Statements from SFUSD Superintendent Matthews and SF Board of Education President Lopez Regarding City’s Lawsuit Falsely Claiming SFUSD Has No Reopening Plan

San Francisco (February 3, 2021) - San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) Superintendent Dr. Vincent Matthews and SF Board of Education President Gabriela Lopez shared the following statements in response to an announcement regarding a lawsuit from the City of San Francisco that inaccurately claims the District does not have a plan to return students to in-person learning.

““We are working to get our school buildings open as quickly as possible. This is a frivolous lawsuit. It appears that the City Attorney has not read through our plans or joined the hours of open meetings we have had on the topic of safely returning to in-person learning. It is simply untrue that the Board and district have no plan to reopen schools. SFUSD has a very comprehensive plan with specific steps around health and safety and what in-person learning will look like for our focal student populations to return as soon as we can complete all the clearly laid out steps. It does not benefit our community to have the school district and City fighting. It is a waste of time that we don’t have,” Superintendent Matthews said.

“We have been working with the City and we’re going to get farther by continuing to work together rather than playing politics. Many city departments have supported our ongoing preparations to return safely to in-person learning for our most vulnerable students; at the same time there are big areas of need that the City is set up to support but that have largely gone unheeded. We have asked the City to lead the effort to provide surveillance testing for staff and students (a state requirement just added). Instead, SFUSD must go through a competitive bidding process and find a provider to administer this critical component of reopening schools. Most urban school districts across the state are in the same position –– one big difference is their mayors are fully supporting them,” Board President Lopez said.

More information regarding SFUSD’s preparations for in-person learning:

• SFUSD Return Safely Together Plan
• SFUSD School Reopening Dashboard
• Bargaining Updates
• SFUSD’s COVID-19 Safety Protocol for Families
  • English | Español | 中文 | عربي | Gagana Sāmoa | Tagalog | Tiếng Việt 
• SFUSD’s COVID-19 Health & Safety Protocols for In-Person Learning 
• SFUSD’s COVID-19 Health & Safety Protocols for Central Office Locations 
• In-Person Learning Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
• SFUSD Weekly Family Digest

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