Chronicle backs Phil Kim for SFUSD board amid district turmoil

The San Francisco Chronicle’s endorsement of Phil Kim for the Board of Education turns a single-seat race into a test of whether SFUSD wants a board member who can manage a district in crisis. With one seat on the June 2 ballot and three filed candidates, Kim, Virginia Cheung and Brandee Marckmann, the paper argued that the job now demands “the care, intellectual rigor and attention to detail” Kim brings.

That standard matters because SFUSD is still absorbing a teacher strike, the district’s first in 50 years, which kept students out of classrooms for five days. The Chronicle said layoffs now appear inevitable as the district’s finances remain fragile. It also pointed to persistent staffing shortages, payroll problems, and looming decisions about whether to close or merge underenrolled schools as enrollment keeps falling and revenue keeps shrinking.

Kim is already deeply embedded in that system. Mayor London Breed appointed him to the board in August 2024, and on January 16, 2026, he was unanimously re-elected board president for a second term. SFUSD says he has spent 12 years in K-12 public education and previously served as executive director of school strategy and coherence in the Office of the Superintendent, background that gives him a working knowledge of how district decisions affect classrooms, staffing and central office operations.

The race has also drawn support from outside the Chronicle. GrowSF endorsed Kim on March 13, citing the experience and track record it says SFUSD needs, and SF Parents Action backed him as well, arguing that families need steady leadership and accountability while the district works through budget stress. Those endorsements reinforce the same theme: voters are being asked to choose not just a candidate, but a management style.

Kim has also used his board role to press Sacramento on the funding crisis. On March 24, he and Vice President Jaime Huling sent a letter to California state leaders warning that SFUSD and other Bay Area districts face shared fiscal pressures that local systems cannot solve alone. The letter was co-signed by leaders from Antioch Unified, East Side Union High School, Napa Valley Unified, Oakland Unified, San Jose Unified, San Ramon Valley Unified and West Contra Costa Unified, underscoring that the problem stretches far beyond San Francisco.

For San Francisco families, the question is simple: who can read the budget, protect classroom quality and make hard enrollment decisions without losing trust? In a year when payroll problems, school closures and layoffs are all on the table, that may matter more than campaign slogans.