Contact: Chelsea Fink, Chelsea.Fink@seiu1021.org, (510) 435-8282

SAN FRANCISCO, CA -  On Friday, August 23, with the resignation of SFUSD Board of Education President Lainie Motamedi, Mayor London Breed appointed charter school proponent Phil Kim to the vacant seat, passing over the opportunity to find a strong advocate for public schools. In appointing Kim to the board, Mayor Breed ignored the will of San Francisco voters, bypassed workers and families in the District, and has given the charter school industry an unprecedented opening to gain a foothold in our San Francisco public school system.  

Mayor Breed’s appointee, Phil Kim, has spent his career in education working for KIPP, a charter school chain, but never for a public school district until he was hired into the SFUSD Superintendent’s office earlier this year to implement school closure plans. Kim ran twice for the Board of Education, in 2016 and 2018, and failed both times to win enough votes to join the board. 

SFUSD’s initiative to close public schools, headed up since early 2024 by Phil Kim, has already been marred by inadequate and inequitable community outreach. District officials have repeatedly admitted that closing schools will not save the District significant money or impact its structural deficit. SFUSD families and workers are questioning the entire initiative that Kim was hired to lead and have little confidence that he will be a voice for accountability as the District forges ahead with its list of schools to be closed in a few short weeks.

Superintendent Matt Wayne and other SFUSD officials have repeatedly assured employee unions and the public that the District would not close schools to make way for charters. Phil Kim’s appointment seems to depart from these statements. In his past campaigns for school board, Kim publicly advocated for expanding charter schools in public school districts like SFUSD. This amplifies community concerns about the District’s initiative to close schools – namely, that students, families, and workers who have already suffered from historical inequities will be disregarded and further harmed in the process.

Our public schools need support and rebuilding after significant financial and operational mismanagement at SFUSD for years. We, the SEIU 1021 Classified Professionals at SFUSD, believe that at this moment when the District is poised to destabilize entire communities by closing schools, Mayor Breed’s appointment of a charter school industry advocate to the Board of Education will not benefit schoolchildren or school workers, and will only further erode the public’s trust in our public schools.