The San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) welcomed tens of thousands of students back to classrooms Monday for the start of the new school year. The district, the largest in the Bay Area, said it is beginning the year with more permanent teachers following increased hiring and outreach ef forts. SFUSD Superintendent Maria Su said 96% of classrooms are starting the year with a permanent teacher. “I’m really excited that we’re starting the school year with 96% of our classrooms filled with a permanent teacher,” Su said. “Obviously, we will still have teachers in all of our classrooms, but having a permanent teacher in the classroom is so, so key. It’s the first time in a long time.” In the Mission Bay neighborhood, students enjoyed the first day of school at a brand new campus. Mission Bay School is the first new campus to open in the district in 20 years. The neighborhood has seen a boom in population over those two decades. The new school year also comes with a focus on safety outside the classroom. Last week, SFUSD, SFMTA, San Francisco police and the mayor’s office announced changes that include adding crossing guards, clearing crossings and enforcing red curbs at thousands of intersections, as well as installing more speed cameras. San Francisco also plans to lower speed limits around schools to 15 mph by 2028, ahead of state-mandated changes in 2032. SFUSD estimates about 50,000 students are enrolled across the city this year. Specific numbers will not be available until the official census in October. But SFUSD has seen an overall decline in students across the last several years. Su addressed the matter at last week’s school board meeting while discussing reorganizing enrollment for the district. “As we start trying to make decisions around how we will assign students to schools, we’re going to start very quickly see that perhaps there are some neighborhoods in our city that won’t have enough students for the number of schools we currently have in those neighborhoods,” she said. Su has been directed by the school board to have a blueprint for reorganization plans by April. Any decisions for consolodating and closing campuses won’t be made until the 2029-2030 school year. ...read more read less