News

By Angela Gin, Zoe Hong, Zoë Hsu Doo, Xavier Malizia, Abigail Park, and Phoebe Seigel 

Discussions and disagreements echoed between teachers in NB18 on February 5th, as union members examined the results of the fact-finding review released the night before. This meeting came on the heels of the United Educators of San Francisco’s decision to strike that morning. 

UESF is a labor union representing over 6500 SFUSD teachers, paraeducators, and substitutes. These educators are currently working without a contract since their 2023-2025 contracts expired on June 30th, and UESF has been negotiating new contract terms with SFUSD since March.. 

After a four-day-long strike, begun February 9th, union and district negotiators finally came up with an agreement for a new contract that satisfied most of UESF’s demands. The contract includes a 5 percent raise for certified employees by 2026-2027, fully funded healthcare for UESF employees and their dependents, and more aid for paraeducators. The tentative agreement put an end to the strike, and opened  the doors for SFUSD schools once again. 

Negotiations between the district and the union began after the end of the 2023-2025 contract terms, which included a 5 percent total raise from 2023, fully funded medical insurance for eligible employees, special education mandatory paid training within one month of a new assignment, and sanctuary protections excluded from the contract and outlined under policy.

Following a fact-finding document released on February 3rd, the district came to the bargaining table with new offers. These offers entailed a 6 percent pay raise over three years, fully funded health care premiums for families, a pilot program to analyze special education workload, and support for unhoused and undocumented families sanctuary protections, strictly according to the Board of Education Sanctuary Policy. 

Unsatisfied with these offers, UESF continued fighting for a 9 percent pay raise for educators, 14 percent pay raise for paraeducators over two years, fully funded health care premiums for family members, changing special education workload to a “point values” system for students within the Individualized Education Program, and codifying the sanctuary policies in the new labor contract.

By February 4th, 97.6 percent of educators voted “yes” to strike, and UESF declared the beginning of the strike as February 9th. As a strike threatened to  shut down schools and extend the school year from lack of instructors, the 100+ person UESF negotiations team met with SFUSD on February 5th to attempt a resolution after a thorough fact finding process in order to navigate the unprecedented circumstance of the predicted strike.

The last SFUSD strike occurred in 1979, lasting  six weeks, coined the “Great School Strike of 1979” by “The San Francisco Standard.” The strike began in response to  SFUSD laying off over one thousand teachers due to Proposition 13, a law that cut property taxes and caused the district to lose large sums of money. For those six weeks, schools were initially closed, but were reopened to students and staffed with substitute teachers later into the strike. Only after the then Mayor Dianne Feinstein joined negotiations was an agreement reached in which laid-off teachers were rehired, and all teachers received a pay raise.

Current Lincoln Ethnic Studies teacher Charles Lin is a negotiator and bargaining team member for UESF. On February 5th, he prepared himself for the evening’s bargaining meeting between SFUSD and UESF.  The last formal, written proposal given to UESF by SFUSD was on September 25,  according to Lin. Since then, the two parties had been negotiating back and forth without an actual, written proposal. The September 25th proposal notably ignored educators’ requests for healthcare coverage for their dependents, stating that healthcare coverage would stay at “status-quo,” which costs families around $700 per dependent per month, frustrating educators and contributing to the tensions that led up to the teachers’ call for a strike beginning Monday, February 9th. 

District-union tensions had been festering for a while. Over the past few years, the union has expressed frustration with the way SFUSD is treating educators, and UESF even held practice picket lines in 2025. According to Lin, the main issue causing the conflict is simple: money. 

“ I’ve been negotiating for nine, ten months. None of us are budging on the money issue, and so because of that, we go to an impasse because nothing’s happening. Then we go to mediation where the two sides have someone else to talk in separate rooms, then maybe come to [an agreement],” Lin says. 

Once the fact finding report, done by an impartial third party, came out, the district sent out a proposal to UESF, throwing both parties back into negotiations–a last round before the strike began. 

Another issue UESF brought up as a consequence of low wages is the “mass exodus” of educators from San Francisco schools. For Lin, this “mass exodus” stems from a multitude of factors. 

“For a lot of people, they feel that the situation here is untenable for a living. Again, SF is one of the most expensive cities. And people want to be able to have families here, and not spend so much of their time, like writing IEPS. Or, if you’re a para-educator, it is probably more likely you’re working two or three jobs, and paying the same amount in healthcare as a certified teacher, so people can’t afford that. [...] They’re going to burn out, they’re going to leave, and then we have to hire new people which creates instability.”

Between a loose gag order and a flurry of emails from superintendent Maria Su, students and their  families were confused for weeks about UESF’s intention to strike. Due to the gag order, teachers were not allowed to talk about the strike during class hours. However, teachers could share information with their students during non-work hours, translating to lunch and before and after school. For the upper grades, teachers shared certain information and the students then relayed it to their parents. However, for lower grade students in the district, parents could not rely on their students to relay information about the strike. 

Leon Sultan, Lincoln media representative for the Union Building Committee, says that the Union does not have the same communication channels with families as the district which makes sharing the teachers’ side of the story very difficult. 

“We all want to provide the best education for our students […] We don’t really want to strike, but we do not feel that the district has been bargaining in good faith with us,” says Sultan.

Teachers had been working without a contract since July 2025, so the bargaining of a new contract was not foreign to students. In fact, just two years ago, UESF was threatening to strike while negotiating their new contract. 

Throughout the district,students and their families have been affected by the strike differently. Students preparing for advanced placement tests had to learn and study the material independently. Aside from  the stress of their kids losing instructional time, families with younger children also had to worry about finding childcare during the strike. 

Further, food scarcity was a concern while schools were closed down.  Around 54 percent of students in the district as of the previous school year rely on the Free and Reduced Price School Meals program because of food-insecurity, according to EdData.

SFUSD initially argued that they were unable to meet the union’s demands due to the district’s budget deficit as the district is under state fiscal oversight. They cite the declining enrollment as a factor in this deficit. 

On February 5th,  Su sent out an email to all district students, families, and teachers stating that the district’s planning is focused on learning continuity, student safety and support, security and operational planning, and staff guidance and staffing plans. 

Throughout the week of the strike, she emailed the community updates about the negotiations and told students and parents if school would be open the next day. 

These emails included information on how to contact SFUSD for support, food distribution resources through the Department of Children Youth and Families, and independent study packets. These packets were delivered throughout the city to community centers and libraries where students could access materials according to their grade level. To access these materials, students needed to complete an independent study contract. 

According to a student-led group on Instagram, signing the independent study contact would mark students as present so that the school could continue receiving money for student attendance, undermining the goals of the strike. Many union members also encouraged families to ignore these packets and to not sign the contract as it was seen as crossing the picket line.

According to Su, the district report found that UESFs demand for a wage increase was “not budget-neutral and would likely be rejected by the state.”

The strike lasted four days, from February 9th to February 12th. All schools were closed during the strike. Each day, across the school district, thousands of educators picketed outside of their respective schools in the morning and marched downtown in the afternoon. 

The first day of striking started on Monday, February 9th at 8:00 a.m. Teachers, para-professionals, security guards, and some administration  gathered at their respective sites, picketing in front of their schools until 10:00 a.m. After breaking for lunch, they met again at Civic Center in the early afternoon. There, staff members from all across San Francisco public schools protested for the Union’s demands.

On the second day of the strike, the morning routine repeated; a picket at each campus from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. followed by a break for lunch. At Lincoln, the community began to become more engaged, with food, coffee, music, and other community activities provided by staff, students, and families. For the collective protest in the afternoon, all staff met at Dolores Park on a rainy Tuesday afternoon to start a march down city streets to Civic Center. 

Day three started out with the same morning routine. In the afternoon, droves of red-clad teachers came together to spell out “For Our Students, STRIKE” at Ocean Beach for the event organized by human-sign artist Brad Newsham. 

Day four continued as normal, unknown to the teachers that it would be the last day of the strike. After the morning picketing, all staff and supporting students, families, and community members met at the Ferry building for yet another march to Civic Center.

In the early morning of February 13th after an all-night bargaining session, UESF announced that an agreement was reached, and students were to return to school on February 18th, after President’s Day and Lunar New Year. Discussions are still ongoing, as the union votes to ratify the tentative agreement.

By Phoebe Seigel

Earlier this month, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie passed a new drug policy measure that would focus on getting drug users off city streets. The program, officially called “Rapid Enforcement, Support, Evaluation, and Triage”, is part of the mayor’s “Breaking the Cycle” initiative, which aims to end homelessness and curb the fentanyl crisis that has ravaged the city. The RESET house will serve as an alternative to hospitalization and jail, two places that San Francisco’s drug users have often ended up in the past. 

RESET comes as pressure has been mounting for San Francisco government officials to address the ongoing drug crisis that has left American cities struggling to regain their footing. In the past, a common tactic used to address the issue was to arrest those found using drugs on the street. Now, though drug users will still be arrested, instead of being sent to jail, they will be sent to RESET, where they will be given the chance to get treatment and gain release. RESET will be run by the Sheriff’s office. 

The RESET house is what many in the recovery industry call a “sobering house”, which is, according to the organization National Sobering, “often the front door to recovery and a more stable life for society’s most vulnerable populations, addressing the needs of the here and now and working with community partners for additional services. It is a safe, supportive, and supervised environment caring for publicly intoxicated individuals until they are functionally sober.”

 San Francisco Sheriff Paul Miyamoto is optimistic about the program, noting that it will hopefully help alleviate the crisis that has become fentanyl overdoses in recent years. 

Miyamoto defines RESET as a space that is, “...not a jail, not a hospital, that we bring people under the influence [to], to help them sober up, and also give them time, [time] to rest up and have access to people and services and treatment, to help them get off the addictive cycle that they’re on.”

In San Francisco, to be out in public and intoxicated is a crime. What law enforcement officers have done in the past was simply take anyone found under the influence into custody, bring them to a jail or a hospital until they sober up, then release them. Now, with RESET, those who would have been taken to one of those spaces will now be placed in RESET, where they will have more of a chance to get help from qualified professionals. 

“Now they’re going to a better, therapeutic, healthy environment, with professionals there that are not just healthcare professionals, but also people who can link them to services,” says Miyamoto. 

“There’s no walls, there’s no doors and bars. It’s not a jail. I think that’s what the game changer is here, because we have so many people in public spaces, out in the community, who are under the influence. We’ve done a really great job addressing the drugs sales and the criminal behavior related to drug sales, both buying and selling. But we haven’t addressed how to deal with people who, under the throes of addiction, are still out on the street. And [RESET] is a way for us to be able to do that, to give a tool to the officers that are out there to be able to bring somebody in custody to a space where they can sober up and change.”

San Francisco has been ramping up crackdowns on drug distribution, leading operations in November of 2025 that, over a two week period, led to 350 arrests and seizures of over 12 pounds of narcotics, according to the SFPD. The narcotics seized included fentanyl, the deadly drug that has heightened the overdose death rate both locally and nationwide. Though numbers have been dropping since 2023, 621 people still died in 2025 of a drug overdose, many of which involved fentanyl, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. 

Miyamoto claims that the rate of fentanyl distribution and overdoses was a leading cause in the introduction of the RESET center. 

“This is something that we’ve looked at from the very outset of dealing with the fentanyl drug crisis. We’ve had two mayoral administrations now who have declared a state of emergency because of the effects of fentanyl on our streets and in our public spaces. Fentanyl is the most evil drug that I have seen in my 30 year career, and the effects that it has on people are devastating. When we first planned this—our approach to dealing with the fentanyl crisis——having a sobering center was in the original plans.”

Miyamoto is hopeful that the new RESET center and the law enforcement policies will help those who need it most.

By Sylvia Liu

San Francisco’s violent crime rate has gone down significantly compared to 2024, with the most extreme drop being in robbery, which is the lowest since the 1950s. Overall, the violent crime rate decreased 17 percent. 

It’s a stark contrast compared to when crime rates rose during Covid. Police efforts and improved technology have significantly mitigated the city’s crime rate, and the results from the decrease in crime are starting to show. 

According to S.FGov, “Violent offense sub-categories are homicide, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault.” Compared to 2024, homicide decreased 20 percent, rape decreased 16.2 percent, assault decreased 12.1 percent, and robbery decreased 23.7 percent. 

The decrease in crime rates is creating more opportunities for San Francisco. There are more people coming back to San Francisco since they feel safer, making San Francisco more lively again. 

Brenton Chen, a resident in the Bayview district sees the improvement in how people move around the city: “ More people feel safe in the neighborhood, and more are willing to let their child go outside and hang out with friends.”

During the pandemic, there wasa rise in crime, but that has slowly come down. Violent crimes are going down due to many new changes made to the city. 

According to Officer Jiang, a police officer in SF, “There are many elements that decreased the rate of crimes: there is more patrol work, more police cars patrolling the streets, and the new technology also helps.We can get the information we need faster so we can act faster.”

According to the latest news in the San Francisco Police Department, during 2025, 1,003 firearms were seized along with 56 pounds of fentanyl, which relates to the decrease in violent crime since there are fewer unregistered weapons and fewer people who are on drugs and at risk of dying.

According to Officer Jiang, such changes can be most seen on Market Street. In 2024, there was an abundance of homeless people and people who were using drugs, but now there are barely any. 

Another place where the city saw change is near Lake Merced and Stonestown. Before, there were a considerable number of fights and thefts, but now there are almost none, along with the absence of RV vans. 

The city is getting safer due to changes. Officer Jiang states, “ I am very appreciative of the community and the city that supports the SFPD, and I hope that they will continue to receive support. There are many ways that you can help, such as if you see something, say something”. 

By Abigail Park

Standing on the front steps of his alma mater, Abraham Lincoln High School, Alan Wong pledged to support and defend the U.S. Constitution as District Four’s new supervisor on December 1st, 2025. 

Joel Engardio was recalled on September 16th for implementing Proposition K, which transformed the two-mile Great Highway, regularly used for transportation, into a public park. After his recall, which was supported by more than 62 percent of District Four voters, San Francisco mayor Daniel Lurie appointed Beya Alcaraz as the new District Four Supervisor for her background as a local business owner and organizer of community programs like fire-relief donation drives. Seven days later, she resigned due to scrutiny over past business practices when running her pet supply store, “The Animal Connection.”

As of December 1st, the District Four supervisor position is filled by Supervisor Alan Wong, who was also appointed by Lurie. Wong, born and raised in the Sunset district, attended De Avila Elementary and Herbert Hoover Middle School. He graduated from Abraham Lincoln High School in 2005 and attended the City College of San Francisco for his Associates Degree. Then, he earned his bachelors degrees at UC San Diego in Political Science and Public Policy and moved back to San Francisco to earn his graduate degree in Public Affairs at the University of San Francisco. 

“I’m glad to see [Wong] inaugurated,” recalls Asya Landa, former Chemistry teacher to Wong and current Lincoln Chemistry and Physics substitute teacher. “I taught him analytical thinking and how to break down complex information in Chemistry class, and am proud he can use it as Supervisor.”

Beyond his education, Wong previously held an honorable number of positions in his community including becoming elected for the City College of San Francisco Board of Trustees and serving as an officer in the California Army National Guard for over 15 years. Many District Four members hold high hopes for Wong’s term and local organizations enthusiastically endorse him. 

“In the last three years, crime has reduced by 48 percent in the city, and violent crimes are down 25 percent,” Frank Noto, Co-founder of Stop Crime SF, proclaims at the swearing in ceremony. “Alan played a role in that: he helped grow our organization from about 1200 members to over 3000 members when he was on the board of Stop Crime SF… He’s always been involved– he started a patrol [of volunteers] in the Sunset when he worked for the supervisor in this district… and gathered demographic data on victims.”

At the swearing in ceremony, Wong publicly announced his initiatives.

“I’m so honored to have your confidence and look forward to partnering with you [Mayor Lurie] with my priorities around improving trust in local government, cutting red tape, public safety, and education,” Wong states.

Within just one week as supervisor and a supporter of Lurie’s initiatives, Wong voted for the “Family Zoning Plan,” which works to reverse housing segregation and strengthen communities by investing money into building more affordable and diverse housing. 

Another one of Wong’s initial plans includes attempting to reopen the Great Highway on weekends by signing his plan onto the June 2026 ballot. However, Wong was short one out of four signatures by January 13th, 2026, and his proposition did not make it onto the upcoming ballot. 

“I personally see the closure of the Great Highway as an improvement to the Sunset District as it added a new park where people can bike, walk their dogs… [and] boosted the local economy by helping small businesses near the dunes,” says Aidan Bolosan, Lincoln senior and 18-year-long District Four resident who disapproves of Wong’s Great Highway reopening plan. “Though, it’s great hearing how he wants to find compromise and bridge the community together like a good leader.”

Despite falling short on gaining support to reopen the Great Highway, Wong works to continue restoring trust in the local government through many other initiatives, including leading PG&E hearings after the recent city-wide power outage and fully staffing the police department, which is currently at 75 percent capacity, by speeding up the hiring process and promoting alternative staffing with retired officers.

“[I want to be] able to ensure that our officers are able to enforce the existing laws and ensure that we are a city where people are following the rules,” Wong insists. “People live in the Sunset because they want to live in a safe and clean neighborhood and have a place where they can raise their families and send their kids to good schools in the neighborhood.”

As a district supervisor in a city with open air drug markets, visiting tourists, a growing number of small businesses, and young students, Wong takes a holistic approach to his policies, keeping all identities of District Four individuals and families in mind. He is determined to make District Four, and San Francisco overall, a safer community through law-enforcement readiness.

As a former Student Advisory Council Representative and Student Delegate to the Board of Education during his time at Lincoln, Children’s Council of San Francisco Senior Director of Public Policy Communications, and proud son of a father who attended City College of San Francisco’s culinary program to support him for over two decades as a Grand Hyatt hotel cook, Wong also focuses his work on education. His main measures include accessible childcare for working families and workforce preparation for high school and college graduates. 

Wong specifically strives to enhance career readiness by fighting against the potential financial cuts of the Junior Reserves Officer Training Corps high school leadership development program. This program is offered as an elective class and Physical Education class alternative. The San Francisco Unified School District has been in a budgeting crisis and is cutting approximately $102 million from the 2026-2027 fiscal school year, and the JROTC program has not been a budgeting priority.

JROTC has been a part of Abraham Lincoln, Lowell, George Washington, Balboa, Mission, and Galileo high school for decades. Currently, the Lincoln JROTC Battalion fosters the leadership development of over 230 cadets; the district-wide JROTC Brigade tends to over 980 cadets.

“I never participated in JROTC myself, but I recognize the support it gave my peers when I was in high school,” Wong states. “Some folks, they see it as an ideological thing, it being a part of the military. Back when I was younger, there were attempts to get rid of the program. Fortunately, it still stays here [because] many of [my peers] developed confidence through participating in the program, stepped into different leadership roles, and were able to get mentorship and guidance.”

To restore trust in the local government, accelerating the police department hiring process and fighting for JROTC funding are only a few of Wong’s strategies to promote public safety and education. He is dedicated to placing the best interests of his community at heart when shaping district-wide policy. 

“Being able to serve the Sunset District where I was born and raised in is the greatest honor of my life,” Wong states. “And serving as supervisor of Lincoln High School is something that I deeply cherish. As a veteran, I will always place the community and my country first above any partisan politics or ideology and work in the best interest of everybody in the neighborhood.”

By Anya Golden

Days before Christmas, a third of San Francisco lost power for up to 72 hours. Residents in the Richmond, Sunset, and Presidio districts suffered the effects the longest—some homes and businesses losing power for up to three days. 

According to PG&E, the power outage was caused by a fire in their 8th and Mission street substation. Initially, the outage affected 40,000 customers, but rose to 130,000 as additional portions of the electric system were de-energized for safety.

Throughout the city, stoplights shut down, Waymos stalled, and underground MUNI lines were closed. In order to keep the roads safe, law enforcement officers were stationed at busy intersections and corridors. All MUNI stations between Embarcadero and Van Ness were closed, with the J and N switching back at the Church/Duboce station, and the K, L, and M trains switching back at the Castro station.

Following the initial blackout, PG&E executed two more planned outages in order to repair the substation. During the initial and subsequent outages, PG&E used temporary generators and alternate grid configurations to keep power flowing while permanent fixes were completed. 

Residents and mayor Daniel Lurie expressed frustration by the lack of communication from PG&E and their repeatedly shifting restoration estimates. 

A local newspaper, “SF Standard”, quoted John McAllen, who has lived in the Sunset for more than 40 years. He commented on the fact that the expected restoration time changed from noon to 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. in a single day. 

“Lying bastards, they’re a bunch of drunks,” the 82-year-old said. “The lies, the disinformation—-we’re in the dark.”

On the second day of Sunset, Richmond, and Presidio residents living without power, a resource center was set up at the Richmond Rec Center for fourteen hours a day between Monday and Saturday. The center provided charging stations, Wi-Fi access, bottled water, snacks, ice, restrooms, hand-washing stations, seating, and shelter. PG&E staff were at the center to answer questions and provide outage updates. 

Jennifer Jackson, a mother of a Lincoln senior, spoke on what she saw as the city’s shortfall in responding to the crisis. “The city needed to be in a position of advocacy, not finger pointing. Echoing communication updates and impacts and being specific about what the city was advocating for rather than the finger pointing of the obvious, who was responsible... PG&E. I wanted to see where the city was helping. PG&E set up the shelters for those impacted. Was the city involved?”

Jackson, who works at Purusha Yoga and Pilates Studio in the Richmond added that, “We had to cancel classes and shut the studio down. We lost revenue from no class attendance, lost retail revenue for the last holiday surge before Christmas, and were in the hole after stocking up inventory. Our teachers lost revenue.”

Autumn Pritchard, a senior at Lincoln, was working a middle school holiday production. After ten minutes of the production, the lights went out. After waiting it out for fourty five minutes and scrambling to collect the expensive microphones from kids while figuring out a meeting spot, they ended up finishing the show, improvised by singing a capella and using battery operated candles and christmas trees.

Another Sunset resident and Lincoln alumnus, Lucy Stanford, also lost revenue. She is an eighteen-year-old running a nail tech business out of her room, which is her main source of income.

“Without any power at my house I had to cancel a whole three nail appointments. The holidays are a busy time of year for business and I either couldn’t reschedule those appointments or had to squeeze them in. It was a difficult situation for all involved.”  

PG&E announced that residents' homes impacted by the outage will automatically receive a $200 credit on their bill, while businesses will get a $2,500 credit. Customers can also pursue a separate claims process which will take up to 30 days to process. 

By Mikayla Chew

The Ethnic Studies program expands its curriculum with its newest course, titled Mastering Cultural Identity (MCI), taught by Dr. Tiffany Jackson, aiming to empower African American students through history and psychology. 

Jackson is the recent teacher for the online ASL 2 curriculum and MCI teacher at Abraham Lincoln High School. Jackson has taught other variations of MCI but this will be her first year teaching at ALHS. 

MCI was recently introduced here at ALHS this semester as part of the Ethnic Studies curriculum, qualifying as a G-elective course. The initial movement started in Oakland Unified School District and migrated into SFUSD in spring of 2020, piloting small programs in two middle schools with the help of the American Reading Company. 

MCI focuses on historical and contemporary African and African American culture, all while improving reading and writing skills specifically for black males. Although this course is specifically designed for African American students, Jackson shares that all students are welcome to take the class and learn more about African American history. 

Jackson explains that her class is about “mastering” student’s culture, specifically African American heritage and being empowered by their identity. Core components of MCI’s curriculum are racial identity, African American Culture, and African Americans throughout history. 

“MCI brings a unique lesson that focuses more on the psychology of African American experience and racial identity,” says Jackson. 

Marisol Arkin, principal of ALHS explains that at her previous job as an Oakland middle school principal, she had the same program offered at her school and was inspired when the African American Achievement and Leadership Initiative team reached out to integrate MCI curriculum into Lincoln. 

Arkin explains that Lincoln was able to add the program into the course list through a grant titled the Student Success Fund as well as a meeting with Community School Coordinator; Eric Cuentos. 

Cuentos, also a recent hire for the 2025-26 school year, manages the Needs Assessment and connects with other partners to support students’ needs. He also works closely with the English Language Advisory Committee and African American Parent Advisory Council to advocate on behalf of Focal students. 

The Student Success Fund is a grant from the San Francisco Department Children Youth and Families where schools can apply and be accepted to become a Community School. Lincoln had become a Community School last school year. The purpose of Community Schools is to provide support as well as enhance academic and social emotional support for Focal,  English Language Learners, African American, and Special Education students. This funding is guaranteed through the 2028-29 school year.

MCI was identified as Needs Assessment priority through a comprehensive Needs Assessment conducted by the Community School Coordinator. This process involved one-on-one meetings, surveys from students and parents, as well as group conversations with partners with Focal students. Cuentos explains the data from his research resulted in possible strategies that could be implemented to support focal students such as hiring a Chinese-speaking Family Liaison, continue to fund the Spanish-speaking Family Liaison, and to hire a teacher to teach an MCI course. 

The students that have been enrolled into the MCI course were either already placed onto the roster or students this semester that have schedules that can accommodate a mid-year switch. For example, students with free periods or are enrolled in a non A-G required class. 

“I’m new,so it was a class they just put me in.” says Sky Mckinzy, a sophomore who transferred at the beginning of the year.  

Mckinzy explains her initial impression of MCI was that it was new and unfamiliar to classes she had taken before, but now she found that she has learned more about her culture.  

Jackson hopes that more students not only take MCI to learn more about the history and racial identity, but rather encourage students to find their inner strength and be empowered to be their best selves every day. 

“I want students to learn the experience of African Americans and all students to feel to be aware of the world that they live in,” Jackson states. 

By Kevin Hu

The Academy, formally known as the Academy of Arts and Sciences, is the smallest campus in the entire district. It shares a campus with Ruth Asawa School of the Arts. On October 1, 2025, superintendent Maria Su announced to Academy families that the San Francisco Unified School District will “relocate the program” to Raoul Wallenberg High School. 

Academy students will have until January 30th to decide if they want to attend Wallenberg or not. Those who choose not to attend will have first choice of another SFUSD high school. Until then, they will remain at Academy for the remainder of the 2025-2026 school year.

Since the pandemic, Academy’s student population has dwindled. Former Academy teacher and current Lincoln social studies teacher Claire Jensen says, “The student to teacher ratio when I started teaching at Academy was 35:1, so similar to Lincoln. By the time I left, it was closer to 18:1.” 

Indeed, according to the district, only 99 students currently attend Academy, a far cry from the 200 students the school is funded to support.

Academy closing is a complex issue. On one hand, for the students still attending Academy, it’s easier for them to get quick feedback than if they attended a larger school. 

According to Jensen, “Students are able to receive immediate attention from teachers…It’s good for students with IEPs.” 

On the other hand, SFUSD is facing a budget deficit. The district spends more than it receives from funding. According to a Parents for Public Schools budget report, after accounting for all expenditures, SFUSD faces a net shortfall of over $100 million. 

Although the closing of Academy is controversial, it had been in the making for years. The district previously considered merging or closing schools between 2022-2024 while under superintendent Matt Wayne. 

Under Wayne, the district released the Resource Alignment Initiative, a plan to close or merge 11 schools. Among those listed in the RAI was Academy.

The backlash forced Wayne to step down and allowed Su to take over as superintendent of the district.

Su promised to halt closures and mergers for the 2025-2026 school year. However, the district released a fiscal stabilization plan in December 2025. The district plans to save $3 million in 2027, assuming three site or program consolidation per year, starting in 2027. In other words, in order to save money, the district plans to merge or close three school sites per year.

Laura Dudnick, the Director of Communications for the district, says, “This reflects potential future closures, not just The Academy’s.”

By Xavier Malizia

The Public Health Academy is one of five Career Technical Education programs at Lincoln High School, with the primary goal of “understanding and sustaining mental, social, and community health,” according to SFUSD. 

On Friday, November 21st, SFUSD discovered former Public Health Academy teacher, Eric Bringas, did not have the proper credentials for his role. Bringas currently holds a physical education credential, which does not meet the requirements for teaching a CTE course at an SFUSD high school. 

With such a short notice given to the administration and teachers, replacing Bringas with the easiest solution, a long-term substitute teacher, did not seem fair to the students.

“[We] didn’t want that to happen […] just having a sub sitting in and watching children […] We wanted the rest of the semester to be meaningful,” explains Vicky Lee, who picked up seniors in the Public Health Academy.

This led other existing teachers to take on his classes for the remainder of the year. The sophomores, juniors, and seniors were assigned to Valerie Ziegler, Brendan Furey, and Vicky Lee, respectively. Adding a class so suddenly is by no means an easy feat for these teachers, especially when it comes at the cost of giving up a valuable prep period. 

Aside from the difficulties of adding another class in the first place, the three teachers who have stepped up to take on the academy have no experience teaching public health and are forced to essentially build a curriculum on-the-go, or as Lee put it, “We're building the airplane as we are flying it. And we don't know how to build an airplane.”

As for the students in the class, the difficulty of developing a curriculum while the year goes on has been noticeable. Senior Christian Ko explained that Bringas taught a much more hands-on class focused on physiology and anatomy; while the content they are learning now is much more focused on careers in the public health field. While Ko enjoyed the class taught by Bringas more, he understands that this is a very difficult position that the teachers are facing and that Lee is doing a very good job adapting to the new class.

“She’s navigating something that she isn't well versed in,” said Ko, “And [as for the class]...it’s, like, taking a step back and taking, like, a broad stance.”

One of the main goals of the academies at Lincoln is to create a tight-knit community inside a big school, with the student teacher relationships proving to be an integral part of the academy experience for students. With this change, the students and teachers alike have to “build relationships that don't exist,” as Lee put it, “In a spring semester, that's really hard.”

Overall, the teachers are optimistic about the rest of the year and, most importantly, proud of their students for adapting to the last minute change to their academy.

As for the future, it is still unknown for the academy, with finding CTE-credentialed teachers proving very difficult for SFUSD. Principal Marisol Arkin was unavailable to comment on the future of the program. 

“[We need to be] putting teachers into classes they are authorized to teach,” says Ziegler.

While seemingly obvious, situations like this prove how just one teacher going unnoticed can lead to a serious issue. If Lincoln didn’t have such an established CTE department, an issue like this could have left almost 100 students without a class.