It was two days before the start of the school year, and Lauren Koehler shrugged off her backpack and slid out of a maroon hoodie as she approached the blocky, concrete building that houses the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) Enrollment Center. Koehler, the center鈥檚 38-year-old executive director, usually focuses on strategy, but on this August day, she wanted to help her team 鈥 and the students it serves 鈥 get through the crush of office visits and calls that comes every year as families scramble at the last-minute for spots in the city鈥檚 schools. So when the center鈥檚 main phone line rang in her corner office, she answered.
鈥淕ood morning! Thank you for waiting,鈥 Koehler chirped, her Texas accent audible around the edges. 鈥淗ow can I help you?鈥
On the line, Kelly Rodriguez explained that she wanted to move her 6-year-old from a private school to a public one for first grade, but only if a seat opened up at Sunset Elementary School, near their house on San Francisco鈥檚 predominantly white and Asian west side. Koehler told her the boy was fourth on the waitlist and that last year, three children got in.
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