In our “Meet the Candidates” series, we are asking every candidate for a seat on the San Francisco school board in the June 2, 2026 election one question each week.
Candidates are asked a question every week on their policies, voting history, and how they would make the school system better next year. Each candidate is required to answer the question in 100 words or fewer.
We chronicled every question we asked the candidates leading up to Election Day, and their answers, below.
Reach Marina at marina@missionlocal.com.
Here are the questions we’ve asked so far:
Mission Local color codes the answers to yes/no questions. A blue background means the candidate answered yes, an orange background means no, and a yellow background means that the candidate dodged the question.
Week 7: Do you support the 2022 recall?
Phil Kim
Five years ago, the school board was focused on the wrong things. Instead of planning to reopen schools after COVID-19, they were mired in distractions like renaming schools.
They stopped focusing on the only mission that matters: Ensuring San Francisco’s kids are offered the best education.
This is a completely different board. I’m proud that our efforts have led to greater stability and a focus on student outcomes.
We’ve gone from negative fiscal certification to positive, re-introduced eighth-grade algebra, given teachers historic raises, and are tackling our most pressing challenges: Enrollment and portfolio planning.
Virginia Cheung
I understand the deep frustration that led to the 2022 recall effort. Public trust in the Board was severely damaged during an extraordinarily difficult time for students, families and educators.
At the time, my focus was on early education and supporting my preschool-aged child, and I do not think it is especially helpful to relitigate events from a very different moment. The recall was ultimately costly and divisive.
My focus now is forward-looking: Ensuring strong governance, transparency, and a clear commitment to student success. We need elected officials focused on our children’s education and rebuilding community trust and confidence in SFUSD.
Brandee Marckmann
No. With SFUSD’s budget deficit, I do not think it made sense to run an expensive recall when the three seats in question were up for election later that same year.
These recalls cost SF taxpayers $8 million and did not solve the district’s many problems, such as fixing the malfunctioning payroll system.
I believe recalls should be reserved for egregious instances where elected officials have broken the law or have continuously failed to perform the basic duties required by their position. In my view, the three recalled school board members did not meet this criteria.
Week 6: Should SFUSD try to replicate the Mississippi Miracle?
Phil Kim
Yes, with one caveat: accountability only works when expectations are clear and schools have the support and resources to succeed. Mississippi’s lesson wasn’t simply about phonics instruction; it was that everyone in the system — teachers, administrators, policymakers, and board members — was held accountable while also receiving the right resources, coaching, and strong implementation support.
SFUSD should set high expectations and provide the clarity and resources needed to achieve them. Accountability without support sets people up to fail, but accountability without consequences becomes a deadline we keep extending.
Virginia Cheung
SFUSD can learn from Mississippi’s focus on literacy, early intervention, educator coaching, and accountability.
With a background in early education policy, I understand that learning foundations are established early, which is why my platform strongly emphasizes strong early education and intervention before students fall behind.
Teacher training and literacy coaches helped educators apply evidence-based reading instruction, while universal screenings identified reading challenges in the earliest grades.
I support stronger literacy goals, transparent public reporting, and targeted support for struggling families, especially focused on the progress of the lowest-performing students.
But accountability must come with investment, not punishment.
Brandee Marckmann
No. Accountability is crucial for SFUSD, but this punitive one-size-fits-all approach is not the answer for our district.
With proactive oversight, we can ensure that SFUSD and the school board function effectively with full transparency. That’s why part of my platform is to bring back the four oversight committees which were dismantled in 2022. We should not wait until circumstances become dire before holding officials accountable.
Instead of mirroring a state with sweeping anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-DEI legislation and whose “Miracle” was widely debunked, we should be focused on investing in the resources that actually improve student outcomes long-term.
Week 5: Should ethnic studies have been reformed?
Phil Kim
I strongly support Ethnic Studies and am proud of SFUSD’s long history of making Ethnic Studies available to our students.
This year, the Board of Education voted to adopt new Ethnic Studies curricular resources, and I supported that adoption. The focus now should be on implementation: ensuring educators receive high-quality professional development, supporting schools in delivering the curriculum effectively, and making sure families and students are aware of the course options available to them. Ethnic Studies should help students better understand themselves, their communities, and the diverse history of our city and country.
Virginia Cheung
Ethnic Studies should continue evolving through regular community engagement to reflect the lived experiences of students and families and the multicultural, multiethnic history of California and immigration around the world.
Representation shapes who gets to lead, earn opportunity, and thrive. Students are more likely to succeed when they feel seen and connected to what they learn. We should ensure curriculum is culturally affirming, educators are culturally competent, and school leadership reflects the diversity of our communities.
Every child deserves to feel safe, seen, valued, and heard. Every child deserves a voice.
Brandee Marckmann
No, SFUSD’s homegrown curriculum was overwhelmingly popular and independent research from Stanford University showed it led to huge increases in achievement for many students.
The curriculum was created by SFUSD social sciences teachers and piloted for 5 years at three high schools before being adopted districtwide. Stanford researchers found ‘compelling and causally credible evidence on the power of this course to change students’ life trajectories.’
With SFUSD in a deficit I don’t think it makes sense to pay for an outside program when our curriculum has proven to lead to higher attendance, grade-point averages and college enrollment.
Week 4: Will you vote to merge or close schools in the 2030 school year?
Phil Kim
In October 2025, I led the Board in unanimously giving guidance to the superintendent to develop a concrete strategy that develops a sustainable portfolio and an enrollment policy that is more accessible.
The reality is that we have 14,000 empty seats across the district. Our resources are spread too thin when they could be concentrated and better used to support students, teachers, and programs.
I’m committed to doing this with genuine community engagement, transparent data, and an honest accounting of the tradeoffs. Any merger strategy should be paired with a clear plan to strengthen our existing schools.
Virginia Cheung
I would not commit to closing or merging schools for 2030 today.
Our focus should be on retention, stability, and improving learning environments for all children. Strong relationships between students, educators, and families are foundational to student success, and disruption should only be considered if it clearly improves outcomes.
Any decision must be driven by data, measured outcomes, and transparent equity analysis, not just cost savings. Before any vote, I would want a meaningful community engagement plan that includes students, families and educators, and ensures every child has a pathway to success.
Read Cheung’s full response here.
Brandee Marckmann
No. I believe there are better ways to heal our budget besides permanently closing treasured neighborhood schools. It’s important to know that school closures don’t actually save districts money in the long run.
News of massive closures makes public schools less desirable to prospective parents, which depresses enrollment numbers, thereby decreasing state funding to SFUSD.
Closures force children to switch schools, disrupting learning and subsequently increasing class sizes at other schools. Local businesses suffer without schools acting as community hubs.
In a city where one out of three children attends private schools, SFUSD must stabilize to attract families.
Week 3: Should the lottery system be reformed?
Phil Kim
Yes. Families deserve clarity and predictability from their public school system, not an opaque process that parents form Facebook groups just to decode. San Francisco has one of the highest private school enrollment rates in the country, and this directly impacts our funding.
We need to make choosing SFUSD easier, not harder. As Board President, I led the Board in naming zone-based enrollment as a Superintendent priority. Getting this right requires serious community engagement and careful planning. Families across the city have made clear they want change, and they deserve a plan that delivers.
Virginia Cheung
As a single parent, I have to coordinate many priorities and plan in advance to keep a job while getting my child to school and enrichment. I have to consider commutes, before- and after-care, and cultural and programmatic fit for our family.
Reforms should focus on access, equity and trust.
We need stronger outreach to preschool families, with counseling support to help them choose the right fit. The School Finder tool should be clearer and more accessible, especially for multilingual families.
Equity must account for transportation, schedules, and access to programs, particularly in high-need neighborhoods.
Read Cheung’s full response here.
Brandee Marckmann
Yes, as a parent, I understand why people don’t like the lottery system, and I think it should be changed. However, if we address the larger issue of funding, we won’t have a few schools that are sought after and others that are not.
In the richest city in the richest state in the country, all of our SFUSD schools should have exceptional programming. If this were the case, we would not need to have lotteries and wait lists. Our current funding level creates a system of “winners” and “losers” and needs to be changed.
Week 2: Do you support dipping into reserves?
Phil Kim
As board president, I’ve fought hard to pull SFUSD back from the brink of fiscal insolvency. The compensation agreement we reached with our teachers after this February’s strike was right and necessary — and it makes disciplined budgeting more critical than ever.
The best way to honor that commitment long-term is to run a financially sustainable district. We must responsibly use our ongoing revenues to cover ongoing expenses: spending one-time dollars on permanent costs is a one-way street toward the kind of crisis we’ve worked so hard to overcome. Our educators and students deserve better than that cycle repeating itself.
Virginia Cheung
I do not support using reserves for ongoing expenses except in true emergencies. Reserves exist to protect the district from economic downturns and unexpected costs, not to cover structural deficits or recurring spending.
At the same time, decisions about how much we hold in reserves should include transparent engagement with families, educators and stakeholders. Over-accumulating reserves while programs are cut can undermine trust and compromise the quality of education students receive today.
Reserves can be used strategically and with public accountability for one-time investments that stabilize schools, such as bridging programs and staffing gaps, but not as a long-term solution.
See Cheung’s full response here.
Brandee Marckmann
Yes. I believe that in the richest city, in the richest state in the country, our educators should be paid a living wage. I support using reserve funding to do so.
There are other ways to raise revenue for SFUSD, like reforming Prop. 13 so large commercial properties pay their fair share. We could also spend existing revenue more wisely, including not spending millions on outside contractors.
I’m very troubled that, this week, the school board is voting on a contract to pay outside contractors $211/hour. That is not something I think we should be spending our reserves on.
Week 1: What’s your No. 1 priority?
Phil Kim
As a former seventh-grade science teacher and lifelong educator, I believe the most important relationship in any school system is between a teacher and a student.
My number one priority is improving student outcomes by ensuring every classroom is led by a qualified and effective teacher. Teachers need consistent support, strong instructional systems, and the stability to focus on their students, not uncertainty about budgets or operations.
After years of fiscal mismanagement, we have begun to stabilize SFUSD’s finances and operations. We cannot go backward. My focus is making sure we sustain that progress so every student, in every neighborhood, has access to the high-quality education they deserve.
Virginia Cheung
Our children deserve fully staffed, stable schools. They are our future, and they are depending on us. Excellence should be consistent in every classroom at every school. A child’s future should not depend on luck.
My first priority as a school board member is to build trust and strong partnerships with families, educators, and all school communities to ensure every student receives an excellent education.
As the daughter of refugees, I saw firsthand how my non-English-speaking parents struggled to establish stability. I was fortunate to have a dedicated kindergarten teacher who supported me early on, helping me become the first in my family to graduate from college.
With more than 20 years of experience across maternal health, early education, cultural immersion, and arts education — and as a former director at San Francisco’s largest Head Start program — I’ve seen how early support, strong educators, and stable systems can change a child’s trajectory.
As a full-time working mom and public school parent with a child at Alice Fong Yu and in the Wah Mei before and after-school program, I rely on a coordinated system of care and trust the educators who show up for my child every day.
We cannot address chronic absenteeism or improve student outcomes if students begin the school year without a permanent teacher or the paraprofessionals needed to support them. Stability in the classroom is foundational.
When schools are fully staffed and students’ basic needs are met, students are more likely to feel supported, show up ready to learn, and thrive.
Brandee Marckmann
My No. 1 priority is to stop the threat of school closures in SFUSD. Public schools bring our communities together and are the foundation of our democracy. School closures are not the solution to our budget issues.
What a lot of people don’t know is that closing schools doesn’t end up saving the school district money. School closures make public schools less desirable to prospective parents, which depresses enrollment (and therefore funding).
Closed schools are usually converted into charter schools, which often do not offer adequate support for newcomer students, students with IEPs, and other marginalized groups. I believe all San Francisco students should be able to attend a fully-funded neighborhood public school.
Candidates are ordered alphabetically and rotated each week. Answers may be lightly edited for formatting, spelling, and grammar. If you have questions for the candidates, please let us know at marina@missionlocal.com.
You can register to vote via the sf.gov website. Illustrations for the series by Neil Ballard.
