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Preliminary results <\/a>showed the vote to oust each of the school board members topping 70 percent. Those who lost their seats are school board president Gabriela L\u00f3pez and members Alison Collins and Faauuga Moliga.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The recall effort was initiated by a couple frustrated by the board\u2019s failure to reopen schools last academic year. Even as other districts opened or developed hybrid in-person and remote systems, and as private schools in the area operated in person, San Francisco remained remote for nearly all students, <\/b>who did not return until the fall.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n At the same time, the board engaged in a series of divisive moves aimed at racial equity that critics say were ill-advised, particularly for a period when schools were closed and academic and emotional damage to the city\u2019s children was accruing. For instance, it spent months deliberating the renaming of 44 schools after a committee found their namesakes had connections to slavery, oppression and racism, though many of the alleged ties were thin or, in some cases, historically questionable or inaccurate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The board also argued that Lowell High School, an elite program populated overwhelmingly by Asian American and White students, needed an admissions system that would better represent the city\u2019s Black and Hispanic residents. The board\u2019s abrupt decision to alter the admission rules, switching to a lottery, incensed San Francisco\u2019s large Chinese American population.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The leaders of the recall movement said the vote showed a hunger for schools to focus on educating children.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Other city leaders were frustrated, too. <\/b>The superintendent quit and was persuaded to come back only after board members agreed, in writing, to focus on reopening schools. Mayor London Breed, a Democrat, endorsed the recall campaign, saying it was important the school board not become \u201cdistracted by unnecessary influences or political agendas.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIn this deeply divided city, in this deeply divided country, it shows that there are some things we can all agree on. Competent leadership. Good public schools. Protecting our most disadvantaged kids,\u201d Siva Raj and Autumn Looijen, who launched the recall effort, said in a statement Wednesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Breed, who <\/b>endorsed the recall campaign, will appoint replacements for the ousted school board members.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cOur kids have suffered tremendously during this pandemic,\u201d she said in a statement <\/a>after the results. \u201cIt\u2019s time we refocus our efforts on the basics of providing quality education for all students.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The decision to change admissions criteria for Lowell High School proved enormously controversial. Admissions to the Lowell under the lottery increased representation among Black and Hispanic students.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But critics of the decision, including many alumni and parents at the school, charged that it was anti-Asian. They also argued it would water down the academic standards that had made the school an extraordinary place for learning.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Anger was further fueled by anti-Asian tweets <\/a>from Collins that were posted in 2016, before she was on the board, but discovered last year. They accused Asian Americans of benefiting from the \u201c \u2018model minority\u2019 BS\u201d and using \u201cwhite supremacist thinking to assimilate and \u2018get ahead.\u2019 \u201d She also suggested that they were not standing up to President Donald Trump, using a racial slur to describe them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The school board voted to strip Collins of her position as vice president, and Collins responded by suing the school board, producing further turmoil that was unrelated to the education of children.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Chinese American Democratic Club urged voters to support the recall. The election, unlike many others in the city, appeared to galvanize Asian voters. Ann Hsu, a parent and organizer with the Chinese\/API Voter Outreach Task Force, said the vote was a repudiation of anti-Asian actions. She pointed to the Lowell decision and said the board had \u201cbulldozed over our concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe recalled School Board members are paying the price of their actions that were blatantly discriminatory towards the AAPI community,” she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Yet another controversy<\/a> that engulfed the board concerned its effort to paint over Depression-era murals considered offensive to Black and Native Americans. Eventually the board agreed to conceal but not destroy the historical murals.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n President Biden won 86 percent of the vote in liberal San Francisco. But the school board\u2019s actions alienated voters who agreed with an increasingly common critique of the left that it worked too hard on racial equity measures and not hard enough on meliorating the toll of the pandemic on schools and children.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The leaders of the recall movement, Raj and Looijen, fueled the sense that they were making common cause with conservatives when they <\/b>appeared on Glenn Beck\u2019s radio show in a segment about parents pushing back against schools, drawing criticism at home.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Months after the recall effort launched, the Virginia governor\u2019s race showed the power of education as a political issue when Republican Glenn Youngkin won with a heavy emphasis on school closures and race.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Jenny Lam, a San Francisco school board member who was not subject to the recall, suggested in a statement<\/a> that the election was a wake-up call. \u201cWith this evening\u2019s election, we change course. We now must move forward to focus our energy back on our students and our schools.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n