Supervisors approve $2.705M supplemental to help SFUSD students meet A–G graduation requirements

Supervisor Jane Kim introduced an ordinance to appropriate state reserve funds to SFUSD to support the district’s first cohort of graduates required to meet the University of California ’A–G’ eligibility standards. Superintendent Richard Carranza, deputy and school leaders described how state budget cuts since 2009 eliminated summer school, evening school and some after‑school 21st Century programming, and how those cuts reduced opportunities for students to make up required benchmark courses.

District officials presented data showing large groups of current juniors are not on track to meet the new requirements without additional credit‑recovery opportunities; the analysis disaggregated on‑track status by ethnicity, English‑learner status and special education. The district proposed a set of time‑limited interventions to help the class of 2014: restoring after‑school credit‑recovery grants at affected high schools, establishing three centralized evening‑school sites, funding community satellite technology centers for online credit recovery, adding targeted summer programs that delivered high pass rates in prior pilots, and hiring two coordinators to run the program. The preliminary city request was $3 million.

Committee members asked why the district had not drawn on its reserves to fill the gap and sought assurances that city funds would be one‑time, prioritized for students at greatest risk and accompanied by strict reporting. The budget analyst and SFUSD agreed to a monthly reporting requirement with program budgets, student participation counts and pre/post evaluations. Supervisor Kim moved to reduce the request to $2,705,000 and to require monthly written performance and expenditure reports; Supervisor Avalos seconded. The roll call vote was: Avalos — Aye; Kim — Aye; Chair Chu — No. The committee voted to send the amended appropriation to the full Board for consideration.

District and community witnesses, including parents, youth commissioners, labor and community organizations, urged approval and framed the appropriation as an urgent, time‑limited intervention to prevent thousands of juniors from falling into a permanent credit gap. The committee’s action commits the city to one‑time funding this fiscal year with the condition of monitoring and accountability; longer‑term funding will depend on the district’s multi‑year budget choices and future Board decisions. Ending: the item was forwarded to the full Board with the amendment and the reporting requirement.