Troubling CCSF Chancellor News & the College Board Election

Dear Community

We are angry and heartbroken about the news that City College’s Chancellor Kimberlee Messina  (other link here) is under investigation for financial misconduct, including padding her $350,000 salary with unauthorized stipends. 

City College’s enrollment has rebounded since COVID; our finances are stable; and our students, programs, and employees remain second to none. We change lives, and that mission deserves quality leadership at the top. 

Unfortunately strong leadership and real accountability will not happen with billionaire dark money influencing who is elected to City College’s Board, the body entrusted with choosing the college’s leaders and holding them accountable. Make no mistake: a billionaire-backed majority on our College Board chose Kimberlee Messina. Students, labor, & community were clear in supporting a different candidate, Dr. Carlos Cortez, but the GrowSF-backed majority on our Board ignored the input of the people who make CCSF great.  

That’s why it’s so important, whether you receive a ballot by mail next week or vote in person on November 3, that you vote for Leah Lacroix, Jeremy Lee, and Dr. Bunny McFadden for College Board. Endorsed by teachers and classified staff, Leah, Jeremy, and Dr. Bunny have the courage, vision, and commitment to bring real accountability to the top of City College. 

Leah is a Black community leader with a long record of advocating for San Franciscan students. Jeremy is a Chinese-American financial manager of affordable housing. And Dr. Bunny McFadden is a Chicana professor and mother with a doctorate in higher ed teaching and research. All three went to community colleges (two of them to CCSF), and know firsthand what SF students need to succeed. They will demand real accountability from our leaders because they answer to the community who supports them. Not billionaires.

You can meet all three candidates at a mobilization and canvass with Supervisor Connie Chan, Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, and others this Saturday Oct 3 at Chan Kaajal Park 11am-2pm. RSVP here and find AFT 2121’s full voter guide for this November here. 

In solidarity,

AFT 2121 President Robin Pugh