Are Chinatown and high Asian enrollment schools unfairly targeted for closures in San Francisco?

SAN FRANCISCO — The list of public school closures and mergers in San Francisco was finally released with 11 schools proposed to be permanently closed. Three of the 11 schools are elementary schools serving students in Chinatown and surrounding neighborhoods. A total of 4 schools proposed to be closed are high Asian enrollment schools. The Asian community has questioned if the list is unfairly targeted and impacted the Asian American families.

[The Asian Justice Movement (AJM)](https://www.asianjusticemovement.org/) has started a campaign to demand transparency and fairness from San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) in the school closure process. A coalition of over 100 civil rights groups and community leaders have signed on the open letter sent to SFUSD Superintendent Dr. Matt Wayne and Board of Education President Matt Alexander.

Four high Asian enrollment schools on the list for closure are all elementary schools. They are Yick Wo in Chinatown/North Beach, Jean Parker in Chinatown, Spring Valley in Nob Hill/Chinatown, and Sutro in the Richmond District near Richmond Chinatown.

“The schools proposed for closure include Yick Wo and Sutro Elementary Schools which are high performing by SFUSD's own metrics. These schools demonstrate high enrollment, well-maintained facilities, and strong academic performance. We acknowledge that SFUSD is facing fiscal challenges and that tough choices must be made," AJM wrote in the open letter.

"The community, however, is concerned that (1) the selection of schools for closure was based in part on a nonsensical and defective composite score that gives scant weight to traditional measures like academic performance; and (2) the final list was determined in a secret, black box process that is unfair to Asian American students and families," AJM stated.

"On October 10, Superintendent Matt Wayne admitted that, rather than focus on traditional measures such as student achievement and enrollment, SFUSD developed a composite score that heavily weighted a formulation based on an equity measure (50%), with ‘excellence’ and effective use of resources weighed at only 25% each. Student academic performance apparently

was weighted at only 13.4% or less of the composite score. The highest weighted factor (at 50%)--equity--appears to be defined in a way that marginalizes and discriminates against Asian American families," AJM further said in the open letter about the unfair treatment to Asian families.

According to AJM's open letter, Yick Wo and Sutro serve a high percentage of Asian American students. Sutro is a school of 75% Asian Americans, 51% English learners, and 60% of low-income households. Yick Wo is a school of 33% Asian American students and was honored as a National Blue Ribbon Award School in 2020.

"Any measure of equity must take into account the City's violence, exclusion, and discrimination against the Asian American community. Chinatown is a neighborhood borne directly out of San Francisco's discrimination against and marginalization of Asian people in our City," wrote AJM. "To this day, Chinatown suffers one of the highest poverty rates in the city along with the highest concentration of low-income SROs. Three schools--Jean Parker, Spring Valley, and Yick Wo are targeted for closure or merger in the Chinatown/North Beach/Russian Hill community. The closures/merger of three schools in the area disproportionately impact the community."

"An approach that fails to recognize that Asian American students and families and neighborhoods also should be treated with fairness calls into question SFUSD's weighting and closure process altogether," AJM added.

Superintendent Dr. Wayne first announced his plans to have the school closed or merged months ago in 2024 to manage a $400 million budget deficit. His school closure plans would be in effect for the upcoming 2025-26 school year.

Mayor London Breed announced on September 22 to send her 7-member School Stabilization Team to work with SFUSD on the issue. The team is co-led by Maria Su, Executive Director of the Department of Children Youth and their Families, and Phil Ginsburg, General Manager of Recreation and Parks Department. Other 5 members of the team include ChiaYu Ma, Deputy Controller, Susie Smith, Deputy Director for Policy and Planning in the Department of Human Services Agency, Hong Mei Pang, Mayor’s Education Policy Advisor, Amanda Kahn Fried, Office of the Treasurer & Tax Collector, and Shawn Sherbune, Assistant Director in the Department of Human Resources.

Breed issued a statement on October 15 to demand the SFUSD stop the school closures process. "This cannot continue. Whatever this current proposed school closure process was meant to accomplish, or could have accomplished, is lost. Unfortunately, the only achievement has been to make a precarious time for our public schools even more chaotic," Breed stated. "This has become a distraction from the very real work that must be done to balance the budget in the next two months to prevent a state takeover. It is time to immediately stop this school closure process."

Breed also said she has lost confidence in the Superintendent's ability to manage the current process. Wayne is expected to resign soon after Breed issued that statement.

Members of the Chinese community and parents from the affected schools are disappointed to see the outcome from the work of the Mayor's School Stabilization Team and the proposed school closure list which allegedly targeted the high Asian and Chinese enrollment schools.

According to the school closure list released by the SFUSD, a total of 13 schools are proposed to be affected. 11 schools are proposed to be permanently closed and 2 schools will accept students from the closed schools.

In addition to four schools with high Asian student enrollment, other schools on the list for closing are El Dorado Elementary School in Visitacion Valley, Harvey Milk Elementary School in the Castro District, Malcolm X Academy Elementary School in Bayview, SF Community Alternative TK-8 School in Excelsior, SF Public Montessori Elementary School in Pacific Heights, June Jordan High School in Excelsior, the Academy - San Francisco High School in Twin Peaks.

All 4 high Asian enrollment schools proposed to be closed are located in the Asian neighborhoods.

Spring Valley which was founded in 1852 is the oldest public school in California. The school has been recognized as a school with rich Chinese American history and legacies of many well-known Chinese American alumni. If Spring Valley is closed in the 2025-26 school year, its students who mostly live in Chinatown and Nob Hill will be transferred to John Muir Elementary School located in the Western Addition.

Students at Yick Wo School, which was named after the landmark lawsuit plaintiff Yick Wo, will attend Redding Elementary School located on Pine Street close to Tenderloin. Jean Parker students may transfer to Gordon J. Lau School in Chinatown or John Yehall Chin School in North Beach. Students at Sutro School in the Richmond District may attend Lafayette or Alamo Elementary Schools.

Jack Jiang, a new immigrant from China, just started his family's new life in San Francisco over a year ago. His child is a student at the Yick Wo School. Jiang lives and works in Chinatown. He and his child walk to Yick Wo every morning. If Yick Wo is closed next year, he might need to take a bus with his child to go to the Redding School in Tenderloin that would take much more time from him sending his young child to school everyday.

"I still can't afford to buy a car yet as a new immigrant. I don't have any choices. Why does such a great and high academic school need to be closed? I don't understand," said Jiang. "The school closure affects my entire family. My child is sad to leave his friends. It is very hurtful to my child."

Yick Wo is one of the six elementary schools offered special education classes in SFUSD and the only one in the Chinatown and North Beach neighborhoods. Marina Brun is a parent and her daughter who suffers from autism disorder has enrolled in Yick Wo’s special education class. "The school closure plan would affect my family a lot. It is very difficult for my daughter to transfer to another school. My daughter and I have been anxious since we learned the news," said Brun. "We love the Yick Wo community."

Low enrollment was one of the factors to be measured for school closures. A number of parents told Wind Newspaper that Yick Wo has been known for being difficult to enroll in and easy to be rejected. They wondered why Yick Wo was chosen as the enrollment was 216, less than the SFUSD’s minimum 260.

Wind Newspaper sent an inquiry to SFUSD. "The frequently asked questions page on our Resource Alignment website (www.sfusd.edu) has information about how schools met the criteria for potential closure or merger,” SFUSD responded.

SFUSD said Dr. Wayne went in depth about the proposed school closures and mergers during his virtual town hall meeting on October 10. Members of the public could find the recording of the town hall meeting on SFUSD website.