Board denies New School of San Francisco charter petition after contested K'12 scope and capacity concerns

The San Francisco Board of Education voted on Oct. 28 to deny the charter petition from the New School of San Francisco after extended public testimony and internal debate over the petition's scope and the petitioners' operational capacity.

Petition cofounders Ryan Chapman and Emily Bobo presented the school model as an equity-focused, inquiry-based "city-as-classroom" laboratory school and said they had extensive parent and community support. Dozens of speakers from education nonprofits, families and advocates testified for the petition; supporters cited laboratory-school models (including UCLA Lab School) and recommended the district either approve the petition or permit a short reconsideration window for technical amendments.

Board concern centered on whether the petition's K'12 authorization was a material change requiring a full committee process or whether the board could treat it as a technical amendment to authorize K'5 now and revisit higher grades later. General counsel told the board it had discretion but emphasized members must be clear about what action they were approving or denying. Several board members said they welcomed the petition's ideas but had deep reservations about authorizing a K'12 school from a petition team without demonstrated experience operating at all those levels.

A motion to postpone and consider a K'5 resubmission with corrections failed to obtain the votes required for a rules suspension. In the final roll call the board voted to deny the petition and read a factual finding that "the petitioners are demonstrably unlikely to successfully implement the program set forth in the petition."

Several commissioners said they would support a carefully scoped K'5 petition in the future but not the current K'12 application as presented. Petitioners were informed they could pursue state-level remedies; the board's denial closes local authorization.