Maria Su, the head of San Francisco's Department of Children, Youth and their Families, will be appointed superintendent of the district at a meeting Tuesday, replacing Matt Wayne, who had been superintendent since July 2022, city and school officials said.
Su was appointed by Mayor London Breed as co-leader of a "school stabilization team" made up of City Hall executives late last month to address problems in the district, including a large budget deficit that could lead to a takeover by state education officials.
The district said in a statement that under Su's leadership and at the direction of the Board of Education, the school closure plan that had been proposed for the next school year is not happening.
In a statement, SFUSD said: "Su will stop the current school closure process and focus on addressing the district's looming structural deficit to avoid state takeover. There will be no school closures in the 2025-2026 school year. The remaining school meetings about closures will be suspended."
Last week, Breed called out Wayne and his plans to close or merge schools to save money for the district.
Su was appointed director of DCYF in 2009 by then-mayor and now California Gov. Gavin Newsom. She will take responsibility for the district's 49,000 students through June 2026. The total operating budget for 2024 is nearly one-and-a-half billion dollars.
SFUSD must deliver a balanced first interim budget report by Dec. 15 to prevent a potential state takeover.
