Board Unanimously Renames School of the Arts for Ruth Asawa

The San Francisco Unified School District Board of Education voted unanimously Feb. 23 to rename the San Francisco School of the Arts for artist and arts‑education advocate Ruth Asawa.

Commissioner Wins read a resolution praising Asawa’s decadeslong contributions to arts education, including founding the Alvarado Arts Workshop and helping establish the School of the Arts. The resolution notes Asawa’s public works around the city and her long record of volunteerism with San Francisco schools and cultural institutions.

Students, the school principal and several family members and local artists addressed the board in support. Thomas Letchworth, student body president at the School of the Arts, said the name would help future students learn Asawa’s story and its connection to arts education. Paul Lanier, Asawa’s son, and several artists and educators described her influence on the city’s schools and arts institutions.

The resolution includes a one‑time suspension of the board’s policy prohibiting naming a school for a living person, citing Asawa’s exceptional record; it also directs the superintendent to appropriate costs associated with the renaming. The board recorded a unanimous vote in favor of the resolution.

The vote concluded a series of public remarks and brief board comments celebrating Asawa’s local contributions and a planned curriculum collaboration with her family to connect the new name to classroom lessons.

The board asked staff to add all commissioners’ names as authors on the resolution and to work with the school community to implement the renaming.