San Francisco School Board Skips Seniority in Layoffs

The San Francisco school board took on teacher seniority rights Tuesday night in planning for layoffs, voting to save the jobs of all 70 teachers in 14 low-performing schools when the district hands out pink slips in two weeks.

The decision means that teachers in those schools - even those without seniority - would be exempted when the district issues layoff notices in March. Most of the schools are in the Mission and Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhoods.

Officials said the school district had committed a great deal of money and effort to training and supporting teachers in those schools, which suffered in past years from significant staff turnover.