SFUSD board denies Dragon Gate Academy charter petition, cites fiscal and implementation gaps

The San Francisco Unified School District Board of Education on Aug. 26 denied the Dragon Gate Academy charter petition after a lengthy public hearing in which staff cited state law, material late amendments and the district's current negative fiscal certification as the primary reasons to recommend denial.

Staff framed the decision around Education Code procedures and the district's fiscal condition. Manuel Martinez, SFUSD general counsel, and Chris Armentrout, director of policy and planning, told the board the petition was submitted June 2, 2025, the staff report was published Aug. 11, 2025, and petition amendments filed Aug. 19, 2025, were judged by staff to be "material" because they affected budget assumptions and program design. Armentrout said the petition, as presented, left ‘‘too many unanswered questions for us to make a leap of faith to endorse this.’'

A CDE fiscal adviser identified only as Elliot told the board that the district's negative certification creates a rebuttable presumption of denial under Education Code §47605 and that the petitioners had not provided sufficient evidence to overcome that presumption. "Anything that becomes a negative attribute to your budget is just going to aggravate that situation of having a negative certification," Elliot said.

Petition representatives disputed key staff findings in the hearing. A petitioner spokesperson (identified in the record as speaker 49) said the petition's 11% figure for students with individualized education programs was a budgeting projection, not a strict enrollment cap: "There's nothing in the charter petition that says there is an 11% cap on special education," the representative said, adding the figure was an enrollment forecast used for budgeting and financing.

Public comment before and during the hearing included hundreds of parents, educators and community members. Supporters of Dragon Gate and expanded Mandarin immersion argued that the city lacks sufficient Mandarin K–8 seats and that families are seeking additional options. Opponents and SFUSD staff warned that the petition's assumptions about special education, teacher qualifications, retirement benefits and facility plans were incomplete or inconsistent with district standards.

On motions from the board, members first voted to adopt the staff report's findings of fact as the board's own. That motion passed on a roll-call vote of 6 in favor, 1 opposed. The board then voted to deny the petition; the denial passed on a 7-0 roll call of those present.

The board's action closes the petition process for Dragon Gate Academy at this meeting. Staff emphasized that the hearing was a final decisional step under Ed. Code procedures and that petitioners could address material gaps in any future filing. The board's written resolution and the staff report provide the full set of findings and the statutory bases for the decision.

The public hearing was opened at 7:49 p.m. and closed at 9:22 p.m.; the denial vote immediately followed.