San Francisco found someone willing to take the reins from the city’s public schools chief who abruptly quit in the middle of a historic crisis, a looming state takeover and mounting backlash over a plan to close a slew of K-12 campuses.
Not 24 hours after Superintendent Matt Wayne announced he was bowing out after just two years leading the San Francisco Unified School District, the agency’s elected leaders said it wanted a veteran city official to fill the void.
Maria Su, a longtime City Hall staffer and head of the San Francisco Department of Children, Youth and Their Families, agreed to step in as superintendent. And one of her first orders of business: to hit the brakes on a chaotic, confusing, and controversial school closure plan.
“San Francisco public schools are the city’s greatest asset,” Su said in a prepared statement. “We must come together as a community to take care of our school district.”
Board of Education President Matt Alexander said he trusts Su to right the ship.
“As the district continues to navigate difficult decisions ahead,” he said, “we need a steady hand on the tiller.”
Come Tuesday, the board is expected to tap Karling Aguilera-Fort as Su’s second-in-command.
Wayne submitted his resignation Friday, barely halfway through his five-year contract, after growing criticism over the way he handled the district’s school closures plan.
In a statement, he called it a “difficult decision.” For a leader who inherited a district already in the throes of chaos, it was the latest in a two-year succession of difficult decisions as he tackled a broken payroll system, worsening teacher shortage and ever-widening deficit.
But the crisis only intensified since he came on board in 2022. Two years later, to address a budget shortfall in the hundreds of millions of dollars that threatens to have the state step in and take over, district leaders said they had to close several schools to close the gap. To that end, the district released a list earlier this month that named 13 campuses slated to shutter or merge.
But city leaders, parents, and SFUSD elected board members blamed Wayne for what they called a lack of transparency, poor community engagement, and a confusing selection process.
The outcry grew so intense that Mayor London Breed formed a “rescue team” comprising members of her staff and city department heads to stage an unprecedented intervention. Su was a member of that team.
Breed applauded SFUSD’s choice to hire Su, calling her a “champion for families and children in our city.”
“The most important thing right now,” the mayor continued, “is for the school district to close its budget deficit to prevent a state takeover and to instill trust and confidence in the district.”
Breed promised that the city will continue to support the district, even though it technically has no authority over the K-12 system.
A Chinese Vietnamese immigrant and mother of two, Su is no stranger to working with students. As mayor, Gavin Newsom in 2005 appointed Su as deputy director of the Department of Children, Youth and Their Families. Four years later, she was promoted to lead the department, presiding over an annual budget of $350 million that supports a vast network of nonprofit agencies.
Su will be the first Asian American to lead SFUSD as superintendent. Gwen Chan was the first Chinese American to lead the district when she stepped into the role on an interim basis in 2006.
Su holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Boston University and a doctorate in psychology from Alliant International University.
As schools chief, one of Su’s first tasks will be to balance the budget to avoid a state takeover. The stakes are high, she stressed: “SFUSD students, families, and staff are counting on us.”