State intervening to help San Francisco school district address financial woes

California’s state superintendent is intervening in San Francisco Unified to help the district address a budget shortfall, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The state plans to bring in a fiscal consultant to help the district cut 13% of its annual budget, and the district will have to submit labor agreements to Tony Thurmond, the state’s superintendent of public instruction, according to the Chronicle.

The state will also require San Francisco Unified to withhold pay from Superintendent Vince Matthews and school board members over a “failure to provide requested financial information,” the newspaper reported.

“We acknowledge that the district is working to identify strategic solutions for resolving the projected budget shortfalls,” Thurmond wrote in a Sept. 15 letter to Matthews. “However, reductions have yet to be identified after a year of discussion.”