Meet the Candidates: SFUSD school board contenders on balancing the budget

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Welcome back to the “Meet the Candidates” series for the school board, where we ask each candidate one question every two weeks. They must answer the question in 100 words or fewer. We will link to longer answers.

Twelve candidates are vying for four seats on the city’s seven-person school board. The election will take place on Nov. 5. Non-citizen parents of children living in the city are permitted to vote in school board elections and can find information on doing so here.

Ann Hsu announced last week that she will again run for the school board. You may remember Hsu as one of the leaders of the successful 2022 recall of three school board members. Mayor London Breed then appointed Hsu to fill one of the three vacant seats. But Hsu lost that seat four months later in the general election after her comments about Black and brown families set off a firestorm.  

After her loss, she founded a private bilingual school in Potrero Hill. 

This week, we asked the candidates:

How will you balance budgetary constraints with improving the educational experience to keep families from leaving SFUSD?

Candidates’ ideas range from cutting administrative and contractor spending to funding special-education and language programs.

Supryia Ray

• Job: Attorney and writer
• Age: 51
• Residency: Sunset
• Educational background: Bachelor’s degree in political science and French from University of Miami, summa cum laude; juris doctor degree from Harvard Law School, magna cum laude
• SFUSD experience: Parent of two SFUSD students; Jefferson Elementary parent-teacher association leadership; parent advocate on issues such as outdoor learning and school safety
• Languages: French, some Spanish

Spending more money hasn’t necessarily resulted in better student outcomes. Indeed, SFUSD has often wasted money on consultants, ideological pursuits and failed bespoke “solutions,” even as students — especially the most disadvantaged — have struggled with reading, math and mental health.

To attract and keep families, we need to retain control of our school system and focus our resources on what families actually want: Excellent, safe, well-run schools. SFUSD has to make substantial cuts to avoid state takeover, but how it makes those cuts matters. To build trust and understand community needs, the district needs to approach decisions about the budget, school closures/consolidations … read more here

Endorsed by: SF Guardians, SF Parent Action, GrowSF, TogetherSF Action … read more here

Matt Alexander

• Job: Community organizer at Faith in Action Bay Area, incumbent board member
• Age: 54
• Residency: Outer Sunset
• Educational background: Master’s degree in education
• SFUSD experience: Teacher and principal; current school board vice president
• Languages: English, Spanish

As a member of the school board, I led the fight to dramatically reduce SFUSD’s excessive central-office spending. I co-authored the Student Success Fund, which is now bringing in $35 million annually to SFUSD schools. If re-elected, I’ll be the only educator on the board, and will make sure we don’t balance the budget on the backs of our students. I’m not interested in using the school board as a springboard for other political offices: what matters to me is that necessary budget cuts don’t weaken our classrooms, so we can give our students the schools they deserve.

Endorsed by: UESF, Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club

Min Chang

• Job: CEO at healthcare organization Homebridge
• Age: 58
• Residency: San Francisco
• Educational background: Ph.D. in international affairs and master’s degree in International Public Policy from Johns Hopkins University; master’s degree in management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan; bachelor’s degrees from the University of Pennsylvania
• SFUSD experience: Doing outreach in SFUSD and attending school board meetings.
• Languages: English, Chinese, French

Near-term and longer-term actions are needed at SFUSD. The fiscal challenge can be solved by relooking at sources of funds (revenues) and uses of funds (costs). We need to maximize funding from federal, state and local sources including grants, bonds and fundraising. The SFUSD budget is >$1 billion, but the funding is not getting to our schools; it needs to move from the administration to schools where it is needed. By streamlining the administration, implementing position control as well as indirect spend management, savings can be redirected to schools to support curriculum building, maintenance and repairs, training of educators, and supplies.

Endorsed by: The San Francisco Republican Party, San Francisco Young Republicans, The Republican Club of San Francisco, San Francisco Briones Society … read more here

Virginia Cheung

• Job: SFUSD parent, co-founder and vice president of Give a Beat Foundation (volunteer work) and previously director of advancement at Wu Yee Children’s Services
• Age: 41
• Residency: District 11
• Educational background: Bachelor’s degree in social ecology (first in family to graduate college).
• SFUSD experience: Parent of Alice Fong Yu student; Wah Mei BASE! ExCEL program Parent Advisory Board
• Languages: Basic Cantonese and Mandarin, conversational French

For the past 15 years, I’ve led nonprofit advancement initiatives, managing revenue streams and securing grants to develop educational programs to close opportunity gaps for marginalized communities. I support the superintendent’s fiscal stabilization plan, which focuses on reducing deficit spending, enhancing business services, and optimizing resources while maintaining equity and excellence. To increase revenue, we must attract and retain students by promoting early education, enhancing special education programs, and offering specialized pathways like language, STEM and arts. With Eastern neighborhoods growing rapidly, we can transform neighborhoods into innovative community hubs that integrate educational spaces into new developments to attract families … read more here

Endorsed by: Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club, Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, School Board Commissioner Jenny Lam … read more here

Lefteris Eleftheriou

• Job: Regional sales manager, Sanyo Denki
• Age: 56
• Residency: District 7
• Educational background: Bachelor’s degree in engineering, master’s degree in education
• SFUSD experience: No direct experience, but previously ran an art school in Belmont.
• Languages: English, Japanese, Greek

I owned and operated a school for eight years, and my priority was ensuring the parents were happy with their children’s education.

If they were not happy, I found out why, and did everything I could to remedy it.

I will do the same with our public schools by holding in-person meetings, phone calls, or web meetings with all the parents in our district.

I will identify the top three reasons parents remove their children from our schools and do everything in my power to fix them.

For example, if children are bored and not being challenged in the classroom … read more here

Parag Gupta

• Job: Chief program officer at Mercy Housing
• Age: 46
• Residency: San Francisco
• Educational background: Bachelor’s degree with honors from the University of Chicago; master’s degree in Public Policy from Harvard University
• SFUSD experience: Parent of recent CIS De Avila grad; School Site Council chair; 8th grade algebra focus group; drafting SFUSD policy priorities for SF Democrats as SF DCCC member; developing financial strategy for Stupski Foundation programs to help students, including SFUSD students, complete postsecondary education
• Languages: Basic Spanish, basic French, conversational Hindi

We’ve lost 4,000 students in SFUSD over the past decade. We must re-establish trust with our families and create confidence in the school district.

Within the remaining schools after RAI [the Resource Alignment Initiative], we can incorporate advanced curriculum, CTE [Career Technical Education] pathways, and language immersion that make San Francisco unique. My family had an excellent experience at Chinese Immersion School at DeAvila. In addition, we can reform the broken school assignment process so families can predictably enroll their children in excellent neighborhood schools.

Finally, let’s not forget revenue. The school district must dedicate resources to attract and retain families and eliminate chronic absenteeism. Together … read more here

Endorsed by: UESF, SF Parent Action, GrowSF, TogetherSF Action

Ann Hsu

• Job: Head of School at Bertrand D Hsu American & Chinese Bicultural Academy
• Age: 57
• Residency: Richmond District
• Educational background: Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Pennsylvania State University, master’s degree in electrical engineering and master’s in business from University of California, Berkeley
• SFUSD experience: Two sons in SFUSD; SFUSD Citizens’ Bond Oversight Committee chair; Galileo High School PTSA president; active in recall efforts; appointed by Mayor Breed to school board in 2022 and served until early 2023
• Languages: English; Chinese, Mandarin

During my school board tenure in 2022, I learned about the district’s finances and determined that our budget problems were not due to insufficient funding, but rather due to inefficient and wasteful spending.

SFUSD’s expenditures have increased for decades while enrollment has dropped and academic results have worsened. School programs continue to be funded with no metrics in place to show if they are effective. Popular programs such as Spanish and Mandarin immersion are not being expanded. The district does not seem interested in attracting more families and increasing enrollment.  Administrative programs, such as the payroll system, are implemented without being … read more here

Jaime Huling

• Job: Deputy city attorney, formerly in San Francisco and now in Oakland
• Age: 41
• Residency: Glen Park; previously Hayes Valley and 13 years in the Mission
• Educational background: Juris doctor degree from Stanford Law School
• SFUSD experience: Parent of SFUSD Spanish immersion school student; worked with Mission-based nonprofit ScholarMatch to help first-gen, low-income students of color attend college, including SFUSD students
• Languages: English

My kid’s school is losing its assistant principal due to budget cuts. That’s what happens when our resources are spread too thin: We can’t afford crucial staff and services.

The sad truth is that we’re on the verge of state takeover due to our budget woes. No one wants school closures, but if we don’t make the hard decisions, the state will make them for us.

I’ll fight for families to ensure that fewer schools means fully-staffed, fully-enrolled, fully-funded schools in all neighborhoods. I’ll use our money wisely so our kids can have the support and enrichment they deserve.

Endorsed by: UESF, SF Parent Action, GrowSF, TogetherSF Action

John Jersin

• Job: Co-founder of education nonprofit Jersin Foundation, previously LinkedIn executive
• Age: 40
• Residency: Noe Valley
• Educational background: California public schools from kindergarten through college; bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of California, San Diego, master’s degree in computer science from Stanford University
• SFUSD experience: Brother-in-law of SFUSD teacher; SFUSD Citizens’ Bond Oversight Committee; parent of two young children who will attend SFUSD schools
• Languages: English, learning Mandarin

When I was appointed to help oversee SFUSD’s facilities spending, I found millions in potential savings after my very first meeting. After investing $5,000,000 in a central kitchen, SFUSD wasn’t using it to its full capacity. We could have and should have been producing more nutritious, better-tasting meals for students, and saved loads of money.

Many hard cuts will be necessary, but due to a lack of financial experience the board has failed to capture so many easier wins like this one. With my experience and track record, I can help us do better.

Endorsed by: UESF, GrowSF, TogetherSF Action

Madeline Krantz

• Job: Dual enrollment student at CCSF and SJSU
• Age: 19
• Residency: Inner Sunset
• Educational background: Synergy School for K-8, Abraham Lincoln High School, experience working as teacher’s aide in synagogue and currently working toward education degree
• SFUSD experience: Worked with SFUSD students as part of Teacher Academy at Lincoln
• Languages: English

There are lots of ways that we can make our schools more efficient. We can streamline purchasing, do more with digital textbooks and online classrooms, pursue grants and other new funding sources. I’m not an expert, but I believe trying out new technology and working more closely with teachers and other administrators could do a lot to save money while also doing better for students. We just can’t be afraid to think differently and explore new ideas. Students today don’t think the people who run our schools care enough to be creative. We need to prove them wrong!

Laurance Lee

• Job: Small business owner, L3 Construction LLC
• Age: 54
• Residency: Noe Valley
• Educational background: Went to SFUSD K-12, bachelor’s degree in chemistry and history of science from Harvard University, graduate work at Stanford University
• SFUSD experience: SFUSD Citizens’ Bond Oversight Committee, extended family who are SFUSD student and educators
• Languages: English

We can absolutely balance the budget and improve student educational experiences! That will be my entire focus for the next four years. I have frequently dug through the school district’s spreadsheets, and I called out millions of dollars of unnecessary contractor spending. I will push to make sure that the district is not wasting precious money. Every dollar we spend needs to go toward improving students’ attendance, ensuring their mental wellbeing, and growing popular programs like languages and middle-school algebra.

Endorsed by: SF Guardians, State Treasurer Fiona Ma, former School Board President Emily Murase … read more here

Deldelp Medina

• Job: Executive director at Black & Brown Founders
• Age: 52
• Residency: Mission
• Educational background: Bachelor’s degree in humanities, minor in political science
• SFUSD experience: Attended Alvarado Elementary and mother was para-educator with Spanish-speaking kids in Chinatown; kid has attended SFUSD schools; SFUSD Latinx Family Advisory Committee
• Languages: English, Spanish, French

No response received.

Endorsed by: School Board Commissioner Mark Sanchez

Candidates are ordered alphabetically but rotated every question. Answers may be lightly edited for formatting, spelling and grammar. If you have questions for the candidates, please let us know at anne@missionlocal.com.

Read the rest of the school board questions here, and the entire “Meet the Candidates” series here.

You can register to vote via the sf.gov website. Illustrations for the series by Neil Ballard.

read more candidate answers

Meet the Candidates: San Francisco’s school board race