Shared School Yards program faces a funding cut in mayor’s proposed budget; SFUSD warns service would shrink

San Francisco Unified School District officials told the Board of Supervisors’ Budget & Appropriations Committee on June 10 that the city-funded Shared School Yards program — which opens neighborhood schoolyards to the public and supports free weekend programming — was omitted from the mayor’s proposed budget and would have to shrink if $600,000 in annual funding is not restored.

Dawn Kamala Navin, head of facilities at SFUSD, said the district pivoted during the pandemic to manage the program citywide and that the program now runs 45 schoolyards with a budget of about $600,000 a year. "We were finally able to fully realize the potential of this program," she said, describing pandemic-era improvements including monitored sites, restrooms and handwashing stations.

Katie Poyle, SFUSD executive director of facility services, described operational details and cost estimates: "We operate on a budget of $600,000 a year, which allows for gate and maintenance operations at 45 sites," and added that maintenance and operations average roughly $8,000 per site per year. Poyle said SFUSD has been able to offer enhanced programming at 15–20 sites and believes, with current management efficiencies, it could open an additional 10 schoolyards within the existing budget.

But Ashley Grafenberger, the mayor’s budget director, told the committee the appropriation for the program was removed during budget development when staff assumed there were savings to carry the program forward that later proved not to exist. "We removed that appropriation from the budget," she said, and restoring the program for the coming fiscal year would require a $600,000 restoration from general fund or the Children's Fund.

Supervisor Aaron Peskin Chan (referred to in the hearing as Supervisor Chan) and other supervisors called the omission disheartening and urged the mayor's office and budget staff to seek a technical correction or other ways to restore the baseline funding. Chair Hillary Ronan and President Walton also expressed support for returning the funding.

Several community organizations told the committee the program is widely used. Radoslav Stefanov of Street Soccer USA and Wes Graves of Super Soccer Stars said their organizations run free programming at multiple Shared School Yards sites and urged full restoration. Matt Dove of the YMCA of San Francisco said the program "has provided free outdoor programming to more than 2,600 children" and opened "36 acres of play space" to families.

SFUSD said that if the $600,000 is not restored it will try to prioritize the highest-need neighborhoods and preserve service where possible, but acknowledged the district would not be able to operate the program "at its scale." Committee members voted unanimously to file the hearing and said they will continue to pursue restoration through budget discussions ahead of the full board meeting on June 14.

The committee’s filing does not itself restore funding; it means the matter will remain on the record and supervisors said they will press the mayor’s office and DCYF for options to preserve service in space-deficit neighborhoods.