NOVEMBER 2024 VOTER GUIDE
CCSF BOARD OF TRUSTEES
What is the City College Board of Trustees?
The Board of Trustees is a seven-member board elected by voters to serve four year terms, plus a student representative from the college.
The board is responsible for guiding the direction of San Francisco City College, overseeing students, making legal and financial decisions for the college, establishing goals and objectives, and making policy for the college’s programs and services.
Trustees receive a salary of $6,000 per year, so most board members need to have full-time jobs in addition to their duties to the board.
Why You Should Care
CCSF is currently dealing with a number of challenges—low enrollment and a budget kept afloat by emergency state funds being the biggest ones. Unfortunately, current leadership doesn’t seem to understand the scope or immediacy of the problems, focusing instead on undoing 2022’s difficult-but-necessary staff cuts, voting to pay down health benefit deficits more slowly than needed, and passing extraneous resolutions on climate change. Starting in 2026–2027, CCSF will start losing money when the state’s stabilization funding expires, and San Franciscans rejected a parcel tax in 2022 that would have funded the school. If CCSF wants to avoid bankruptcy, the Board of Trustees needs real leadership willing to make decisions to get the school back on track.
Our Vision for This Office
CCSF needs a pragmatic Board of Trustees that focuses on core issues like improving classes, student performance, and the school’s fiscal health. We need board members who are willing to make difficult decisions when they’re in the school’s best interest, even when they’re politically unpopular.
✅ Aliya Chisti
Aliya Chisti is the only incumbent on CCSF’s board we’re supporting in this election. In her four years on the board, she’s avoided playing politics with the school’s fiscal health, supporting a former chancellor who valued fiscal responsibility when other board members voted to kick him out. She also supports basic (like, really basic) things that should be the bare minimum for a board position—balancing expenses with revenue, offering a more diverse class selection, and upgrading the school’s class signup system. Chisti has policy experience as a legislative aide for former Supervisor Malia Cohen, worked for the Department of Children, Youth and Their Families from 2019 to 2021, and has worked as a Senior Policy Analyst for the City and County of San Francisco since December 2021. We’re endorsing Aliya Chisti because her policy experience, combined with her financial literacy, make Chisti an excellent asset for the Board of Trustees.
✅ Heather McCarty
Heather McCarty has extensive community college leadership experience, along with the policy positions CCSF needs to ensure its future. She’s been a professor in History and Women and Gender Studies at Ohlone College in Fremont for 18 years, co-founding and leading the Lytton Center for History and the Public Good at Ohlone College for the last four years. McCarty has detailed plans to increase student enrollment, ensure the school’s fiscal health, and address concerns raised by accreditors to maintain CCSF’s accreditation. We’re endorsing Heather McCarty because the Board of Trustees needs a board member with her skills leading faculty organizations and deep knowledge of community college best practices.
✅ Luis Zamora
Luis Zamora has the right approach to repairing a broken institution: fix the basics, and people will come. He supports regular public reporting on key performance metrics (a necessary step for San Franciscans to keep CCSF leadership accountable), and wants to boost student enrollment by partnering with local high schools to create a strong pipeline of new students. A community college graduate himself, Zamora currently represents San Francisco as a delegate to the California Democratic Party, chairing the LGBTQ+ Caucus. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he helped connect families and businesses with resources to stay afloat through his work as the Vice President and Chair of Public Policy of the Golden Gate Business Association. In early September, Zamora was appointed by Mayor London Breed to a freshly vacated seat on the Board of Trustees. However, he will still have to run for a full term in November. We’re endorsing Luis Zamora because he’s made ensuring CCSF’s financial strength a top priority, and he has the background to make it happen.
Ruth Ferguson isn’t afraid to hold her colleagues accountable for their bad behavior or call them out publicly, even when it means risking her own career. Ferguson’s bravery in going public with the details of her harassment and subsequent retaliation in the California Legislature is inspiring, and is a good indicator of how she’d keep the Board of Trustees accountable. A community college graduate herself, Ferguson is a public policy professional and consultant, with experience at the California State Legislature as a district representative and a policy fellow. We’re endorsing Ruth Ferguson for City College because she has the passion, drive and policy chops to make effective and smart decisions for the institution.
Support & Opposition
The San Francisco Chronicle agrees—CCSF is dysfunctional and needs leadership willing to make real decisions to prevent the institution from failing.
Paid for by TogetherSF Action. Not authorized by any candidate or a committee controlled by a candidate. Financial disclosures are available at sfethics.org.
