Dear SFUSD Staff,

I hope this message finds you well. I recognize that many of our staff are still impacted by EMPowerSF, and want to assure you that we are working diligently in the Command Center to do right by our employees. 

Based on what I have heard in recent weeks from staff across the organization, I am writing to address concerns and share updates related to EMPowerSF.

Firstly, many staff have reported that they have received automated messages about case resolution when they are still experiencing issues. We recognize that this has been frustrating for many staff. Based on your feedback, the Case Management Team is making adjustments to our communications to provide clarity and as it relates to ticket mergers. The Case Management Team is working to ensure resolution for employees who are experiencing issues. 

The Case Management Team will continue to solve tickets based on the order that they were submitted and prioritize high-impact issues related to missing or incomplete pay, benefits coverage, and incorrect deductions from employee paychecks. We will be sending a communication in the upcoming days to provide additional information and resources about our case management approach. 

Additionally, we have made important strides in the following areas:

• Deferred Net Pay (DNP) Agreement for 2022-2023: SFUSD has successfully reached an agreement with United Educators of San Francisco (UESF) to include withholdings for salary add-ons in DNP so that there is more consistency for the July 2023 paycheck for certificated staff. The additional withholdings will be included on the February check for certificated educators. We will be sharing additional information about this agreement in the upcoming days and post updated information on the SFUSD website. SFUSD will also begin planning with UESF for DNP for 2023-2024 to honor our labor commitments.
• “Bending the curve”: Although there is still a high volume of new tickets in our system, the Case Management Team has reduced the backlog of tickets to bend the curve by consistently closing more tickets than we receive on a weekly basis. Learn more about our progress by reviewing our dashboard.
• Identifying root causes to prevent future issues: As part of our goal to ensure that we are preventing issues for employees, the Root Cause team identified 58 root causes to the issues that we experienced. We believe that once we are able to address these root causes and the related issues, the number of pay-related issues will significantly decrease. 

We are making steadfast progress in our effort to fix EMPowerSF. While there is still a lot of work to be done before the system is fully fixed, your partnership is instrumental in ensuring that we can be successful in this effort. Thank you. 

In community, 

Dr. Matt Wayne
SFUSD Superintendent