SFUSD prepares layoff notices
PLUS: BART warns of 2027 service collapse
What You Need To Know
Here’s what happened around the city for the week of February 15, 2026:
- SFUSD prepares layoff notices
- BART warns of 2027 service collapse
- Opera House drama distracts from PG&E failures
- Newsom okays $590M transit loan
- North Beach gets pizza-box trash cans
- SFUSD can’t avoid school closures
- SoMa RESET center gets green light
SFUSD prepares layoff notices
Published February 21, 2026
The Facts
SFUSD will ask the Board of Education to approve 42 preliminary layoff notices for educators and other staff, according to Jill Tucker at the San Francisco Chronicle. State law effectively forces districts to make these decisions early: certificated layoff notices are tied to a March 15 deadline.
The Context
The layoffs land one week after SFUSD and the teachers union announced a tentative contract deal that includes raises and zero-employee-cost dependent health benefits.
SFUSD’s budget is already constrained by enrollment declines (state funding follows attendance) and ongoing state intervention: the district has been under heightened fiscal oversight since it was moved to “negative” certification in May 2024, per SFUSD’s own fiscal update.
The GrowSF Take
We predicted this outcome: it was inevitable after the district agreed to the teacher’s union demands that couldn’t be paid for without further cuts like layoffs.
Given declining enrollment, it’s entirely reasonable that the district would consolidate schools and lay off staff in order to fund raises for the remaining staff. We just wish all parties involved had agreed to this reality instead of putting 50,000 kids out of school for a week.
BART warns of 2027 service collapse
Published February 21, 2026
The Facts
BART is warning that if voters reject the proposed Connect Bay Area sales-tax measure in November 2026 (0.5% in Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara, and San Mateo counties; 1% in San Francisco, for 14 years), it could close up to 15 stations, eliminate the Blue Line (Daly City–Dublin/Pleasanton), and slash service.
In BART’s Feb. 12, 2026 board workshop deck, the “measure fails” Phase 1 scenario starting January 2027 includes: a 63% cut in train-hours, a 30% fare increase, a 9 p.m. nightly shutdown, and closure of 10 low-ridership stations (including San Bruno and South San Francisco). BART also estimates big knock-on traffic: for example, if riders shift to driving, congestion on sample commutes could rise by +2.7 hours/day (El Cerrito–downtown SF), +2.4 (Fremont–downtown SF), and +2.3 (Walnut Creek–downtown SF)—and a full shift could require three extra Bay Bridge lanes and one more Caldecott Tunnel lane.
The Context
BART says its pre-pandemic fare-driven model no longer works, with projected annual operating deficits of about $350–$400 million once emergency aid ends.
A January 30, 2026 MTC news release says the state and regional leaders agreed to a $590 million loan to avert major cuts at BART, Muni, Caltrain, and AC Transit in FY 2026–27 while longer-term funding is pursued.
The GrowSF Take
If BART enters a doom-loop of worse service → fewer riders → bigger deficits, SF’s recovery gets harder, if not impossible. BART and other Bay Area transit agencies have been working hard for the past few years to stabilize their finances, increase safety and cleanliness, and boost ridership. Things are looking up, but the pre-COVID assumptions are no longer true and the “ridership payment” model can no longer support the system without dramatically raising prices (which would also lower ridership). The region needs a reliable BART, and we need to pay for it while demanding better stewardship of the money.
Opera House drama distracts from PG&E failures
Published February 21, 2026
The Facts
In a now-recanted statement, PG&E CEO Sumeet Singh told a Feb. 12 Board of Supervisors committee hearing that Mayor Daniel Lurie requested temporary power for the War Memorial Opera House during the December blackout; Singh later walked it back and called it a misunderstanding.
PG&E says the Dec. 20 outage peaked at about 130,000 customers affected citywide.
That same meeting advanced a resolution reaffirming San Francisco’s effort to acquire PG&E’s local grid assets, alongside other accountability measures.
The Context
The City has been laying groundwork for a possible public-power takeover for years, including a CEQA scoping step for the Power Assets Acquisition Project and a CPUC valuation to set a fair price for PG&E’s local equipment.
The GrowSF Take
The opera-house angle makes for easy outrage, but it distracts from the core failure: PG&E’s infrastructure and operational readiness left tens of thousands of people in the dark.
City leaders should focus this moment on measurable outcomes: hardening and redundancy for key SF substations, clear restoration priorities for residents, and transparent performance standards with real consequences when PG&E falls short. If PG&E can’t meet those standards, SF should be ready to pursue alternatives—but the yardstick must be reliability, not theater.
Newsom okays $590M transit loan
Published February 21, 2026
The Facts
BART, Muni, Caltrain, and AC Transit are receiving a $590 million loan to prevent significant service cuts until voters can weigh in on a permanent funding package in November 2026.
As reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, BART could “close between 10 and 15 stations,” while Muni could “suspend cable cars,” shut down bus routes ”at 9pm,” and ”slash up to 20 routes” without new revenue.
Under the new law’s repayment terms, MTC repays the state over 12 years, with the first two years as interest-only quarterly payments. Even if voters pass a regional measure, MTC says proceeds wouldn’t flow until about July 1, 2027.
The Context
BART says it can’t “cut its way out” of structural deficits of roughly $350–$400 million per year without triggering a ridership death spiral.
The state is pulling funds from the Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program to buy time while the region seeks stable operating revenue.
The GrowSF Take
A bridge loan is sensible way to keep transit running while we wait for voters to approve long-term funding.
North Beach gets pizza-box trash cans
Published February 20, 2026
The Facts
San Francisco rolled out a small pilot to tackle a very specific North Beach problem: pizza boxes that don’t fit in standard street bins. On Jan. 23, 2026, Recology and the Department of Public Works installed two “pizza drop off” receptacles at the edge of Washington Square Park, at Stockton Street and Union/Filbert. Supervisor Danny Sauter’s office was made aware of the overflowing trash problem and immediately got to work on a solution.
The bins have side slots sized for boxes and feature artwork by muralist Sirron Norris. Recology designed the bins and paid to fabricate them; the City is covering installation and routine pickup.
The Context
Overflowing trash cans clogged with pizza boxes have contributed to litter in North Beach. “[The] can starts to overflow, and then we end up with trash around it and that spreads,” DPW Director Carla Short told KQED.
Public Works says it maintains more than 2,800 public trash cans citywide, emptied at least daily. This new trash can design was led by Recology, a refreshing contrast to SF’s long, expensive trash-can redesign saga, where prototypes alone reportedly ran about ~$12,000 each.
The GrowSF Take
This is the kind of practical improvement San Franciscans notice, and benefit from, immediately. Not everything in City Hall needs to take years and involve a dozen studies. Sometimes a simple problem has a simple solution, and we just needed someone to take action. Thanks, Supervisor Sauter!
SFUSD can’t avoid school closures
Published February 20, 2026
The Facts
In a Chronicle Open Forum essay, SFUSD teacher John Lisovsky argues the district’s new labor deal makes school closures (or mergers) inevitable.
The fundamental reality is that the Union’s demands can’t be paid for without closing and consolidating schools. SFUSD and the union agreed to compensation increases amounting to about 6% raises in each of the next two years (2% + 2%, plus added paid work days amounting to a 5-6% raise) for certificated staff, and an 8.5% package over two years for classified staff, and fully funded family healthcare beginning Jan. 1, 2027.
The Context
SFUSD’s biggest revenue source is state funding, and the district expected about $648 million in 2025–26, but this funding is tied to student attendance numbers.
But SFUSD says enrollment has fallen by 4,000+ since 2012–13. When students leave, dollars leave — yet the cost of operating a campus (maintenance, utilities, admin, baseline staffing) doesn’t shrink proportionally. That’s how you get a “structural deficit”: higher cost per student, even before any new raises.
SFUSD has warned it remains in a structural deficit. Add higher ongoing compensation obligations, and the district has two options: (1) consolidate buildings and overhead, or (2) cut directly into classrooms through layoffs and larger class sizes.
The GrowSF Take
No one wants closures — but “keep everything open” isn’t a viable plan. SFUSD should restart a transparent consolidation plan (after it paused closures for 2025–26) and commit, in writing, that savings will protect classroom quality and stabilize staffing.
SoMa RESET center gets green light
Published February 19, 2026
The Facts
San Francisco now has a drunk tank for drug use. It’s called the RESET center and it’s a place where people arrested for public intoxication can sober up, with medically-trained supervision, instead of taking up high-cost ER beds or jail cells, as Natalia Gurevich reports in the San Francisco Examiner.
The program is launching in SoMa at 444 6th St. The Board approved the operating deal on a 9–2 vote (only Supervisors Jackie Fielder and Connie Chan voted no). The legislation was sponsored by the Mayor and co-sponsored by Supervisors Matt Dorsey, Rafael Mandelman, and Stephen Sherrill.
The Context
San Francisco’s overdose crisis remains severe: the city recorded 635 overdose deaths in 2024.
RESET is meant to create a fast, consistent “handoff” so officers can get back on patrol quickly and people in crisis aren’t left on sidewalks—or bounced between jail and the ER.
The GrowSF Take
Nobody wants people struggling with addiction sent to jail. And most people don’t need intensive, high-cost ER care. This is a great middle ground that gets people off the streets and into a safe place they can sober up.
We look forward to reviewing the performance metrics as they are made available, and if it works then the city should set more centers up. And if not, well, back to the drawing board.