Being a public school principal was already hard. But in San Francisco, it has become unbearable, some administrators say.

In the face of a perennial budget crisis that in 2024 led to strict state oversight, the San Francisco Unified School District this year slashed 200 positions from its central office. It also cut hours for school nurses and paraeducators, who help students with special needs. 

These cuts helped the district avoid teacher layoffs, but school principals say they’re left with less support than ever. And while the district has historically given administrators and teachers equivalent raises, only the teachers got a raise this year. Principals say the move is unprecedented.

The Standard spoke with seven SFUSD principals and assistant principals who said the new responsibilities heaped upon them — tasks previously handled by human resources, the budget office, custodians, and school nurses — make it harder to manage their core duties. Many said other school districts in the region offer higher salaries and more administrative support. They now have to weigh their dedication to their school communities against the allure of a better job in a different district.

“We’ve been asked to do more with less — less staff, less support, less funding, less supervision, less everything except our responsibilities,” Anastasia Klafter, principal of Independence High School, said last month at a Board of Education meeting. “This is unacceptable: to keep asking more of us and not giving us the minimum of the 5% raise that we deserve.”

Klafter, who leads the United Administrators of San Francisco, said principals have been made responsible for training staff in first aid, doling out medication, and even administering Narcan in the event of an overdose.

UASF is considering striking for higher salaries, Klafter said. To her knowledge, it would be the first school administrator strike in United States history.

The six other SFUSD administrators, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said they share Klafter’s concerns. Nearly all mentioned that Superintendent Maria Su told them during a meeting this summer that they’d have to “do more with less,” but they also said their responsibilities have been mounting for years.

One principal explained that at his school, a credentialed adult must always  be on “yard duty” — standing in the schoolyard to make sure all is well. He handles yard duty himself while teachers eat lunch, but there’s one problem: His school has two yards. He said he contacted the SFUSD office to see what support was available. A staffer offered to send him to a time management workshop.

“This is not a time management issue,” he said. “I cannot be in two places at one time!”

Other principals said they are now responsible for hounding parents who try to enroll students without the proper immunizations, training staff on the district’s new payroll system, and figuring out how to access funds allocated for school supplies. Even before the recent cuts, some principals were watering schoolyard plants and powerwashing feces off the school steps.

This makes it harder to do what principals are supposed to do: manage a teaching faculty and foster relationships with families.

“If I am having to take on the roles of the nurse, the custodian, security guard, there’s less time for me to be an instructional leader,” one principal said.

SFUSD officials say the district provides “office hours” and payroll-system training for staff. In a statement, they confirmed that all principals receive “Health Services Training.” The officials added that ensuring immunization compliance is an interdepartmental effort.

Su said in a statement that she appreciates the work principals do and noted the district’s money problems.

“SFUSD is still under state oversight, and we must continue to demonstrate that we can be fiscally responsible in order to regain local control,” Su said. “I truly appreciate the continued partnership and commitment of our principals as we work through these challenges together.”

She added that this year’s cuts of $114 million have been “felt across the district” and that she plans $59 million in cuts for next year. She did not comment on the likelihood of a raise for administrators.

But if the district leans on principals too hard, they may snap. Annual school administrator turnover in SF is around 30%, according to UASF; a SFUSD spokesperson did not confirm or deny this figure.

“We’re trying to stay committed to this district, even though it has, time and time again, not respected the work we do,” one principal said.

But the allure of higher salaries and lighter workloads in other districts is growing stronger. San Mateo, Foster City, and even South San Francisco offer higher salaries to principals and assistant principals. This makes them popular destinations for SFUSD émigrés. 

“Most of the people who escaped SFUSD’s little dumpster fire went south,” a principal said. 

One principal just started in a new district this year. She’s making about $200,000 — $40,000 more than she earned last year, after decades at SFUSD.

It’s one of the reasons she’d advise any principal who wants to leave SFUSD to make the leap. For years, she said, she told other administrators to stick it out and hope things would get better. But now?

“There’s no reason for them to stay in the district,” she said.

Ezra Wallach contributed reporting.