Dear Lafayette Community,
We need your help to call for change SFUSD’s funding policy for the AP role.
Currently, the District only funds an Assistant Principal for schools with over 600 students. For any school with less than 600 students (like ours) the District provides $0 --not even an amount proportional to a school’s size, special education and other focal student support needs. This forces us to rely on PTA fundraising to fill this vital administrative role.
Our school, along with a coalition of other similarly-sized SFUSD elementary schools, are campaigning for a fairer model that considers student needs, not just raw enrollment numbers. For your reference you can read the coalition’s email to the District here.
How you can help:
Please send an email to District leadership in support of this campaign by the end of the week. You will find a template and the recipient list in this google doc and below.
Together our voices are powerful, and we know that your support will help us be heard by the District.
Thank you,
Meghan Butler
PTA President
Template: Parent Support for AP Funding
Instructions: Please copy and paste the below template and send it to the email addresses listed below. You are welcome and encouraged to make changes / add personalized sentences given this is a form letter.
TO:
mariasu@sfusd.edu
mount-benitesc@sfusd.edu
jayaramann@sfusd.edu
CC:
philkim@sfusd.edu
jaimehuling@sfusd.edu
mattalexander@sfusd.edu
alidafisher@sfusd.edu
paraggupta@sfusd.edu
supryiaray@sfusd.edu
lisaweissman-ward@sfusd.edu
Subject: Urgent: Support Equitable AP Funding for Lafayette Elementary
Dear Members of the School Board and Superintendent,
As a parent at Lafayette Elementary, I am writing to strongly urge the District to reform its funding model for Assistant Principals (APs). Currently, the "600-student threshold" leaves schools like ours with $0 in District support for an AP, despite the complex needs of our student body.
I am asking the District to:
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Provide full or partial funding for the AP position at our school for the 2026–2027 budget.
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Revise the funding formula to move beyond raw enrollment and account for Special Education (SDC) classrooms and focal student populations.
Why this matters to my family:
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Safety and Compliance: Our AP is essential for managing IEPs, 504 plans, and student safety. Without this role, the District faces significant legal and operational risks that could far exceed the annual salary of an AP.
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Equity: Funding a core administrative role should not depend on a PTA’s ability to fundraise. This creates a "pay-to-play" system for basic school stability that is fundamentally inequitable.
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Stability: Our school's leadership should not be subject to the volatility of annual donations. We need a consistent, District-backed administrative team to ensure our students thrive.
The current "all or nothing" model ignores the reality of our school’s workload. I stand with the coalition of families from Clarendon, Jefferson, Lafayette, and Lakeshore in requesting a more sustainable, equitable staffing model.
Thank you for your time and commitment to our students.
Sincerely,