The San Francisco Board of Education moments ago announced that Maria Su has agreed to take the role of superintendent for up to two years after outgoing superintendent Matt Wayne’s resignation was accepted today by a 6-1 vote.
The sole dissenting vote, commissioner Kevine Boggess, felt Wayne deserved to be fired rather than resigning. Mission Local is told that Wayne will receive a year’s salary, some $325,000, and health care.
Su has worked in San Francisco government for more than 18 years, with the last 15 of those coming as the head of the city’s Department of Children, Youth and their Families. She had also been serving on the school stabilization team formed by Mayor London Breed on Sept. 22.
Her appointment — and the promotion of Dr. Karling Aguilera-Fort, presently the senior associate superintendent of education services, as her deputy — will be formally voted on at the school board’s regularly scheduled Tuesday, Oct. 22 meeting. Aguilera-Fort will serve as acting superintendent until Tuesday.
“Why am I doing this? I believe in the school district,” Su tells Mission Local. “I’ve been doing this work at DCYF and we’ve seen how when you have strong operations, strong systems, strong partnerships and deep community support you can get a lot of things done.”
Su’s contract with the SFUSD runs until June 2026: “It’s going to take a while to address the operations and systems at the school district,” she says.
The extraordinary move of tapping a veteran city department head to lead San Francisco’s troubled school district is the latest twist in the strange and terrible saga of the San Francisco Unified School District. But, says Board of Education President Matt Alexander, it’s a twist that has pleased state education officials — and renders the specter of a state takeover less likely, not more.
“State officials are excited that we are going to have leadership that is really going to tackle our fiscal and operational challenges,” Alexander said. “The fact we’re bringing in a leader who’s ready to take those challenges on is making them more comfortable and less fearful.”
“To be really, really clear,” Alexander continued, California Department of Education officials “have said we are not near a state takeover — nowhere near it.”
The San Francisco Unified School District also confirmed that “Su will stop the current school closure process and focus on addressing the District’s looming structural deficit to avoid a state takeover. There will be no school closures in the 2025-26 school year. The remaining school meetings about closures will be suspended.”
Closures, however, are not off the table in the years to come — but the SFUSD today announced that any future process must include:
• A California Department of Education-certified fiscal analysis;
• An independently verified equity audit;
• Robust, meaningful community engagement;
• An accessible and thoughtful transition plan;
• A thorough analysis of student (re)assignment policies.
Wayne had come under increasing scrutiny during the lengthy school closure process, which was marked by complaints of poor methodology, opacity and a lack of community outreach. The district blew past its longstanding Sept. 18 deadline to reveal a list of vulnerable schools — a damning indictment of the district’s handling of the process. On Oct. 8, Wayne released a list that was significantly different than what the mayor’s office, her school stabilization team and the Board of Education had been led to believe he would release.
This induced deep consternation and anger; on Oct. 15 Breed called for a halt to the school closure process and stated she had lost confidence in Wayne’s ability to lead the district.
“Maria is a doer. She moves and gets things done.”
Matt Alexander, Board of Education president
Wayne took the reins of the San Francisco Unified School District from the retiring Vincent Matthews in June 2022.
Keeping Board of Education commissioners Alison Collins, Gabriela López and Faauuga Moliga — who had become targets of the school board recall campaign — from having a say in the hiring of the next superintendent was a rallying cry of the pro-recall movement.
All three commissioners were handily recalled. Breed appointed three new commissioners — and that Board of Education hired Matt Wayne.
Wayne stepped into a challenging job from Day One. But his 26-month tenure was marked by a series of own-goals, with each adding to the mounting pressure upon the beleaguered district.
The district failed to hire legally mandated special education staff in an effort to save money, leaving vulnerable students in the lurch — and putting the district in legal jeopardy. In a hiring misstep, the SFUSD offered jobs to scores of educators that it later had to rescind. Wayne did not expediently move to scrap the costly and disastrous EmPowerSF payroll system that underpaid and mispaid educators — more than $40 million has been burned to prop up a boutique system that was dysfunctional out of the box and spurred teachers to retire or seek employment elsewhere.
And then came the long-running fiasco regarding proposed school closures, culminating in the missed Sept. 18 deadline and the Oct. 8 announcement that blindsided the mayor, her school stabilization team and the Board of Education.
Su, 49, has a reputation for savvy and competence and is held in high regard by San Francisco officials of varying political backgrounds.
“Maria Su has been a champion for families and children in our city and she has my full confidence in this new role leading our public schools,” reads a statement from Breed.
Board President Aaron Peskin, the first major mayoral candidate to come out against the school closure plan, said that Su “runs an agency that listens to children and their families and I think she personifies that. She is the antithesis of every boneheaded mistake the school district has made in its ill-conceived, ill-advised, ill-communicated school closure plan.”
Adds Sen. Scott Wiener, “Maria is fantastic, no-nonsense, really smart. She knows how to put together a budget and implement it. She’s a hard-nosed administrator and is also someone who works deeply with the community on a day-to-day basis.”
The Department of Children, Youth and their Families, which Su has led since 2009, has a budget in the realm of $350 million this fiscal year. This is a fraction of the school district’s $1.3 billion budget, but is still a sizable amount.
“Maria is politically sophisticated, and I don’t think you can survive in this town if you don’t know how to navigate politics,” said Supervisor Hillary Ronen. “She knows how to work with parents, community groups, politicians, unions, city leaders, tech billionaires: She understands the levers of power and politics in this town and, obviously, has been successful in navigating them.”
Alexander said he approached Su about taking this position after multiple “people outside of this process” suggested that she would be a good fit. Breed also reached out to Su.
“Let’s get Buster Posey to run the team,” Alexander said with a laugh.
“Maria is a doer. She moves and gets things done,” he said. “She’s a collaborative leader and has shown what she can do in the context of a really large government agency.”
With closures off the table for the time being, Su and the district still face a number of challenges. She must, by December, finalize a budget that shaves some $148 million off the district’s deficit — which will likely lead to the elimination of hundreds of educators.
The district must do what it can to avoid alienating voters, or else a $970 million school bond will evaporate. And it must move to implement a new Enterprise Resource Planning system, an overarching program to supplant the disastrous EmPowerSF.
During Su’s sojourn at the school district, the Department of Children, Youth and their Families will be led by Sherrice Dorsey-Smith.
“I am very committed to partnering with this board, the new board and with the school district leadership and staff,” Su says. “As well as leadership from the state and beyond. It will take all of us to get the school district back to where we used to be, when we were the flagship institution in this city.”
Disclosure: Joe Eskenazi’s children attend a school on the Oct. 8 potential closure list
Breeds board appointed Wayne-Wayne has a reputation for closing schools and firing en mass. Breed 100% knew this was the process in play, and is feigning ignorance to try to secure more votes. Disappointing to say the least-hopefully the voters do not fall for this game.
Somebody has to balance the budget. I don’t see any way the State doesn’t take over this hot mess.
Sir or madam —
It couldn’t have been made clearer within this article that a state takeover is not imminent and the change atop the SFUSD has made the state more pleased, not less.
JE
Avoiding the budget problem will speed up the process for the State. And it’s about time.
Any indication why the one board member voted against this outcome?
Were they trying to keep Wayne around or objecting to the amount of severance?
Hopefully the new superintendent opts to come and visit with the school communities that had been subjected to Wayne’s school closure information-less sessions.
Sir or madam —
Updated the story. Check again.
JE
Thanks for the update. 100% in agreement with Mr. Boggess.
I want to say that (with benefits), the board just threw away almost another $500k of desperately needed funds, but in reality it probably balanced out with whatever litigation over a firing would have cost.
I do not like Breed’s actions throughout this, throwing Wayne under the bus in order to secure votes from parents upset about the reality that schools will be closed. The district will remain in uncertainty with the eternal threat of this political marksmanship and chaos for even more years now. Politicizing our school district continues to disincentivize middle class S.F. families from staying in the city when their children reach kindergarten. Why sign up for this dirty back door district level dealing when you can just move to Marin or Orinda or San Mateo? Breed wants to be mayor another term and she is more than willing to bring San Francisco to its knees to get it.
“Politicizing our school district continues to disincentivize middle class S.F. families from staying in the city”
Sorry but SFUSD politicized itself when it prioritized school renaming over schools reopenings, and obsesses constantly about race.
It feels like this article basically summarizes talking points from the Board of Education. These changes actually don’t reduce uncertainty about the state of the cities schools, because the financial problems are ongoing. I don’t feel like any of the reporting I’ve read has done in-depth journalism to give a clearer sense of the politics that led to the ousting of Matt Wayne. From my perspective, nobody wants to make any hard choices and it’s convenient to have a fall guy. Why was the list of mergers and closures given on Oct 8 different than what was shared with the mayor and Department of Education? What school in particular was being protected by the mayor or members of the Board of Education? How can Maria Su not also make hard choices and will she then be ousted?
Heather —
I suggest you read the linked articles describing, in detail, the differences in the Oct. 8 list from what the mayor, stabilization team and Board of Education were expecting, and read the linked article explaining exactly why this was the last straw.
Regarding “ongoing” financial problems, a new budget must be submitted in November and ratified in December. As noted in this story, local and state officials said the ouster of Wayne and hiring of Maria Su puts the city in a better place, not worse. If the fact that, in the days after this article, the State Superintendent of Schools himself applauded this move, appeared at a public event supporting Su and explicitly said there will be no state takeover doesn’t alter your opinion that that the “uncertainty” has been reduced, I don’t know what to tell you.
Yours,
JE
Since the city is kicking the can down the road, how soon can the State come in and take over?
I’m not sure why Matt Alexander gets to perpetuate the “specter of a state take over” while also confessing that we’re nowhere near a state takeover.
Maria Su is a fantastic replacement! She understands the connection between the district and City Hall, and has immense experience working with SF’s children and families.
On the other hand, I agree with Commissioner Boggess: he should have been FIRED. With all the talk of the district’s budgetary issues, they reward his incompetence and poor leadership with a full year of salary and benefits? If any of us resigned before the end of a contract, we’d get nothing. He was not laid off to receive a severance, he resigned. Sure the circumstances are a bit unique but that is total bs. Wayne had no business in that role in the first place. He stepped into somewhat of a mess when hired but someone who could actually get a hold of things should have bern hired. Instead he ran the district into the ground with the help of the current BoE. I am hopeful Maria’s leadership can get things back on track and the BoE can get it together.
Note to Ms Su: You’re not an educator. Don’t try to be. Your job is to balance the budget, or let the state take over the district.
Do your job!
All politics at play without any sound guidance in education code. The state requires superintendents to hold a clear administrative credential which Maria Su does not hold. In haste to find a replacement that does not meet the basic qualifications is not a sign of strength. It all makes clear for a state takeover. I love the supposed happiness of the California Department of Education, who was this person again?
The school board has failed to do its basic job and the CDE will not back down from its duty to keep the school district meet their fiscal duties, a balanced budget that addresses the $100 million dollar deficit. It will not fail to act as it already has stranglehold on the district.
To bring in a leader without the basic knowledge or experience of schools as a principal is a sure setup for failure. Schools are not non-profits. Someone help sign up Su for an admin credential program which Ed code says she needs (Cal. Ed. Code § 35028).
I appreciate the credit to Matt Alexander, he was the one who lobbied the mayor to intervene in the snowballing RAI fiasco. It appears the mayor is jumping in at the last minute to save the day -a la October surprise -but it’s really Alexander’s advocacy and action that has led to disruption of this rotten process
They blew past their deadline because the board would not let them release the list. I can’t say I support the (former) superintendent, but also can’t say that I have much faith in this school board. They could have pushed back a lot earlier! They wasted so much money on this process – true bridge to nowhere!
Politically, ya gotta be impressed with Breed. She got a guy brought in that had a rep for closing schools, then waited until he released his list, then was like “oh dear, that’s terrible. I’m gonna stop this” and tells the board her pick can do it better. Now, without doing anything, Breed seems like she’s coming to the rescue….. But honestly, it’s more like a lifeguard watching someone thrashing around and drowning, waiting for the news camera to show up before she saves them.. (and even then, may not even drag them all the way out by the time the election is over)