SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – Administrators in the San Francisco Unified School District are moving forward with a plan to eliminate the term "chief" in job titles, saying the word can be offensive to Native Americans.
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Officials are "still finalizing" an alternative title to "chief."
"There are many opinions on this matter," Superintendent Dr. Vincent Matthews explained in short remarks during the Board of Education's meeting on Tuesday. "Our leadership team agreed that given that this term can offend Native Americans, we are no longer going to use it."
The district has almost 100,000 employees and 119 schools.
"San Francisco Unified is one of the largest employers in San Francisco and we need our leaders who serve in all of our schools to understand this," Matthews said of the decision. "By changing how we refer to our division heads, we are in no way diminishing the indispensable contributions of our district central service leaders."
When reached for comment on Wednesday, San Francisco Unified School District Spokesperson Laura Dudnick explained the move came after "Native American members of our community...expressed concerns over the use of the title." The impacted "positions hold a great deal of responsibility and require specific expertise," Dudnick added.
A specific timeline for the district's transition to an alternative term wasn't immediately clear.
The move is the latest in a series of similar decisions and votes aimed at easing decades of race-related challenges within San Francisco schools, including a controversial vote – and subsequent about-face – to strip 44 schools of so-called "problematic" names like Lincoln and Washington. That process, in addition to the district's perceived lack of action during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, was a contributing factor in the recall of three school board members earlier this year.
The initial recommendation to remove Abraham Lincoln's name from Abraham Lincoln High School on 24th Avenue came because of the 16th president's past treatment of Native Americans.
The Board of Education also voted in 2019 to cover up the historic "Life of Washington" mural at George Washington High School after critics called the work demeaning and upsetting because of its depictions of slavery and Native Americans.
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