Parents and teachers urge board to rescind non-reelection notice for Galileo teacher Jessica Wong

At the April 4 San Francisco Unified School District board meeting, multiple public speakers urged the board to rescind or reconsider a non-reelection notice for Jessica Wong, a special-education teacher at Galileo High School.

Speakers included Susan Kitchell, a school nurse who described Wong as a "skilled special educator" and a native of the city; Yvette Huguenney, a special-education teacher at Galileo, described Wong as a core colleague and appealed to the board to be "brave" in supporting the teacher. Jessica Wong addressed the board directly, detailing nearly three years of service in SFUSD as a paraeducator and teacher, work on IEPs, night and summer school, class sponsorship and other duties, and pleaded with the board to reconsider the non-reelection notice because of the impact on students.

United Educators of San Francisco President Lee Toblan urged the board to consider rescinding the non-reelection and noted a district signing bonus to recruit special-education teachers as context for retention concerns. Speakers argued that losing a qualified special-education teacher would harm students and could have a chilling effect on teacher retention in the district.

Board public comment procedures were observed; the board did not render an immediate public decision on this matter during the meeting. Closed-session items later on the agenda included personnel actions (read out after closed session) unrelated to the specific public plea for Wong: the board reported approving not to renew notices for one principal and one assistant principal and approved contracts for four program administrators, and authorized a settlement in JH v. SFUSD.

Speakers requested that district staff follow up with the community and that the board keep the public informed about the status of personnel reviews.