Eleven candidates are running in a nonpartisan election for four seats on the seven-member San Francisco Unified School District school board (SFUSD) in California on Nov. 5. Incumbent Matt Alexander, Parag Gupta, Jaime Huling, John Jersin, and Supryia Marie Ray lead in media attention and endorsements. Board members serve four-year terms.

Alexander is the only incumbent running for re-election. The other three incumbents, Jenny Lam, Mark Sanchez, and Kevine Boggess, did not seek re-election.

The San Francisco Chronicle’s Jill Tucker said the school board election would be as crucial as the presidential and mayoral races because “[t]he next school board will arguably face one of the most difficult periods in the district’s recent history with massive budget cuts needed to avert insolvency and an overhaul of the student assignment system pending along with a new payroll system to replace a bug-riddled $40 million platform.” Other issues include school closures, a state-imposed hiring freeze, a decline in enrollment, more than 250 special education vacancies, absenteeism, pandemic-related learning loss, and student mental health concerns.

Gupta, Huling, and Jersin announced their candidacies together, forming a slate of moderate candidates. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Ray, though not a member of the moderate slate, is also a moderate candidate. Alexander is a progressive candidate.

In an interview with Mission Local, retired political consultant David Latterman said, “With few voters directly involved with San Francisco public schools — less than one-fifth of the city’s voters have children, and even fewer send those children to public schools — a candidate’s endorsements play an outsized role in getting elected in a down-ballot race like school board.” The United Educators of San Francisco, Grow SF, TogetherSF Action, and the San Francisco Democratic Party endorsed Gupta, Huling, and Jersin. The United Educators of San Francisco also endorsed Alexander. SF Parent Action, Grow SF, TogetherSF Action, and the San Francisco Democratic Party endorsed Ray.

Alexander is the board president, a community organizer at Faith in Action Bay Area, and a former teacher and principal. He said to achieve academic excellence for all children “SFUSD also must stabilize our finances, fully staff our schools, and be more responsive to the needs of families.”

Gupta is the chief program officer at Mercy Housing. He said his top priority is “to demonstrate the school district is serious in remedying the projected $421 million deficit so we may avert a total state takeover. I feel strongly that the San Francisco community is best placed to decide its priorities and balance its budget.”

Huling is a supervising deputy city attorney of Oakland, California. Huling said she is running “to ensure we balance the budget to prioritize equity and excellence, and ensure all of our kids have the opportunities and supports they deserve.”

Jersin is the co-founder of an education nonprofit, the Jersin Foundation. He said as a member of SFUSD Citizens’ Bond Oversight Committee, “I have found opportunities to increase revenue via fixes to our enrollment system” and would bring “needed management and financial experience to the Board of Education.”

Ray is an attorney and writer. She said the district’s budget is her number one campaign issue and that she would “insist on transparency and hold administrators accountable for presenting credible budgets; developing and maintaining critical systems; and scrutinizing every dollar spent for its impact on students.”

For the 2023-2024 school year, the SFUSD was the sixth largest district in California by student population. As of this writing, there were 13,194 school districts in the country, with California having 977 statewide.

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