members of the committee noting Lincoln's confirmation of the sentencing of 38 indigenous warriors condemned to death in Minnesota after the Dakota War of 1862 as a point of contention. Opponents have countered by stating that at the same time Lincoln pardoned 265 warriors, despite mounted pressure from a Republican-majority Congress, in the single largest act of mass clemency by a U.S. president. Historian Harold Holzer argued that Lincoln's stance on Indian affairs was considered progressive for the time. According to the video of its meeting, the renaming committee’s internal discussion on Lincoln took only five seconds.[49][52][50]

Factual historical errors endorsed by the Board included: confusing the name of the Alamo elementary school with the battle in Texas rather than the Spanish word for poplar tree; mistaking a revolutionary war battle Paul Revere participated in with a raid against the Penobscot tribe; holding the local philanthropist James Lick responsible for an objectionable monument, the Early Days statue, commissioned more than a decade after his death; mistaking the name of the Sanchez school with that of a conquistador instead of an early mayor of San Francisco. Many other examples were cited as lacking in nuance or proper historical context, such as questioning whether the abolitionist poet James Russell Lowell believed firmly in the right of black people to vote. Another controversial choice was the literary figure Robert Louis Stevenson for a 19th century poem, from his book A Child's Garden of Verses, where he used the word "eskimo", and rhymed the word "me" with "Japanee".[53][49][54][55]

In addition to those named after historical figures, the renaming list included schools named after their own historical neighborhoods, such as Presidio and Mission, on the ground that these names were associated with colonization by Spain. Columnist Carl Nolte of the San Francisco Chronicle opined that by that logic, the city itself should be renamed, since it was christened by Spanish missionaries for a Roman Catholic priest, which “clearly fits the guidelines for a new name."[56]

Reversal of school renaming attempt[]

On Twitter February 21, 2021, Board President Gabriela Lopez said "I acknowledge and take responsibility that mistakes were made in the renaming process," adding that the board would pursue a "more deliberative process moving forward, which includes engaging historians at nearby universities to help."[57] Lopez added that the renaming committee had been indefinitely suspended, and said that the school board would devote its energy to getting students back to in-person learning.[57]

The renaming effort was shelved by the Board in February 2021 to prioritize reopening schools.[58] In March 2021, the Board faced a potential lawsuit from various attorneys, including Laurence Tribe, an alumnus of Lincoln High School.[59] They alleged that the Board failed to adequately inform the public of the renaming decision, in accordance to the Brown Act, and asked the Board to rescind the decision.[60] The San Francisco superior court judge Ethan Schulman ruled that the board should do what the lawsuit requests or show why it should not be compelled to do so. The Board unanimously voted to reverse the vote to rename schools on April 6, 2021,[57] citing the potentially high cost of litigation against the suit. In this second amended resolution no. 214-6A1 that the board passed unanimously April 6, 2021,[61] the board stated the anticipated litigation would be "frivolous", and specifically stating the Board wants to "avoid distraction and wasteful expenditure of public funds in frivolous litigation."[61][62]

Ending Lowell High School's merit-based admissions policy[]

The Board unanimously voted in October 2020 to switch Lowell High School's selective merit-based admissions policy to a lottery based system for the 2020–2021 school year due to the district moving to a pass/fail system during the coronavirus pandemic.[63] After a racist incident at Lowell, the Board voted 5-2, with Kevine Boggess and Jenny Lam dissenting, in February 2021 to make the switch permanent.[64][65] They cite the lack of diversity and "pervasive systemic racism" as driving factors for the change, in addition to state law preventing comprehensive high schools from using selective enrollment.[66] The decision was considered divisive.[66] Reverend Amos C. Brown supported the switch, opining in the San Francisco Chronicle that "school leaders are failing to face up to and dismantle the elitist culture at Lowell, a public school."[67] Commissioner Alison Collins stated that, "merit, meritocracy and especially meritocracy based on standardized testing...those are racist systems" and are the "antithesis of fair".[68][better source needed] Rejection of meritocracy is one of the major themes of critical race theory which Collins had also mentioned in her tweets about Asian Americans.

In March 2021, Harmeet Dhillon represented a group of Lowell community members and threatened to sue the Board, calling the end of the merit-based admission system “an unconstitutional and illegal program designed to disenfranchise hardworking students”.[69]

On April 23, 2021, a lawsuit was filed against the Board, claiming that the board violated California's open meetings law when the board voted in February 2021 to let Lowell to use permanently a lottery-based admissions instead of the school's merit-based admissions process. [70] The lawsuit was filed by the Friends of Lowell Foundation, the Lowell Alumni Association, the San Francisco Taxpayers Association, and the Asian American Legal Foundation, represented by attorneys, Christine Linnenbach, Quentin L. Kopp, Bradley Hertz, and James Sutton. Specifically, the lawsuit argues that the San Francisco Board of Education (1) failed to list properly the resolution on the agenda, (2) failed to provide equal time for both sides during public comment, and (3) failed to give the public adequate time to review the proposal before the vote. Plaintiffs of the suit want the board to rescind the changes to admissions at Lowell, as President of the Lowell Alumni Association, Kate Lazarus remarked that the process was “really rushed through” with “very little notice and very little opportunity for public input.” Lazarus also said that the suit “is not really about the substance of the ultimate admissions policy. It’s about a process that is fair and compliant with the law.”[70] Other allegations of the lawsuit include (4) that the board "cryptically" named the resolution “In Response to Ongoing, Systemic Racism at Lowell High School” without any additional context, (5) that Board President Gabriela Lopez did not give the public adequate time to comment on the resolution, (6) that the board allowed supporters of the resolution more time to speak than opponents, and (7) that the board circumvented normal procedure, giving the public just one week to review the proposal, when usually proposals of this type take at least two weeks or longer as the proposal moves through committees.[70] Also, the lawsuit says board members insisted the change was urgently needed, but the policy would not take effect until fall 2022. .[70]

School reopening[]

In June 2020, Superintendent Vincent Matthews brought forth a proposition to hire a consultant to devise a plan to reopen the schools during the Covid-19 pandemic, during which the district's deficit roughly doubled from 2019's $22 million. Public comments, including from the president of the teacher's union, expressed concern about the chosen consulting group's previous relationship with charter schools. The Board voted 4 to 2 (with 1 absence) to not hire the consultant, partly due to that connection and partly due to cost.[3][71]

On February 3, 2021, San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera announced that, on February 11, he will sue the Board of Education, SFUSD, and Superintendent Vincent Matthews for violating state law by not having a plan to "offer classroom-based instruction whenever possible". The lawsuit was the first of its kind, wherein a civil action is filed by a city against its school district over COVID-19 school closures, within the state of California. The suit is supported by Mayor London Breed, who has called on the Board to focus on reopening rather than other matters, such as the renaming 44 SFUSD schools, during the pandemic. Both the Board and Matthews have criticized the suit, calling it wasteful and inaccurate.[48][72][73][74] [3]

A plan to allow certain groups of students, primarily elementary school, to attend in-person teaching for a reduced amount of days per week at certain schools was unanimously signed on March 11, 2021.[75][76] A San Francisco superior judge denied the request on March 25, 2021, citing developments between the ruling and the filing wherein the district approved of a plan to bring certain students back by April 12, therefore rendering the suit redundant. [77]

Though the court ruled in favor of SFUSD on March 25, 2021, the lawsuit increased attention on the issue of school reopening. The case in addition to parent protests, put new pressure on the district, leading to an agreement by SFUSD on March 11, 2021 to resume some in-person learning starting April 12, 2021.[77] While City Attorney Dennis Herrera noted that it was "unfortunate that it took a lawsuit and families rallying in the streets to get the school district to focus on the most important thing--getting its students back in class".[77] Superintendent Vincent Matthews remarked, "This lawsuit has served as nothing but a superficial distraction from the work to safely return San Francisco’s public school students to in-person learning."[77]. When Herrera filed the case in early February, the district had no clear details on a return to schools.[77]

Recall campaign[]

On February 20, 2021, parents Autumn Looijen and Siva Raj launched a recall campaign against Gabriela López, Alison Collins, and Faauuga Moliga over the board's inability to reopen schools.[3] In February 2021 a market research firm found that 69% of public school parents polled were in favor of the recall campaign.[78] The other four commissioners were ineligible for recall as they had just won their election in November 2020.[79][80] The campaign began collecting signatures in April 2021.[80] By the end of August 2021, the campaign had gathered more than 70,000 signatures to recall López and Collins, and more than 67,000 signatures to recall Molina, exceeding the 51,325 signatures needed to trigger the recall.[81]

Board complies with superintendent's demands[]

The Board voted on April 20, 2021 to approve Superintendent Matthews's new contract, agreeing to comply to a number of tasks the superintendent demands in his contract, including the board agreeing to adhere to the already written rules of conduct for board meetings, and act “in a dignified and professional manner”. Specifically, the superintendent's contract requires that board members to be prepared for public meetings, that board members to hash out concerns with district staff in advance of board meetings, and that board members request an issue in writing to the superintendent with supporting documentation at least seven days before the meeting date. The contract requires the board to refrain from creating new programs or mandates unrelated to school reopening[3] until the school district is fully back to in-person learning.[82][83][84][1]

Alison Collins' tweets against Asian Americans[]

Main article: Alison Collins § Tweets against Asian Americans

On December 4, 2016, prior to her assumption of office to the Board of Education in 2019, Alison Collins posted a series of derogatory and racially stereotyping tweets against Asian Americans.[85] while alleging anti-Blackness and political inaction in the SFUSD Asian American population. Collins concluded the tweets by saying "Being a house n****r is still being a n****r [sic]. You're still considered 'the help.'"[86][87]

On March 19, 2021, supporters of an effort to recall Collins resurfaced the tweets by republicizing them.[86][87][88]

On March 20, 2021, Collins responded to the publicized tweets by writing an article on medium.com and commenting on the article on Twitter.[89][90]She wrote that the words were taken out of context and apologized for the pain caused by her words.[91]

By March 21, 2021, all of SFUSD's top 19 administrators,[92] in addition to the Mayor of San Francisco London Breed, ten of the eleven San Francisco Board of Supervisors including Board of Supervisors President Shamann Walton, state legislators Scott Wiener, David Chiu, and Phil Ting, and Collins' fellow Commissioners Moliga and Lam, had condemned the publicized tweets and called for Collins's resignation.[93][94]

On March 22, 2021, the district's Superintendent Leadership team condemned Collins' "racist and hurtful language."[95]

On March 23, 2021, at the regular Board meeting, Collins apologized for the pain she may have caused people, but did not apologize to the Asian-American community.[96] The response to the apology had not been good, as Selina Sun, President of the Mayor Edwin Lee Democratic Club stated, "Commissioner Collins' apology doesn't go far enough, frankly. It seeks to divide us further."[95] A small number of people had come to Collins' defense, saying she has worked to implement policies on behalf of Asian and Pacific Islander communities.[91]

On March 25, 2021, the Board held a special meeting to discuss additional agenda items including a no-confidence vote for Collins. Authored by Commissioners Jenny Lam and Faauuga Moliga, the vote of no-confidence resolution (1) stated that Collins failed to accept responsibility for her words, (2) called for Collins to resign, and (3) called to remove Collins as Vice President and from all Board committees effective immediately if she did not resign. Up to the time of the meeting the Board called for a vote to the resolution, in addition to not resigning, Collins still had not apologized to the Asian-American community, had not apologized for the tweets themselves, and had not admitted the tweets were racist.[97][71] As a result, the Board voted in favor of the resolution by a 5-to-2 vote, with only Board Vice President Collins and Board President López dissenting.[98][99][100] Collins was removed as Vice-President of the Board of Education effective immediately after the board approved the vote on March 25, 2021. Faauuga Moliga was elected as Vice-President of the Board for the remainder of the 2021 term at the regular Board meeting on April 20, 2021.[101]

On March 31, 2021, former-Vice President Collins sued SFUSD and the five Board of Education members who voted against her for $87 million, citing distress and significant loss in reputation and income. She also sought an injunction to restore her Vice President role and committee seats.[102] Various legal experts from the San Francisco Bay Area (including UC Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe (who is an alumnus of Lincoln High in San Francisco)) expressed skepticism regarding the viability of the suit.[103][104] The lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge on August 16, 2021.[105]

Organization[]

Members[]

Name Year(s) in office[106] Notes
Mark Sanchez 2001–2009, 2017– [107][108][109]
Faauuga Moliga 2018– Appointed by London Breed to take over Hydra Mendoza's seat.[110] Won 2018 Election to retain seat.[111]
Gabriela López 2019– [111]
Alison Collins 2019– [111]
Jenny Lam 2019– Appointed by London Breed to take over Matt Haney's seat.[112] Won 2019 Special Election to retain seat.[113]
Matt Alexander 2021– [114][115]
Kevine Boggess 2021- [116][115]

Select former members[]

Name Year(s) in office Notes
Rachel Norton 2009–2021 [117]
Stevon Cook 2017–2021 [118]
Matt Haney 2012–2019 [119][120][121]
2011–2019 [122][123][121]
Shamann Walton 2014–2019 [123][121]
2007–2018 [124][122][123][121]
Sandra Lee Fewer 2009–2017 [120][119]
Jill Wynns 1992–2017 [125][107][108][120][119]
2006–2014 [124][122]
Norman Yee 2004–2012 [108][120]
Jane Kim 2006–2010 [124]
Eric Mar 2000–2008 [107][108]
2002–2006 [126]
1998–2006 [127][126]
Daniel P. Kelly 1990–2006 [127][126]
Emilio Cruz 2001–2004 (Appointed by Willie Brown to take over Mary Hernandez's seat)[128]
1998–2002 [127]
1996–2001 Resigned[128]
Steve Phillips 1996–2000 [125]
Juanita Owens 1996–2000 [125]
1994–1998 Resigned[129]
Tom Ammiano 1990–1994 [130]
Leland Yee 1988–1996 [131]

Elections[]

November 6, 2018 election[]

Main article: 2018 San Francisco Board of Education election

The November 6, 2018 election for the Board of Education drew an unprecedented 19 candidates[132]—the most in any Board election in at least 20 years[133]—in part because two sitting commissioners, Shamann Walton and Hydra Mendoza announced they would not seek re-election.

The winners were educator Alison Collins, teacher Gabriela López, and Faauuga Moliga, a behavioral therapist and the first Pacific Islander to hold a citywide office.[134]

References[]

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