SFUSD Cuts $60M From Budget While Scrambling to Keep Summer School Doors Open

San Francisco Unified School District's board locked in a $60 million budget reduction Tuesday night, eliminating dozens of classified staff positions and consolidating administrative offices — then turned around and approved emergency funding to keep its Summer Academies program running through August 8. The contradiction was deliberate, officials said, and reflects the financial tightrope SFUSD has been walking since enrollment dropped below 50,000 students for the first time in decades.

The timing matters. California's Local Control Funding Formula ties district revenue directly to average daily attendance, and SFUSD has lost roughly 8,000 students over five years — a slide that translates to somewhere north of $100 million in lost state allocations annually. With Sacramento's budget signed last month offering less relief than district leaders had hoped, Tuesday's vote was less a policy choice than a financial obligation. The cuts take effect August 1, meaning some families will see the impact before the school year even starts.

Where the Cuts Land

The reductions hit hardest in the southeast and western neighborhoods. Starr King Elementary in the Tenderloin is losing two of its four instructional aides. John O'Connell High School in the Mission District, which serves a high share of English learners, will see its after-school coordinator position eliminated. The district's Educational Services Center on Van Ness Avenue is shedding 11 administrative roles entirely, with functions absorbed by staff at 555 Franklin Street.

Programs weren't spared either. The district's Arts Education Initiative, which partners with the San Francisco Arts Commission to place working artists in classrooms, is being cut from 42 schools to 28 for the 2026–27 school year. That program costs approximately $4.2 million annually; SFUSD is trimming it to $2.6 million. The decision drew sharp objections from parents at Alvarado Elementary in Noe Valley, who packed Tuesday's school board meeting at 555 Franklin and testified for more than two hours.

At the same time, SFUSD's Summer Academy program — which runs at 14 campuses across the city, including Galileo High School in the Marina and Everett Middle School in the Mission — is operating at near-capacity this summer, serving approximately 11,400 students. Demand spiked after state data showed third-grade reading proficiency in the district sitting at 42 percent, well below the California average of 49 percent. Federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds technically expired last year, but the district carried over $7.8 million in unspent ESSER money that the board voted Tuesday to redirect toward summer literacy and math intervention.

What Comes Next

The district has until September 15 to submit its first interim budget report to the San Francisco County Office of Education, which will determine whether SFUSD remains in "qualified" fiscal status — one step above state intervention. If the county office determines the district cannot meet its financial obligations over the next three years, a state administrator could be appointed, stripping the elected board of authority. That scenario played out in Oakland Unified in 2003 and took more than a decade to fully resolve.

Superintendent Maria Su has scheduled three community meetings in July — July 10 at Mission High School, July 17 at Aptos Middle School in West Portal, and July 24 at the Bayview branch of the San Francisco Public Library on Cesar Chavez Street — to walk families through the budget decisions and the enrollment stabilization plan the district plans to file with the state in September. The stabilization plan includes a renewed push for a parcel tax measure on the November 2026 ballot, though that effort requires support from two-thirds of San Francisco voters.

For families enrolled in Summer Academy, the immediate picture is stable. The 14 campuses will run through August 8 with no reduction in hours. Registration for fall 2026 opened June 30 and, as of Wednesday, SFUSD reported 34,200 students enrolled — about 600 fewer than the same date last year, a gap district officials are working to close before the October count that determines next year's state funding.