SF Board of Education Elects Faauuga Moliga as Vice President

San Francisco (April 21, 2021) - The San Francisco Board of Education on Tuesday elected Faauuga Moliga to serve as vice president for the remainder of the 2021 year.

Faauuga Moliga is a San Francisco native and San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) alumnus, attending Paul Revere Elementary, Burbank Middle School, McAteer High School, Downtown High Continuation, John Adams, and Balboa High School. He is also a father of children attending public schools.

Moliga received his bachelor’s degree in Justice Studies at San Jose State University. Originally intent on becoming a lawyer, he left law school when he discovered that only five out of 55 Pacific Islanders at Burton had a 2.00 GPA. The lack of support for Pacific Islander students compelled Moliga to start Take Out Until Completely Healed (TOUCH). For six years, he spearheaded a program supporting over one hundred young women within a given year and leading to a 90% college transition rate for all seniors. Today, TOUCH participants have graduated and attended colleges such as UCLA, Harvard, Smith College, and UC Riverside.

Moliga then developed student advocacy programs Center for Academic Re-entry Empowerment Center to help chronically truant students. After this, he worked with Burton High School to increase the school's attendance and decrease its push-out rate. After his work with Burton, Moliga studied at San Jose State University's School of Social Work with a concentration on mental health and social justice, interned for the SFUSD Student Intervention Team and spent a school year at Carver Elementary, providing school wide support systems and individual counseling for the students and educators.

After graduating, Moliga was recruited by the Richmond Area Multi Services to be the therapist for June Jordan High School. Today, he works for the Department of Public Health Comprehensive Crisis Services as a behavioral health clinician providing crisis intervention for adult and children who are experiencing emotional distress related to family violence, physical or emotional illness, school truancy, behavioral problems and other crises.

“I am honored to help lead the Board and district as we remain focused on our priorities of returning all students to in-person learning five days a week, balancing our budget, and supporting students most in need,” Vice President Moliga said.

The Board of Education is comprised of seven members, elected at large to serve four-year terms. The Board determines policy for all public schools, from preschool through 12th grade, in the San Francisco Unified School District, City and County of San Francisco. The Board of Education is responsible for establishing educational goals and standards; approving curriculum; setting the district budget, which is independent of the city's budget; confirming appointment of personnel; and approving purchases of equipment, supplies, services, leases, renovation, construction, and union contracts.

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