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Board delays vote on police‑partnered school safety grant after concerns about restorative justice alignment
Summary
Commissioners raised concerns that a violence‑prevention grant’s requirement for police partnership could increase SRO presence rather than funding restorative‑justice training; the board voted to postpone action to Dec. 8 and asked staff for grant reports and clearer language.
The board postponed consideration of a CDE‑funded violence‑prevention grant that involved San Francisco Police Department partnership after several commissioners said the grant’s language appeared to increase police presence in schools and might conflict with the district’s new restorative‑justice efforts.
Commissioner (speaker 42) asked whether the $100,000‑scale grant could instead support staff de‑escalation training and restorative approaches; district staff said SFPD partnership was a condition of the award and that the grant followed a police security survey of school sites. Staff also said some school resource officer (SRO) positions existed only because of prior grants and that the current requests were relatively small. Several commissioners asked for grant reports, evidence of impact on suspensions and an explicit statement as to whether the grant maintained existing SRO levels or increased them.
After discussion, the chair moved to postpone the item to the board’s next meeting; the motion passed and the item was rescheduled for the Dec. 8 meeting so staff could return with grant reports and clearer language describing service levels and uses of funds.
What’s next: Staff will provide the board with the grant’s required progress reports, a breakdown of where funds would be spent and whether the grant replaces or increases existing SRO staffing levels.
