San Francisco school board adopts SACS-format budgets and approves 2020–21 recommended budget with $27 million COVID reserve

The San Francisco Unified School District Board of Education on July 1 adopted the state-standard SACS-format budgets and approved the district's recommended fiscal-year 2020'21 budget, a plan staff say balances immediate reporting requirements while acknowledging a multi-year structural shortfall.

The board first moved and seconded to adopt the SACS (standardized account code structure) resolution required by the California Department of Education, citing California Education Code sections 33129 and 42127. After public comment and a roll-call vote, the board advanced to the superintendent's recommended budget and approved it by recorded vote.

Staff said the recommended budget incorporates the June 29 state budget and several one-time and placeholder assumptions. "We are looking at $535,000,000 of our Local Control Funding Formula dollars," Chief Financial Officer Megan Wallace said, and staff reported about $45.3 million in state "learning loss" funds, including allocations for special education and ADA-based amounts. To address pandemic-related costs, Wallace told the board, "we have built in a $27,000,000 COVID-19 reserve," while also assuming roughly $22,000,000 in offsets and identifying $22.3 million in an operating deficit in the current plan.

The budget presentation laid out planned reductions and assumptions the district will pursue to close gaps in future years: $7.1 million from cuts to certain programming, $4 million in transportation savings and an assumed $22 million in ongoing offsets staff say they will seek to implement. The staff presentation also said the budget includes $2,000,000 restored to preserve some staff who had been reduced in earlier drafts.

Public commenters and labor representatives pressed the board to avoid layoffs and to prioritize site-based staff. Susan Solomon, president of United Educators of San Francisco, said the union had proposed a two-year contract extension and warned that recent district bargaining proposals called for steep concessions: "We were hit with last week was the district's demands for huge concessions called labor contributions, which is gonna make it really, really hard to support our students," Solomon said. SEIU Local 21 and other speakers urged the district to retain custodial and frontline workers amid reopening plans.

Board members pressed staff on the assumptions behind the $27 million reopening estimate. Commissioners were told the figure is a working estimate based on a national methodology from the AASA (the School Superintendents' association) that estimates roughly $490 per student; staff said the national number likely understates costs in San Francisco and will be refined. "That is a working number for now," a staff presenter said, and the board scheduled follow-up work and an August recertification so the district can incorporate more detailed reopening plans.

Commissioners also discussed local revenue pressures: the board heard that the district will not receive the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) it had anticipated (about 2.31 percent, an estimated $12 million), that some local PEAF revenues have declined, and that rainy-day reserves have been used in prior years. Staff noted some Prop G funds remain tied up in litigation and that the district is watching local and state developments closely.

After discussion and public comment, the board recorded its vote to approve the recommended FY2020'21 budget; staff said they would submit the adopted budget to the California Department of Education the same day and return to the board with refined reopening-cost estimates and a revised budget recertification in August. The board adjourned and scheduled its next regular meeting for July 14.

The action affects districtwide staffing and programs and sets a framework for forthcoming decisions about reopening and more detailed multi-year projections. The district and labor partners will continue negotiations and public engagement in the weeks ahead.