A year after Veronica Coto and her son Gabriel immigrated to San Francisco, the relative hosting them told them they had to move out, leaving the family without a place to sleep.
When Gabriel’s teachers at San Francisco International High School (SFI) learned about their situation, they quickly stepped in to help. They connected the Salvadoran family to an emergency shelter, where they lived for a year before finding stable housing.
The newcomer high school, Coto said, helped her family adjust to life in the U.S. A school pantry gave them access to food while she balanced her unsteady cleaning gigs. After-school programs helped Gabriel learn English and keep up with his homework.
“It was a support in all aspects: emotionally, economically, because at that time we didn’t have a place to live,” said Coto, an organizer with Faith in Action Bay Area who has now been in San Francisco for three years.
Gabriel graduated from SFI in 2025. But in recent months, the family of two have started working closely with his former teachers again. This time, they’re fighting to protect the programs that once supported them.
As part of its efforts to close a $102 million budget deficit, the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) is proposing significant cuts to several newcomer programs for next school year. District officials say the cuts are driven by declining enrollment. But a group of families and educators worry the cuts could dismantle decades-old programs that serve the city’s immigrant community, and question whether the district is accurately accounting for how many newcomers need support.
“It just sets us back and sets our students back so much, trying to rebuild every time our numbers go up and down,” said Paul McCarthy, a teacher at SFI. “If [the cuts] go through we’re going to be a totally new school next year.”
The group is urging district leaders to pause the cuts for a year and work with schools and families to strengthen enrollment practices. For months, they have organized rallies and coordinated visits to Board of Education meetings, pressing officials to reconsider the proposed budget.
So far, they say they have not received a clear answer from the district.
In a statement, SFUSD told El Tecolote the proposed reductions are preliminary and that the budget isn’t finalized until June. Still, as schools prepare staffing plans for the next year, families and educators worry time to preserve these programs is running out.
Cuts tied to enrollment projections
In January, SFUSD released preliminary budget cuts for the 2026-2027 school year based largely on projected student enrollment and school-specific needs. Several programs serving newly arrived immigrants — including SFI, Visitacion Valley Middle School and Mission Education Center (MEC) — faced deep staffing cuts.
“The decisions were based on numbers,” said Visitacion Valley Middle School principal Maya Baker. “They weren’t looking at unduplicated students, they weren’t looking at where people live. They weren’t thinking about any of these things.”
Educators said the initial projections were especially stark. At Visitacion Valley Middle and Mission Education Center (MEC), staff were told zero students were expected to enroll in newcomer programs this fall, and no staff were allocated. Meanwhile, at SFI, projected enrollment dropped from 400 to 220, prompting proposals to cut nearly half of the teaching staff, the assistant principal, half of its security staff and two Spanish-speaking counselors.
After appeals and community pushback, SFUSD reversed some of these cuts. The district restored some funding so SFI can keep 16 of its current 25 teachers and two security guards. Visitacion Valley Middle regained funding for two newcomer teachers after projections were revised to 50 students.
Even so, educators say that under the current budget proposal, the three programs would be significantly weakened. Newcomer programs, they say, require more staff per student and often see fluctuating enrollment.
At Visitacion Valley Middle and SFI, staff worry there won’t be enough teachers to cover all subjects. Most drastically, at MEC, the two-year newcomer program for Spanish-speaking immigrants from pre-K through fifth grade still has no assigned educators or projected enrollment.
“They’re treating us like a normal school,” said Antoine Lagarde, a physical education and health teacher at SFI. “But we’ve been building this infrastructure for 17 years in terms of how to best serve recently arrived immigrant students.”
In a January rally organized by families and educators, Superintendent Maria Su said the proposed cuts reflect lower voluntary enrollment in newcomer programs, citing some families’ hesitation to enroll in programs explicitly designed for immigrants.
The three newcomer programs are based at choice-based schools, she noted, meaning parents have to decide to enroll their students in these programs to be placed in them.
“I cannot have a classroom with a teacher and no students,” Su told El Tecolote, though she reiterated the district’s commitment to support immigrant families. “We need to balance what that looks like.”
Families and educators question the numbers
While educators and families acknowledge that national immigration levels declined last year, they question whether low enrollment projections also reflect how the district connects newcomer families to schools when they first arrive.
“Maybe the president isn’t letting people through the border, but people are still coming to San Francisco,” said Yennifer Bejarano Osorio, a Colombian mother with three children enrolled at MEC’s newcomer program. “So it would be good that because this is a sanctuary city, there would always be schools for newcomers.”
The group says some newcomers are not being informed about these programs, are encouraged to choose schools based on proximity rather than support services, or are told programs are full.
“There’s a lack of transparency with all these changes,” said Claudia Valdivia, a speech-language pathologist at MEC. “We want them to show us evidence that there are fewer newcomer students.”
Joao, 18, a senior at SFI who immigrated from Brazil, said it took him several visits to the enrollment center before he was allowed to transfer into SFI three years ago. Initially placed in an English-only high school, he said he struggled to understand his teachers and connect with classmates.
Bejarano Osorio described similar challenges. In January, she accompanied a newly arrived family to SFUSD’s enrollment center. When they tried to enroll their children in MEC, they were told the newcomer program was no longer accepting new students.
She also said that last fall, district staff contacted her about transferring her children out of the program amid concerns about a potential increase in federal immigration enforcement — a situation several MEC educators corroborated and that Su declined to comment on.
The Colombian mother refused the transfer, but said she and other parents had to push the district to return their children to the program at MEC. Four families accepted the transfer, she said, reducing enrollment from 15 to 11 students.
“It feels like a subtle plan to disappear this program,” said a MEC educator, who requested anonymity over concerns about job security. “Last year, we didn’t receive any new students… This program lasts two years and now all of our students are in their second year.”
The district said it “remains deeply committed to supporting immigrant students and families” and that its enrollment office works to place students in schools that best meet their needs.
Uncertainty threatens programs’ future
In March, families and educators met with Superintendent Su again to voice their concerns over enrollment practices and the long-term impacts of the cuts. But so far, Su has not indicated plans to halt the reductions.
Meanwhile, uncertainty is already affecting staffing. Each spring, SFUSD teachers whose positions are cut can apply for other jobs within the district. The timeline could lead experienced staff to leave even if cuts are later reversed.
“It’s possible that our teachers apply somewhere else, because everything is in limbo,” said Valdivia.
At Visitacion Valley Middle School, Principal Maya Baker said she is using site funds to retain two additional teachers so newcomer students can continue to have a teacher for each subject.
“While I’m trying to get my appeal met, because it still hasn’t been met, they could have looked for other work. And then we lose these teachers who’ve been with us for many, many years,” Baker said. “Instead, I’m technically paying for it out of our site budget with money that should be being used for all the other things that schools need money for.”
Educators are trying to schedule another meeting with district leaders soon, hoping to get them to reconsider the current cuts, especially as immigrant communities navigate ongoing uncertainty nationwide.
For Coto, the fight is about making sure other families have the same opportunities her family did. SFI’s newcomer program taught her son how to speak English. Now, he is taking courses at City College on a path toward medical school.
“Normally, when young men don’t find support, they get frustrated and they stop studying. That’s not the case with my son,” said Coto. “Behind my son are many other young people who have come to the city, and they really need these programs.”
