San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
More ask Breed to give schools part of windfall
When San Francisco learned in November it was getting an unexpected $181 million to spread around, the first instinct of the mayor and the Board of Supervisors was to spend it on homeless initiatives, child care and affordable housing. There was no talk of using it for teacher pay raises.
But now, a growing number of city leaders, education officials and labor groups are calling on Mayor London Breed and the board to spend some of the windfall on a teacher salary increase the district began paying before its funding source was secured.
Proposition G — the June parcel tax that voters approved to fund the raise — is entan-
gled in a lawsuit, and the San Francisco Unified School District wants the city to share the windfall to ensure the teacher raise remains in place.
The school district gave teachers a 7 percent raise in July and has another 4 percent scheduled increase this summer, despite the fact that the Prop. G funds are unavailable. In a September letter to the district, Breed said the raise was a “great concern” and questioned the “fiscal prudence” of increasing wages before the money generated by the measure had even been collected.
The district plans to use reserve funds to cover the raise this year, but that’s a limited funding stream, and it will run out of money to pay for the raise in a year or so unless the city steps in, officials acknowledged this week.
“If necessary we can cover the cost for the rest of the year,” district spokeswoman Gentle Blythe said. “What happens next year is highly dependent on whether additional funds are appropriated by the city. We could get through part of next (school) year, but we would have reached our limit.” How to spend the windfall, which comes from excess property tax revenue in a county education fund, has divided the city in recent weeks.
Several supervisors and Breed proposed differing visions last month on how to spend the money. Breed’s proposal focused on homelessness and housing initiatives, while the supervisors’ proposal divvied the money among homelessness initiatives, municipal energy independence and child care. Neither proposal mentioned funding for public schools.
But at least four supervisors — Hillary Ronen, Shamann Walton, Matt Haney and Gordon Mar — said adjusting their original proposal to include the school district is a high priority for them.
“I am completely on board to cover the amount they are short,” for the teacher raises, Ronen said. “Because if they don’t (get the money) it means they will take money away from the classrooms. And as a parent of a child in public schools, I can tell you we cannot afford to take money away from the classrooms.”
The teacher raise is costing the district $40 million on an annual basis. Currently, there is about $44 million in its rainy day account, with possible surplus city funds to be added. Blythe said the school board could decide to spend it all if necessary.
Schools Superintendent Vincent Matthews said last month that $60 million of the windfall should go toward “critical education-related purposes, including educator salaries.”
School funding “is a high priority for me,” Mar said Friday. “But first I want to understand (the district’s) rationale behind asking for $60 million.”
District officials said they knew what they were doing when they starting paying the raises.
“I think the district knew there was a chance of a lawsuit when it began issuing the raises, but felt it was urgent to get raises to our teachers given the high cost of living in San Francisco,” Blythe said.
Blythe said that if the reserve fund money runs out, the school board and teachers union will have to figure out what to do next, which could include rescinding the raise.
The windfall is from a county education fund that is filled by property taxes. When the revenue in the fund exceeds what is owed to the school district, the city gets to keep the rest. This is the first time that’s happened, with a total of $415 million in excess funds available. Most of that money is earmarked for Municipal Transportation, libraries, child care and tree maintenance. The city’s public schools get about $35 million for youth services and rainy-day reserves.
That leaves $181 million up for grabs.
Breed has so far left the schools out of her spending plan, saying the money should help cover homeless services that meet the goals of Proposition C, a November ballot measure passed with 61 percent but is now facing possible legal challenges that could hold up the money for months or even years.
Her proposal to spend all the money on homelessness and housing initiatives has widespread support from housing advocates and public housing residents, who said her plan will give much needed relief to the city’s homeless and housing crisis.
“With this funding we need to focus on making a real impact now to address the significant challenges we have around housing and homelessness,” Breed said Friday in a statement. “There will be opportunities to discuss salary commitments going forward and during the budget process, but right now we need to work on making immediate investments that make a difference for people living on our streets and in the neighborhoods most impacted by homelessness.
But those who want to see some of the money go toward public schools said that since both Prop. C and Prop. G passed with nearly 61 percent voter support, the city should use the windfall to fund both initiatives.
“We have to make sure that we carry out the will of the voters on all ends,” said Walton, who supports adding money to schools. “Everything that people are discussing is a priority for the city. We all have to come together and have a conversation around what can be shifted to where.”
The San Francisco Labor Council is also backing the school district’s request.
“We call on city leaders to invest this revenue in the workers who are the backbone of our city government and public education system,” Rudy Gonzalez, executive director of the council, said in a statement.
The council called on city leaders to spend $60 million on schools, $60 million on recruiting and retaining city workers, and $60 million on homeless services. On Thursday, newly inaugurated Haney held a town hall meeting at the Tenderloin Community School to hear how neighbors wanted the city’s money spent — including the $181 million windfall. When the crowd of about 70 people were told to discuss in small groups what they felt needed more funding, the room erupted into a chorus of people talking about affordable housing, homeless services and mental health services. A number of people also said they wanted to see more money go toward public schools.
“We have some really great teachers, and I was glad to support them last year (with Prop. G),” said Corrina Rice, as her 7-year-old son, Owen, who goes to Redding Elementary, ate a Rice Krispie treat. “I want us to be able to keep the teachers we have.”
At the end of the twohour meeting, Haney asked the crowd who planned to come to the City Hall meetings where the supervisors will hash out how the money is spent.
Nearly everyone in the room raised their hand.
Trisha Thadani and Jill Tucker are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: tthadani@ sfchronicle.com, jtucker@ sfchronicle.com Twitter: @trishathadani, @jilltucker