Few Candidates Step Forward for San Francisco School Board Ahead of November Vote

Three seats on the San Francisco Board of Education are up for election in November, but as of mid-June 2022 only two people have filed paperwork to run. The thin field stands in contrast to recent cycles: 19 candidates appeared on the 2018 ballot, and 10 entered the race in 2020 even as the coronavirus pandemic and stay-at-home orders dominated public life.

Cassondra Curiel, president of United Educators of San Francisco (UESF), the teachers' union, does not expect many more candidates to join. She pointed to a charged political climate, noting that tensions ran high during the pandemic and that national media converged on the San Francisco Unified School District and its board. Before the historic recall, former Commissioners Gabriela López and Alison Collins, along with student delegates, were targeted with threatening messages. "It really is the political climate," Curiel said. "When Tucker Carlson is running [San Francisco school board coverage] on his show, you know it's bad."

The two people who have filed are Alida Fisher, a special education advocate, and Deldep Medina, who did not respond to a request for comment. Jessica Huang, a former SFUSD principal, briefly filed but withdrew her candidacy because she is returning from time spent abroad.

Three commissioners appointed by Mayor London Breed after the February recall, Lainie Motamedi, Lisa Weissman-Ward and Ann Hsu, have said they will seek to keep their seats in November. None of them had yet filed papers.

In May, UESF members endorsed Weissman-Ward and Fisher. Hsu and Motamedi did not reach the threshold needed for the union's backing. One endorsement slot remains open for the three seats and will be revisited later. Weissman-Ward called the endorsement an honor and said that when the mayor appointed her, Breed knew she would "put students front and center," with attention to the immigrant community and marginalized students. Asked why the union split its support among sitting commissioners, Weissman-Ward and Motamedi said they did not know its reasoning, and Hsu did not respond to a request for comment.

Curiel said Weissman-Ward gave strong, direct answers to member questions, building trust alongside her background as associate director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic at Stanford Law School. She described Motamedi's answers on school closures as somewhat vague, and said Hsu has supported the idea. Both Hsu and Motamedi previously told The San Francisco Standard that closures should be considered as an option. "That immediately put people on edge," Curiel said, adding that Fisher is well known to many SFUSD educators and that her answers mirror those heard at school sites.

UESF endorsements have historically carried significant weight and have generally predicted winners, though not always. In 2018, López ran without the union's endorsement and won.

Fisher, who ran in 2020 and is an SFUSD parent of five serving on the Community Advisory Committee for Special Education, recalled that at this point before the 2018 election more than 25 candidates had filed, a number that later narrowed to 18. She said she is running again to bring deep institutional knowledge to the board beyond her frequent public comment appearances. "It's very, very low," she said of the candidate count, adding that the pandemic strained public education and that the recall has scared off civic-minded people who might otherwise have run.

Curiel suggested the small field has an upside, as fewer candidates means less noise and less work to sort through them. "To some degree, it's a little bit of an opportunity as well," she said, noting that for years the board has faced criticism that it serves as a stepping stone.