Reina TelloReina Tello

The teachers’ strike earlier this year was a stunning show of power and solidarity by the union and the community. Together, we showed up for the schools our kids deserve—and won! Educators got long-delayed raises, family healthcare benefits, and an easing of special education workloads.

But the work to restore trust and fix our schools is far from over.  On top of the myriad problems stemming from chronic underfunding, school closures are back on the table, AI companies are trying to worm their way into our kids’ educations, and there’s been no move to hold the district accountable for its questionable financial practices (https://www.sfpropel.com/accountable-government/supporting-sf-schools-real-numbers) that have been contributing to budget chaos for years. District leadership is still striving to starve us with austerity instead of investing in SFUSD, so this is the moment to hoist our banner even higher, and stack the school board with a slate of strong progressive candidates: Virginia Cheung, Reina Tello, and Ryan Hazelton.

All three are backed by UESF, the strike-leading teachers' union.. UESF is, objectively, the strongest progressive force in San Francisco right now. During the strike, UESF proved (https://www.instagram.com/p/DUt9Pe4Cbtn/?img_index=1&stkn=c2hra2VjeDRuYnJh) it could organize educators and teachers and bring in all kinds of community members (https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUmOm1BAm0C/?stkn=ZzhldWQ5aW5rOGp1) to the fight, winning a level of popular support (https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUwbazBgora/?stkn=MWJmMXpyNml3bmtpbQ==) that shocked the mayor and his downtown cronies. We’re thrilled to build power with a coalition of San Franciscans who won’t settle for endless cuts and bloated bureaucracy. Another way is possible —let’s build better schools together!

Virginia Cheung is a SFUSD parent, a longtime leader in the nonprofit world, and a strong advocate for families and educators. She worked with local groups to help pass “Baby Prop C” to expand access to early childhood education, actively organized parents in support of the educators’ strike, and serves on the board of Parents for Public Schools. She knows how institutions work, understands the vital role of public education for all San Francisco kids, and she’s ready to bring that leadership to SFUSD.

Ryan Hazelton is the executive director of Mariposa Kids afterschool and summer programs, and the chair of the SF Childcare Planning & Advisory Council. His extensive experience on non-profit boards means he knows how to read a budget, how to call bullshit on a budget, and how to hold leaders accountable. We should mention that some of our members are suspicious of Ryan's previous stint on the board of a charter school with a poor record for family engagement and support for students with disabilities. But he’s not there anymore, and more members felt that his recent actions and endorsement from UESF show that he’s on the right track as someone we can trust to round out a progressive majority on the Board of Education. 

Reina Tello is a single parent of SFUSD kids (and an SFUSD graduate herself) and has been an organizer with PODER for decades. She’s active with the People’s Budget Coalition and the Public Bank Coalition, and an advocate for community schools. She knows how to work in coalitions, and has strong ties to the communities that SFUSD has traditionally failed to serve or engage. We can’t wait to watch Reina transform SFUSD’s  sorry excuse for “community engagement" – with major decisions like a new school assignment system and potential school closures on the horizon (again), we need a tried-and-true community organizer on the Board.

You might be wondering why we’re not endorsing incumbent Alida Fisher. While she’s been a champion for special education students and we’ve endorsed her in the past, a majority of members were disappointed that she didn’t use her position to do more to end the strike sooner – or prevent it in the first place. While of course we can’t speak to what was happening behind closed doors, there were many public meetings where she could have pushed Superintendent Su and the school district finance staff to do more. From what we could see, Matt Alexander was the only board member publicly standing with families and educators, pushing district leaders to explain their misleading budget numbers (https://www.sfpropel.com/accountable-government/supporting-sf-schools-real-numbers), and offering an alternative to austerity (https://www.sfpropel.com/accountable-government/building-a-bridge-over-the-fiscal-cliff). Fisher’s current support for Phil Kim, GrowSF’s favorite school board president and for sure the biggest obstacle to getting our educators what they deserve, has us even more disappointed. It was a close vote, but Alida didn’t earn our endorsement this time.

There’s an astonishing amount of money (https://sfstandard.com/2026/08/16/growsf-school-board-november-election-powerplay/) being spent on school board races, by the same tech/big money/conservative donors who are funding Lurie’s charter “reform” power grab. Whatever you do, do NOT vote for anyone endorsed by the big money-backed slates from (https://missionlocal.org/2026/09/san-francisco-school-board-race-dueling-slates/) SF Parents Coalition, GrowSF, or, you know, the mayor. Their refusal to align with educators during the strike showed their true colors. Especially avoid Laurance Lee, a windbag and recall hawk; Autumn Brown Garibay, who actively discouraged parents from joining the picket line during the strike; Tim Tung (a newbie who’s was apparently recruited to juice up the moderate bloc by his sister Nancy Tung, chair of the SF Democratic Party (https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/sf-dccc-moderates-progressives-power-19407939.php),) or Phil Kim, a charter-school guy who ran the school closures project and tried to break UESF. 

We have a choice between leaders who buy the doom-loop narrative and are ready to preemptively gut our public school system with endless budget cuts, and leaders who have a vision for fully-funded, world-class schools and a commitment to making them a reality. And the turnout of ordinary people supporting their teachers during the strike shows that we’ve got the votes to win— if we stick with the union (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gt2BkSjRZmM). 

With Cheung, Hazelton, and Tello on the board alongside Matt Alexander, we’d have 4 votes out of 7 and a real shot at working toward a new vision for SFUSD. Vote Chung, Hazelton, and Tello for SF Board of Education!

Source (https://www.theleaguesf.org)