Are school closings back on the table? Maria Su is ready for the conversation
A sit-down with the SFUSD superintendent as she passes the six-month mark of her nearly-impossible job.
Editor-at-large, The San Francisco Standard
Published May 12, 2025 • 6:00am
Maria Su is ready to talk about closing schools again in San Francisco.
No, that doesn’t mean the San Francisco Unified School District superintendent is committing to closing them. She knows the highly emotional issue is what chased out her predecessor last fall, leading to her appointment in October. But it’s time to study the issue and put it back on the agenda.
“I need to understand what the previous administration did regarding the school-closure process,” she told me in an interview Friday afternoon in her office at district headquarters. “I want to fully understand all the research they did, all the conversations they had, what worked, what didn’t work. I’ve asked the team to develop an after-action report for me. And we are going to get that soon.”
This statement, as noncommittal as it may sound, actually counts as progress for the beleaguered district’s leadership. If the six-month mark of her tenure constitutes an opportunity for evaluation, Su is earning more than a passing grade. Continue here.