SF School Board Pauses Controversial School Renaming to Focus on Reopening Classrooms

San Francisco's school board is pausing its controversial school renaming proposal to focus its efforts on reopening classrooms during the pandemic.

The school board won't bring the subject back up again until after students are physically back in school.

That's according to San Francisco Board of Education President Gabriela López, who announced the shift in a San Francisco Chronicle opinion piece and on social media.

A "blue-ribbon panel of community leaders" recommended 44 school names be changed, joining many other renamed institutions across the country, as the U.S. reckons with its history of racial injustice. The school board approved the renaming in late January.

The effort to rename schools — including George Washington High School and Abraham Lincoln High School, among others — drew fire locally and nationally for a process that didn't consult historians and featured glaring research errors.

It's also served as a flashpoint, drawing critique from frustrated parents who wondered why the school board decided to dedicate time to renaming schools when some parents are laser-focused on getting their kids back into classrooms for in-person learning.

"I am committed to focusing the board's attention on getting our students back into the classroom," López wrote on Twitter Sunday evening. "I always acknowledge and take responsibility for mistakes made in the building renaming process. We need to slow down and provide more opportunities for community input — that cannot happen until AFTER our schools are back in person."

She added, "This is the last time I'll comment publicly on renaming until schools are reopened. We will not be taking valuable time from our board agendas to further discuss this, as we need to prioritize reopening."

Matt Haney, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, and a former school board member himself, praised the move, adding that the renaming process had "flaws" and that it was "wrong to rush it."

"The school district should focus on reopening schools safely and supporting students now," Haney told KQED. "There's no more important and urgent priority."

The school board is expected to vote Tuesday on approving, or not, some planning toward reopening, even as the San Francisco Unified School District and unions negotiate on other aspects of the plan.

The city of San Francisco sued the school district at the beginning of February, saying most guidelines point to school reopenings as safe. Unions representing educators and other staff have called for vaccinations before returning to school buildings.

—Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez and NPR