FILE – In this March 12, 2020, file photo, George Washington High School stands in San Francisco. The San Francisco school board has voted to remove the names of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln from public schools after officials deemed them and other prominent figures, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein unworthy of the honor. After months of controversy, the board voted 6-1 Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2021, in favor of renaming 44 San Francisco school sites with new names with no connection to slavery, oppression, racism or similar criteria, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
The battle over reopening California public schools closed since last March by the coronavirus pandemic took a shocking turn in San Francisco where the city Wednesday sued its school district over its alleged failure to plan for promptly returning kids to the classroom.
The lawsuit filed Wednesday in San Francisco Superior Court against the San Francisco Board of Education and San Francisco Unified School District, which are independent from the city administration, alleges they have failed to provide a state-required plan to offer classroom-based instruction whenever possible.
“The Board of Education and the school district have had more than 10 months to roll out a concrete plan to get these kids back in school,” City Attorney Dennis Herrera said. “So far they have earned an F. Having a plan to make a plan doesn’t cut it.”
Vincent Matthews, superintendent of the 54,000-student San Francisco Unified School District, one of the state’s largest, called the lawsuit “frivolous” in a statement Wednesday.
“It is simply untrue that the board and district have no plan to reopen schools,” Matthews said, adding the district “has a very comprehensive plan with specific steps around health and safety and what in-person learning will look like for our focal student populations to return as soon as we can complete all the clearly laid out steps.”
The lawsuit comes amid growing cries across the country to reopen public schools, as evidence mounts that kids are falling behind and suffering emotionally with remote online “distance learning” at home, and that schools that have reopened have not driven outbreaks or seen significant transmission of the coronavirus.
Some 62% of students nationally have been attending class on campus, including at many private and some public California schools. But most of the more than 6 million attending the California’s public schools have been left with distance learning since the coronavirus pandemic erupted last March.
Governor Gavin Newsom in late December announced a $2 billion Safe Schools for All Plan aimed at spurring districts to reopen classrooms with offers of funding, guidance and support for those that moved quickly.
But it has drawn criticism from school administrators, teacher unions and lawmakers, who say it doesn’t do enough to meet their needs and ensure safety.
Lawmakers in Sacramento are weighing Newsom’s plan along with a bill, AB 10, by Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, that would require schools to reopen after their counties reach virus transmission rates that the state says are safe for them to do so.
San Francisco Unified was among seven large districts, including Oakland Unified, that wrote Newsom early last month criticizing the reopening plan. They argued it didn’t take into account the greater challenges for large urban districts in areas with widespread outbreaks and many poor families whose jobs put them at greater risk of the virus.
A district spokeswoman last week said that San Francisco Unified was is unable to meet the timing and conditions attached to the funds in the governor’s plan. Those conditions include widespread student surveillance testing, a commitment to reopen at case levels that remain within the state’s most restrictive “purple” tier for widespread outbreaks, and corresponding labor agreements.
San Francisco Board of Education President Gabriela Lopez said in a statement Wednesday that the city hasn’t stepped up with help the district needs to reopen, such as providing surveillance COVID-19 testing for staff and students, forcing the district to go through a competitive bidding process and find a provider.”
“Most urban school districts across the state are in the same position — one big difference is their mayors are fully supporting them,” Lopez said.
But San Francisco Mayor London Breed said last week that the city has “partnered with the school district to provide testing support in order to allow preparations for reopening to continue.” She also criticized the city school board for prioritizing renaming schools named after such figures as President Abraham Lincoln — something that drew national criticism — instead of reopening schools.
“We need to bring a sense of urgency to safely reopening our schools,” Breed said last week. “Once that happens, we can have a longer conversation about the future of school names. The city stands ready to help however we can.”
Breed said Wednesday on Twitter that the lawsuit “is not the path we would have preferred, but nothing matters more right now than getting our kids back in school.”
“Our teachers have done an incredible job of trying to support our kids through distance learning, but this isn’t working for anyone,” Breed said. “We’ve seen our private schools open and our city-run community learning hubs serve our most at-need kids for months without any outbreaks. We need to get our schools open.”
