After careful consideration, I have decided to withdraw from the race for school board.

While I strongly believe that my positions on a variety of issues have been twisted, misrepresented and used to tear me down personally, I also believe that there are more important issues at play.

I strongly believe that the issue of transgender rights and dignity is larger than any single person’s candidacy for office, including my own. Therefore, I would rather step aside and work for the greater good than allow my candidacy to be a tool of division.

There can be no mixed messages when it comes to transgender rights in our schools.

We must send a message to transgender people, especially transgender children, that is absolutely clear and unequivocal: We support you!

I will step aside at this time to work on the issues that I care about, including this one.

First and foremost, I am an advocate for children, parents, immigrant families and people who struggle to find a voice in our educational system. That is my passion, that is what I do. And rather than let a divisive campaign jeopardize my work or, worse, further divide our communities, I will redouble my efforts to advocate for our families, and our kids, on the front lines.

I will not be used as a tool of division. Some things are more important than a campaign, or a seat on a board.

在深思熟虑之后，我决定退出教育委员的竞选。

虽然我坚信我在各种问题的立场上都遭到扭曲和误导，以便对我的人格进行毁灭。但我相信我们还有更重要的事情去做。

我坚信跨性别人士的权利和尊严问题比任何一个候选人，包括我自己的竞选都要大。因此，我宁愿离开并为更大的利益而努力，而不是让我的竞选成为分裂社区的工具。

在此重申，在我们学校的跨性别权利方面，绝对没有含糊的信息。

我们必须向跨性别者，特别是跨性别儿童发出信息，这绝对是明确无误的：我们支持你！

我将退选去为我所关心的议题而工作，包括这个议题。

首先，我是一名为儿童、家长和移民家庭的倡导者，是为他们在教育系统里找到自己的发言权的倡导者。这是我的热情，这是我心属的工作。与其让这一系列分离的行动危及我心有所属的工作，甚至进一步分裂我们的社区，我将会加倍努力，在前线上为我们的家庭和孩子做出贡献。

我不会让我自己被一些人用作分裂的工具。我深知有些事情比一个竞选或教育委员的席位更重要。

Josephine Zhao for School Board 2018

Josephine is a public school mom, an engaged community leader, and a passionate advocate for students, parents, and public schools. She is a single mother of two girls enrolled in San Francisco public schools and has been deeply involved in the public school community since 2009.

A firm believer in the power of community, Josephine has been an ardent leader in the PTA, on the English Learner Advisory Committee  (ELAC), and the School Site Council (SSC) for several years. On the San Francisco Board of Education’s Parent Advisory Council she strove to ensure parents from all backgrounds had a seat at the table when policy is being discussed and developed. When serving on Mayor Breed's Education Policy Transition Team, she advocated for a citywide Meaningful Outreach and Engagement effort to educate all communities on social justice issues.

Josephine immigrated to the United States to pursue higher education and knows first-hand the power a quality education can have in changing lives. As a champion for our students, she was a key advocate in the successful campaign to add Geometry to  SFUSD’s summer course curriculum for 10th grade students in 2017, and became a recognized leader in finding options to college-bound students who were delayed access to advanced math in 8th grade.

In addition to her advocacy for public schools, Josephine is a community builder who has founded two nonprofit organizations since 2011. The first, AsianAmericanVoters.org focuses on educating and organizing San Francisco’s Asian American communities around the subjects of education, housing, and quality of life and anti-discrimination issues. The second, BetterHousingPolicies.org, provides training to immigrant housing providers on ethical standards, translation services, conflict resolution between tenants and landlords, and assistance for first-time homebuyers when navigating the process of purchasing a new home.

Josephine holds a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from Colorado State University, a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science from University of Northern Colorado, and is a graduate of Emerge California. She currently works for Hoover Middle School as the school/family liaison.

Josephine will draw on her unique experience as a public school mom, district employee and parent advocate. She deeply understands the needs of students, parents, teachers, paraprofessionals, administrators and the school district. Josephine is running for the San Francisco School Board because she believes all of these stakeholders can work together to make fantastic public schools that serve the entire community.

Do you believe that SFUSD’s school assignment system needs reform? If not, why? If so, how would you change it?

It is a hard act to balance the need for neighborhood schools and racial diversity in school assignment.

There are advantages to both the neighborhood school assignment model and the diversity-oriented lottery assignment model. Historically, SFUSD had tried both models and neither was a full success.  And now, it has rested in a compromise in which neighborhood assignment for kindergarten/elementary schools, and the feeder pattern for the middle schools - where a few nearby neighborhood schools are fed into a middle school to achieve diversity are the norms.

There are advantages for neighborhood school assignment - it provides a sense of community...

Josephine Zhao, an ally for the LGBTQ community and agent to bring immigrant community forward

Posted by Josephine Zhao · October 11, 2018 11:58 PM

The LGBTQ Cultural Divide: A Teachable Moment in the Josephine Zhao Controversy

Posted by Mandy Lee · October 11, 2018 11:55 PM

Josephine Zhao, an advocate for San Francisco students, parents and immigrant families

Posted by Josephine Zhao · September 11, 2018 5:33 PM

[This OpEd was originally published in San Francisco Examiner.]

I am a public school mom of two daughters, a longtime parent advocate, an immigrant who grew up very poor in mainland China, and an experienced paraeducator/family liaison in the San Francisco Unified School District. As a progressive leader in the immigrant community, I am running for school board in order to ensure all children, including LGBTQ students, have the opportunity to succeed in our city. I support equal rights and access for ALL students. My values drive me to advocate that every student, of all background and needs, reach their fullest potential.

My family moved to the City ten years ago because my older daughter Genevieve had kidney failure at the age of 4. While we were fighting for her life, we also had to find housing and schools for my daughters. It was so heart rending. We were implicitly denied housing, and unable to enroll Genevieve at a school near our home or hospital. After Genevieve got a transplant and recovered, I became a citizen so I could find answers for why it is so hard for a family to get by in the City.