SFUSD board adopts qualified first‑interim budget and creates $111M reserve after heated public comment

The San Francisco Board of Education voted on Tuesday night to adopt a qualified first‑interim budget certification for fiscal year 2025–26 and to establish Fund 17, a board‑controlled reserve set at 8 percent of general fund expenditures (about $111.5 million). The decisions followed more than an hour of public comment in which parents, teachers, principals and students urged the board not to cut school social workers, counselors and other student supports while moving large sums into a restricted reserve.

The board’s chief financial team told members the district’s unaudited beginning fund balance for 2025–26 is larger than earlier estimates but that the unrestricted general fund still faces a possible $51 million deficit this year if departments spend all amounts budgeted. Deputy Superintendent Chris Malbenites said the reserve proposal would convert prior‑year fund balance into Fund 17 “to provide transparency” about available savings and to leave a board‑level source of…