Oct. 15 Vision, Values, Goals, and Guardrails email

Sent Oct. 15, 2022

Dear SFUSD Community,

We are excited to share updates regarding the work we are doing to focus on student outcomes. 

On Oct. 15, 2022, the San Francisco Board of Education took part in a 6-hour workshop to update our draft vision, values, goals, and guardrails; these components will serve as the district’s compass for the next five years. We anticipate approving the final versions at our Oct. 25 board meeting. 

The board of education’s primary role is to represent the community’s vision and values for public education. Because San Francisco is a diverse community with many different perspectives, no single board member can understand the community’s viewpoints. Rather, it takes all seven board members collectively to represent the community. 

So, we did something unprecedented in San Francisco’s recent history–over the course of six weeks, all seven board members conducted an extensive community listening campaign to better understand the community’s vision and values. 

Supported by the board office staff, we facilitated 20+ in-person and virtual listening sessions, conducted an online survey, and  reviewed recent advisory council and committee recommendations. Overall, we collected almost 4,000 pieces of input across 988 individuals. Most importantly, parents, grandparents, guardians, staff, students, and community members took time to share their perspectives. We are incredibly grateful for everyone’s time and input. 

We then asked the Council of the Great City Schools to independently analyze the community’s input. Using this analysis, we refined our proposed vision, values, goals, and guardrails.

You can find a recap of our Oct. 15 workshop online. At our Oct. 25 board meeting, we will share more about our proposed vision, values, goals, and guardrails. We look forward to hearing your input at our Oct. 25 meeting or via email at boardoffice@sfusd.edu. 

Next steps

The San Francisco community has consistently demanded transparency, accountability, and (most importantly) results from the district. We believe our listening campaign and adoption of the vision, values, goals, and guardrails are a significant step in that direction.

We hope you can join us at our Oct. 25 board meeting, where we’ll describe how we decided on the district’s vision, values, goals, and guardrails.

Sincerely, 
Board of Education President Jenny Lam
Board of Education Vice President Kevine Boggess