School District · Statewide General Election
San Francisco Board of Education
Draft candidate list — early preview until the state’s official list publishes on August 27, 2026.
On the ballot
- Ryan Hazelton
- Phil Kim — Incumbent
- Virginia Cheung
- Laurance Lee
- Autumn Brown Garibay
- Alida Fisher — Incumbent
- Reina Tello
- Tim Tung
These people sit on the seven-member board governing San Francisco Unified: district policy, the budget, and hiring the superintendent.
Eight candidates compete for three seats on the board governing San Francisco Unified — vote for up to three; the three highest totals win. Two sitting commissioners are running: board president Phil Kim, who won June's special election (per the city's certified results and the SF Standard), and Alida Fisher. The race has drawn organized money and slates: GrowSF is backing Kim, Autumn Brown Garibay and Tim Tung with six-figure spending, the teachers' union backed Virginia Cheung in June, and organizer Reina Tello runs a grassroots campaign (per the SF Standard).
Board members govern SFUSD on a seven-member body (per SFUSD): they hire and oversee the superintendent, set district policy, and own the budget of the city's public school system. Three of the seven seats are on this ballot, for four-year terms.
The organized division is real — a moderate slate backed by independent spending against union- and grassroots-backed candidates — but several candidates run outside both operations, and the vote-for-three ballot means you are choosing a working majority's worth of the board, not one champion. The district's finances and enrollment are the through-line every campaign addresses (per the SF Standard and the candidates' own materials).
Phil Kim
The board's president and a sitting commissioner, a former 7th-grade science teacher described in candidate materials as the board's only credentialed teacher (per SFUSD and SF Parents Action). He won June's special election over Virginia Cheung and a third candidate (per the SF Standard and the city's certified results), and is GrowSF-backed for November.
Strengths
Incumbency, the board presidency, classroom credentials, and a June election win — the fullest recent mandate in the field.
Trade-offs
As president he owns the board's recent record — its budget and enrollment decisions are his to defend, not just describe.
Keep in mind
He is the anchor of the GrowSF-backed slate (per the SF Standard); a vote for him is also a step toward that slate's working majority.
Alida Fisher
A sitting commissioner (per SFUSD) and career special-education advocate, a parent of one current SFUSD student and three graduates, and a former advisory-committee chair (per SF Parents Action's candidate pages).
Strengths
Board experience plus the field's deepest special-education background — a chronically under-represented lens.
Trade-offs
An incumbent outside the funded slates, so her re-election depends on her record reaching voters without organized amplification.
Keep in mind
Her stated focus is aligning spending with student success and staff retention (per SF Parents Action) — measurable claims to check against district results.
Virginia Cheung
A former nonprofit fundraiser and early-education consultant at Kai Ming Head Start, previously development director at Wu Yee Children's Services, and a parent at Alice Fong Yu (per the SF Standard and SF Parents Action). The teachers' union endorsed her in June after she picketed with striking educators; she lost that special election to Kim and is running again.
Strengths
Early-education and family-services depth, and the teachers' union's June endorsement (per the SF Standard).
Trade-offs
She has now lost twice — 2024 and June's special (per the SF Standard) — so November tests whether union backing changes the math.
Keep in mind
Her case is labor-aligned governance; whether that reads as partnership with educators or deference to them is the judgment to make.
Autumn Brown Garibay
An SFUSD parent and PTA leader at Flynn and James Lick, a member of the SF Parents Leadership Council who works in account management, and a regular presence at board meetings (per SF Parents Action). GrowSF is backing her (per the SF Standard).
Strengths
Years of on-the-ground parent leadership across two schools, and a stated focus on reliability and student outcomes.
Trade-offs
No governing or district-staff experience — her record is advocacy from the outside of the institution she would help run.
Keep in mind
She runs on the GrowSF-backed slate (per the SF Standard); weigh her individually and as part of that slate's majority.
Tim Tung
A public-finance professional — S&P Global and Allspring (per the SF Standard) — who chairs the city's Citizens' General Obligation Bond Oversight Committee, chairs his school's Site Council, and represents it on the district's LCAP advisory committee (per SF Parents Action). GrowSF is backing him; his late filing drew note in coverage of the race.
Strengths
The field's deepest finance credentials, for a district whose central problem every campaign names is its budget.
Trade-offs
A late entrant whose filing itself became a story (per the SF Standard), with no prior district-wide campaign behind him.
Keep in mind
His sister chairs the city's Democratic Party (per the SF Standard) — a family tie to note in a race about independent judgment.
Reina Tello
A community organizer with PODER, an SFUSD alumna, and a current district parent at James Lick and June Jordan (per the SF Standard and SF Parents Action). She runs a grassroots campaign and has criticized the race's independent spending as corrupting (per the SF Standard).
Strengths
Organizer's roots, alumna-and-parent standing, and the field's clearest articulation of the equity case.
Trade-offs
Grassroots fundraising against six-figure independent spending is a real structural disadvantage she herself names.
Keep in mind
Her critique of the race's money (per the SF Standard) is also a governing philosophy — weigh it as both.
Ryan Hazelton
Executive director of Mariposa Kids, the after-school program serving SFUSD elementary students, with a career in early-childhood and out-of-school programming and past nonprofit and school board service including Thomas Edison Charter Academy (per SF Parents Action). He is not himself a district parent.
Strengths
Direct operational experience running children's programming that serves district families every day.
Trade-offs
Not an SFUSD parent (per SF Parents Action) — a biographical gap opponents in a parent-heavy field may press.
Keep in mind
His platform centers assignment-system reform and early-childhood funding — specific, checkable positions.
Laurance Lee
A San Francisco native, SFUSD K-12 graduate and small-business owner who served as vice chair of the citizens' bond oversight committee, per his 2024 official candidate statement — this is his second run for the board. His stated focus is clearer public information on district spending and enrollment growth (per SF Parents Action).
Strengths
Bond-oversight service and a transparency-first platform from a district graduate who has stayed close to its finances.
Trade-offs
A repeat candidate outside the organized slates, without incumbency or endorsement infrastructure behind him.
Keep in mind
His 2024 statement claims credit for restoring bond-fund oversight — an assertion in his own words, worth checking against the record.
Financial info
- Small donors
Ryan Hazelton
$11,519 raised
- Small donors$1,170100%
Laurance Lee
$3,303 raised
- Small donors$215100%
Autumn Brown Garibay
$8,526 raised
- Small donors$1,076100%
Reina Tello
$5,938 raised
- Small donors$1,113100%
1Phil Kim reports $6,600 raised, with no category breakdown available from the dashboard.
2Alida Fisher has a registered committee but no financial disclosure summarized on the Ethics Commission's dashboard yet.
3Virginia Cheung has no campaign committee on file with the SF Ethics Commission for this race.
4Tim Tung has no campaign committee on file with the SF Ethics Commission for this race.
5Public matching funds are city money earned through small-donor support; totals here combine reported contributions with approved public funds. Figures are each committee's latest FPPC filings as summarized by the SF Ethics Commission's campaign-finance dashboard and the city's public-financing dataset, retrieved 2026-08-21.
June 2 special election — certified results
Phil Kim 60.92% (136,608 votes), Virginia Cheung 27.05% (60,647), Brandee Marckmann 12.03% (26,987). The special elected Kim to the term ending in early 2027; Kim and Cheung are both on the November ballot.
Source review: Very strong (94/100) · 8 cited sources
Official records anchor this contest, with several source types checked for context; advocacy or endorsement sources are treated as attributed perspective.
Review note: SF Parents Action may have more bias because it is an advocacy voter guide compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources.
- sf.gov (opens in a new tab)SF Department of Elections — Candidates, November 3, 2026 General Election
- sfelections.org (opens in a new tab)SF Department of Elections — Certified results, June 2, 2026 election
- sfstandard.com (opens in a new tab)The San Francisco Standard — GrowSF plans to spend big in SF school board race (Aug 16, 2026)
- sfstandard.com (opens in a new tab)The San Francisco Standard — Teachers union endorses Virginia Cheung (Mar 16, 2026)
- sfparentaction.org (opens in a new tab)SF Parents Action — November 2026 Board of Education candidate pages
- sfusd.edu (opens in a new tab)SFUSD — Board of Education, current commissioners
- sf.gov (opens in a new tab)SF.gov — Laurance Lee, official candidate statement (November 2024 election)
- campaign.sfethics.org (opens in a new tab)SF Ethics Commission — campaign-finance dashboard and public-financing dataset
Last updated August 21, 2026.