Welcome Back to School!

Dear friends and neighbors,

Today marks the start of the school year for SFUSD students. As a public school parent and District 5 Supervisor, I wanted to welcome back students, families, educators, and school staff. I hope you all had a healthy, positive, relaxing, and enriching summer.

This morning, I welcomed Tenderloin Community School students and families back to school. I’m incredibly proud of our public schools and all the students, families, educators, and school staff who make our school communities what they are. Our schools have their challenges – the biggest being the decades-long underfunding of California’s public schools where huge corporations avoid paying their fair share and oppose reforms to the commercial side of Prop 13. Our school communities are remarkably resilient, but budgets are now at a breaking point. 

Amidst the excitement of the first day of school it’s also important to acknowledge that the start of the school year can be a stressful time for many. And this year, adding to that stress are the uncertainties arising from the “resource alignment” process being undertaken by SFUSD. For more information about the process and how to get involved, you can visit this page on the SFUSD website . I’m closely monitoring the resource alignment process, and am in regular touch with a broad range of stakeholders. While the Board of Supervisors does not have direct jurisdiction over the outcome, I will continue to share my views with district leadership, including making sure that the residents of District 5, particularly historically marginalized neighborhoods like the Tenderloin, Fillmore, and Japantown, are not negatively impacted by any proposed changes.

Going into the new school year, we know that working families depend on programs connected with SFUSD schools to provide enrichment and support for their children. Don’t forget to sign up for one of our incredible after school programs — you can find a list of them here: https://www.sf.gov/information/out-school-time. 

Finally, I want to acknowledge the tremendous challenges that our school communities have been through in recent years. We had a once in a century, global pandemic that shut down our schools, and we are still recovering as a city and a school district. Now is a time to double down on our support for public schools and to help students, families, educators, and school staff fully recover from a traumatic period in our history. Let’s support one another and invest in every possible way in our public schools!

In community,

Dean Preston, District 5 Supervisor