AJM Demands Transparency & Fairness From SFUSD in the School Closure Process

October 14, 2024

Superintendent Dr. Matt Wayne
555 Franklin Street
San Francisco, CA 94102

President Matt Alexander
San Francisco Board of Education
555 Franklin Street
San Francisco, CA 94102

The Asian Justice Movement (AJM) and a coalition of civil rights groups and community leaders demand transparency and fairness from the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) in the school closure process. The schools proposed for closure include Yick Wo and Sutro Elementary--schools which are high performing by SFUSD's own metrics. These schools demonstrate high enrollment, well-maintained facilities, and strong academic performance. We acknowledge that SFUSD is facing fiscal challenges and that tough choices must be made. The community, however, is concerned that (1) the selection of schools for closure was based in part on a nonsensical and defective composite score that gives scant weight to traditional measures like academic performance; and (2) the final list was determined in a secret, black box process that is unfair to Asian American students and families.

On October 10, Superintendent Matt Wayne admitted that, rather than focus on traditional measures such as student achievement and enrollment, SFUSD developed a composite score that heavily weighted a formulation based on an equity measure (50%), with "excellence" and effective use of resources weighed at only 25% each. Student academic performance apparently was weighted at only 13.4% or less of the composite score. The highest weighted factor (at 50%)--equity--appears to be defined in a way that marginalizes and discriminates against Asian American families. Yick Wo and Sutro serve a high percentage of Asian American students. Sutro is a school of 75% Asian Americans; 51% English learners; and 60% of low-income households. Yick Wo is a school of 33% Asian American students, and it is a 2020 National Blue Ribbon Award School and is rated 7/10 on Great Schools. Yick Wo serves the Chinatown, North Beach, and Russian Hill neighborhoods in San Francisco.

Any measure of equity must take into account the City's violence, exclusion, and discrimination against the Asian American community. Chinatown is a neighborhood borne directly out of San Francisco's discrimination against and marginalization of Asian people in our City. To this day, Chinatown suffers one of the highest poverty rates in the city along with the highest concentration of low-income SROs. Three schools--Jean Parker, Spring Valley, and Yick Wo are targeted for closure or merger in the Chinatown/North Beach/Russian Hill community. The closures/merger of three schools in the area disproportionately impact the community. An approach that fails to recognize that Asian American students and families and neighborhoods also should be treated with fairness calls into question SFUSD's weighting and closure process altogether.

Curiously, even using the flawed composite score, the schools selected are not those with the lowest scores. The fact that the selection of schools for closure or merger was cloaked in a black box process undermines faith in the process itself.

Accordingly, we demand the following from SFUSD:

1. An explanation of how the specific targeted schools were selected;

2. A detailed explanation of why the closure process has prioritized eliminating high-performing schools that serve student populations that are majority or plurality Asian American;

3. A reformation of the composite score formula, such that Asian American students and families receive fair and equitable treatment.