SF students return to school as officials address payroll issue, budget and immigration enforcement

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Nearly 50,000 students are back in class for the first day of school in the San Francisco Unified School District.

Instead of being greeted by the bell, students at Sanchez Elementary School were met by Superintendent Dr. Maria Su, Mayor Daniel Lurie and other local leaders.

"Today's the first day of school, and I'm so excited to be here at Sanchez to celebrate our students, to make sure that on day one we have a certificated and qualified educator in every one of our classrooms," Dr. Su said.

While the superintendent was at Sanchez Elementary celebrating the first day of school, she also had to answer some questions addressing financial challenges facing the district and issues with its payroll system.

ABC7 has covered this issue for years, uncovering how the district spent about $55 million total for an old payroll system and the implementation of a new system.

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Following the roll out of the new system over the summer, about 100 educators said they had issues with their paychecks.

On the Tuesday before the first day of school, leaders and members of the United Educators of San Francisco gathered for a press conference outside the district office. Union leaders already sent a cease-and-desist letter to the district, followed by filing a formal complaint with the state labor board.

"We have been able to cut thousands of payroll checks already, and the system is holding. The system is doing what it is supposed to be doing, and we are moving forward and making sure that all of our staff, including our fantastic educators, are paid accurately and timely," Su said, "In terms of budget, we just passed a budget that included a $114 million deficit. That was not easy."

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While on campus, Mayor Lurie also addressed concerns coming from families over immigration enforcement.

"My message to everybody is we are focused on keeping our communities safe, our immigrant communities and San Francisco at large," he said, "You see it in our numbers. Our crime is down precipitously. This is a safe American city, and we're going to continue to lean into that and focus on that."

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While Dr. Su said that 95% of the district's classrooms have permanent teachers, 50 have certificated substitutes.

She said she's confident that those positions will be filled for the rest of the year.