What is the Resource Alignment Initiative?

The District has not changed, although our circumstances have continued to change in recent years. Our resources should be stretched more evenly across too many schools.

The Resource Alignment Initiative (RAI) is a multifaceted plan to align SFUSD’s resources to its goals. It began in August 2023 with an honest discussion between SFUSD staff and the Board of Education about the current state of SFUSD’s schools and what steps we need to take to make them a better place for students.

The Resource Alignment Initiative has five components because none of them alone will help us reach our goals:

Guiding Principles

Superintendent Wayne has laid out four guiding principles for the RAI recommendations that will be developed this year.:

1. Money will follow students. Schools should have predictable services that all students receive based on student enrollment.
2. SFUSD will plan to operate at scale based on student enrollment. Schools and classrooms will operate at full capacity to provide the best instruction and learning experience. 
3. SFUSD will allocate resources to programs aligned with positive student outcomes. Improving student outcomes requires strategic abandonment. 
4. SFUSD will approach the development of any proposed school portfolio changes with an equity lens to explicitly evaluate disproportionate racial equity impacts. This approach will be consistent with state statutes, best practices, and with an understanding of San Francisco’s history of racial segregation. 

(See here for Dr. Wayne’s August 2023 letter to the community, District staff’s RAI presentation, and a video recording of the discussion)