San Francisco voters recall three school board members, cite renaming schools over pandemic shutdown

San Francisco voters on Tuesday followed through on their dissatisfaction with school board members appearing to prioritize renaming schools over helping students learn when the pandemic closed classrooms. 

San Francisco Board of Education President Gabriela López, Vice President Faauuga Moliga and Commissioner Alison Collins each lost their seat on the seven-member board by more than 70% of the vote.

The move pitted radical progressive politicians against establishment liberals in one of the country's bluest cities.

Temporary board member replacements will be named by Mayor London Breed, a Democrat who supported the voters' recall effort and who called the board's priorities "severely misplaced."

"The voters of this city have delivered a clear message that the school board must focus on the essentials of delivering a well-run school system above all else," Breed said. "San Francisco is a city that believes in the value of big ideas, but those ideas must be built on the foundation of a government that does the essentials well."

Some observers in recent weeks thought the board members might survive the recall vote, considering the priority issue was nearly a year old and the students are back in classrooms.

Early on during the coronavirus pandemic that led to the shutdown of virtually all schools in major urban areas for months, the board opted instead to prioritize changing the names of as many as 44 public schools. Some of the historic names that were considered for removal from buildings included Presidents Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, amid arguments about their connection to racism, sexism and other injustices.

The board postponed the renaming effort amid public backlash.