It's official – three of San Francisco's school board members have been recalled in a consolidated special election.
The election was called Wednesday morning, with voters overwhelmingly voting in favor to recall three board members, school board President Gabriela López, Vice President Faauuga Moliga and Commissioner Alison Collins, amidst months of accusations from community members of not acting in the children of the district's best interests and nearly $2 million in spending by recall proponents in and outside of the city.
One particular instance that drew parents ire was the board's effort to rename 44 school sites during the height of the pandemic when families were struggling with distance learning.
"I have mixed emotions," said Paul Elias, a resident of Cow Hollow. "I just think that their actions in renaming the schools or trying to rename the schools was idiotic, done without research, and that's just the tip of the iceberg."
This is the city's first recall election in nearly 40 years, with the last one taking place in 1983, in a failed attempt to remove then-Mayor Dianne Feinstein.
Over 70% of voters said "yes" to recall the three school board members. Out of the seven on the board, they were the only ones eligible to be a part of the special election.
Tuesday's election also included a California Assembly seat representing San Francisco's east side and the unopposed race for the city's assessor-recorder.
The last batch of results released by the San Francisco Department of Elections on Tuesday night analyzed a little more than 130,000 ballots, just over 26% of registered voters.
In those initial results, San Francisco Supervisor Matt Haney came in just ahead at 37.4% and former Supervisor David Campos was second at 35.5% for the Assembly District 17 seat.
Since neither Haney, Campos nor any of the other candidates has secured a majority of the votes, the top two vote-getters will face off on April 19 to determine who will serve the rest of David Chiu's term. Chiu vacated his seat when he was appointed San Francisco's city attorney.
The winner will face re-election in November.
Joaquin Torres, Mayor London Breed's appointed assessor-recorder and the only candidate on the ballot, earned more than 99% of the recorded votes counted by the end of Tuesday night.
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