San Francisco Voters Recall Three School Board Members

Recall elections against three of the seven members of the San Francisco Unified School District Board of Education in California were on the ballot on February 15, 2022. Board members Gabriela López, Alison Collins, and Faauuga Moliga were on the ballot. A majority of voters cast ballots in favor of the recalls, which will remove the members from office once the county has certified the election results. That is expected to happen on March 1, 2022. San Francisco Mayor London Breed will appoint temporary replacements for the recalled board members who will serve until the board’s next election on November 8, 2022.

Recall supporters said they were frustrated that schools in the district remained closed for nearly a year in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic. They also said they were upset that the board had spent time voting to rename 44 buildings in the district rather than focusing on opening schools. López announced on February 21, 2021, that the board was putting the building renaming on hold in order to focus on re-opening schools. At a board meeting on April 6, 2021, members unanimously voted to rescind the approval of the renaming process. At the same meeting, they voted to return students to full-time in-person instruction at the start of the 2021-2022 school year.

All three board members named in the recall petitions were first elected to the board on November 6, 2018. They received the most votes in an at-large election, defeating 16 other candidates. The other four members of the board were not eligible for recall at the same time as López, Collins, and Moliga as they had not served in their current terms for six months. They were elected or re-elected to the board on November 3, 2020.

The last San Francisco official to face a recall election was then-Mayor Dianne Feinstein, in 1983. Feinstein survived the recall with 81% of the vote in her favor.

Recall supporters

The notices of intent to recall were filed by Autumn Looijen and Siva Raj, who are parents of students in the district. “We are parents, not politicians, and intend to stay that way,” Raj said when they announced the recall effort. “We are determined to ensure San Francisco’s public schools provide a quality education for every kid in the city.”

Recall supporters said they were frustrated that schools in the district remained closed for nearly a year in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic. They also said they were upset that the board had spent time voting to rename 44 buildings in the district rather than focusing on opening schools.

“From day one, the campaign was a campaign to get politics out of education,” Raj said. “What we saw consistently was a pattern where the school board leadership focused on a lot of political stunts and symbolic gestures like trying to rename schools, and doing that ultimately badly.”

San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced her endorsement of the recall on November 9, 2021. “Sadly, our school board’s priorities have often been severely misplaced,” Breed said in a statement. “During such a difficult time, the decisions we make for our children will have long term impacts. Which is why it is so important to have leadership that will tackle these challenges head on. … Our kids must come first.”

Recall opponents

In reaction to the recall effort, Moliga said he stood behind his record. “The recall effort shows there is a group of parents that are frustrated with the school board,” Moliga said. “I am the first Pacific Islander ever elected in office in San Francisco, giving my marginalized community a voice in local government for the first time.”

At a Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club event in August 2021, both Collins and López spoke out against the recalls against them. “We can’t let people scare us,” Collins said. “When I see certain people getting upset, I know I’m doing the right thing. If it’s people that have power and don’t want to share it, there’s people who want to make decisions without being inclusive, of course they are going to get upset.”

López characterized the recall against her as sexist, ageist, and racist. “The people who are behind this don’t know us, they don’t know our work, they don’t know what we’ve been doing, they don’t know what we are dedicated to,” Lopez said. “They hear what’s out there and they recognize this is an opportunity to bring down someone who is me.”

Path to the Ballot

Recall supporters filed official paperwork to start the recall effort on February 19, 2021. The San Francisco Elections Department cleared the recall petitions for circulation in March 2021. To get the recall on the ballot, recall supporters had 160 days to collect signatures from 10% of registered voters in the city. The total number of signatures needed was 51,325 per board member, and the deadline to submit them was September 7, 2021. Recall supporters announced they submitted signatures on September 7, 2021.

The signatures were certified in October 2021, and the city scheduled the recall elections for February 15, 2022. 

Originally published by Ballotpedia. Republished with permission.