Mark Sanchez and Sarah Lipson were both members of the Green Party and, along with Eric Mar, were allied with the new liberal majority on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

[16] Toward the end of her tenure, Ackerman was approved a raise, which included a salary of $250,000 and a $375,000 severance package among other benefits, by a 4 to 3 vote during a projected budget shortfall of $22 million which closed four schools.

[25] A non-binding measure called Proposition V was placed on the November 4, 2008 general ballot in San Francisco that supported the reinstatement of the JROTC program in the City.

[37] In July 2021, superior court judge Anne-Christine Massullo agreed that the district did not follow state environmental regulations, including the study of alternatives prior to a decision.

[39] The 12-person committee, chaired by a first grade teacher and activist Jeremiah Jeffries,[40][41] was assembled in 2020 and recommended 44 names that met the criteria of being associated with the European colonization of the Americas, slavery in the United States, exploitation, racism, or abuse for renaming.

[50][51] Critics called the renaming effort ill-timed, amateurish and wasteful—citing factual errors, the absence of historians on the committee, inadequate amount of public input, and the US$1,000,000 price tag during a budget deficit estimated to be at around US$75,000,000 as primary issues.

Mayor London Breed, State Senator Scott Wiener, and Supervisor Hillary Ronen called for a refocusing on school re-openings during the COVID-19 pandemic in the San Francisco Bay Area rather than the renaming effort.

The San Francisco Chronicle noted that schools named after Cesar Chavez, who called illegal immigrant workers "wetbacks" and other pejoratives,[50] and Malcolm X, who had worked as a pimp, were excluded from renaming.

Opponents have countered by stating that at the same time Lincoln pardoned 265 warriors, despite mounted pressure from a Republican-majority Congress, in "by far the largest act of executive clemency in American history", according to historian James McPherson.

[55][41][50] President of the renaming committee, Jeremiah Jeffries, later added that Lincoln "did not show through policy or rhetoric that black lives ever mattered" to him "outside human capital".

[57] Factual historical errors endorsed by the board included: confusing the name of the Alamo elementary school with the battle in Texas rather than the Spanish word for poplar tree; mistaking a revolutionary war battle Paul Revere participated in with a raid against the Penobscot tribe; holding the local philanthropist James Lick responsible for an objectionable monument, the Early Days statue, commissioned more than a decade after his death; mistaking the name of the Sanchez school with that of a conquistador instead of an early mayor of San Francisco.

Many other examples were cited as lacking in nuance or proper historical context, such as questioning whether the abolitionist poet James Russell Lowell believed firmly in the right of black people to vote.

Columnist Carl Nolte of the San Francisco Chronicle opined that by that logic, the city itself should be renamed, since it was christened by Spanish missionaries for a Roman Catholic priest, which "clearly fits the guidelines for a new name.

"[62] In an interview with The New Yorker, published on February 6, 2021, board president Gabriela López was asked if factual errors during the renaming process had made her "worried that maybe this was done in a slightly haphazard way?"

[72][73] They cite the lack of diversity and "pervasive systemic racism" as driving factors for the change, in addition to state law preventing comprehensive high schools from using selective enrollment.

[76][77] In March 2021, Harmeet Dhillon represented a group of Lowell community members and threatened to sue the board, calling the end of the testing-based admission system "an unconstitutional and illegal program designed to disenfranchise hardworking students".

[79] On November 18, 2021, Superior Court Judge Ethan Schulman agreed with the plaintiffs and nullified the board's February 2021 decision to change the admission policy.

The judge, however, "stopped short of requiring the district to reinstate competitive admission, leaving open the possibility the school board could take the same action after giving adequate notice to the public".

[80] In June 2020, Superintendent Vincent Matthews brought forth a proposition to hire a consultant to devise a plan to reopen the schools during the COVID-19 pandemic, during which the district's deficit roughly doubled from 2019's $22 million.

Public comments, including from the president of the teachers' union, expressed concern about the chosen consulting group's previous relationship with charter schools.

The suit is supported by Mayor London Breed, who has called on the board to focus on reopening rather than other matters, such as the renaming 44 SFUSD schools, during the pandemic.

[85][86] A San Francisco superior judge denied the request on March 25, 2021, citing developments between the ruling and the filing wherein the district approved of a plan to bring certain students back by April 12, therefore rendering the suit redundant.

[90] On December 4, 2016, prior to her assumption of office to the Board of Education in 2019, Alison Collins posted a series of derogatory and racially stereotyping tweets against Asian Americans.

[98] By March 21, 2021, all of SFUSD's top 19 administrators,[99] in addition to the Mayor of San Francisco London Breed, ten of the eleven San Francisco Board of Supervisors including Board of Supervisors President Shamann Walton, state legislators Scott Wiener, David Chiu, and Phil Ting, and Collins' fellow Commissioners Moliga and Lam, had condemned the publicized tweets and called for Collins's resignation.

[91] On March 31, 2021, Collins sued SFUSD and the five Board of Education members who voted against her for $87 million, citing distress and significant loss in reputation and income.

[111] On February 20, 2021, parents Autumn Looijen and Siva Raj launched a recall campaign against Gabriela López, Alison Collins, and Faauuga Moliga over the board's inability to reopen schools.

[117] Ann Hsu, Lainie Motamedi, and Lisa Weissman-Ward were appointed by Mayor London Breed to replace the three removed commissioners for the rest of their terms.

[118] On September 15, 2021, the California Department of Education gave the SFUSD three months to approve a fiscal stabilization plan and address a $125 million deficit, about 10% of the budget.

[121] The state-appointed overseer and Superintendent Matthews urged the board to approve the staff plan, balancing cuts across school sites and the central office.

[citation needed] The winners were educator Alison Collins, teacher Gabriela López, and Faauuga Moliga, a behavioral therapist and the first Pacific Islander to hold a citywide office.