"City College Needs To Live Within Their Means" – 'Fiscal Watchdog' Trustee Candidate Monroe Lace

Middle school teacher Monroe Lace wants her students to know they are important and showing them includes running for a seat at the community college board of trustees that her students may go to one day.

After making history as the first transgender person to be crowned Miss San Francisco in 2023 and becoming a teacher the following year, she is now one of eight candidates for the college’s board of trustees race this November.

Trustee Ruth Ferguson will run a special election with no opposition, technically making her the ninth aspiring trustee in the November ballot, a representative of the San Francisco Elections Commission confirmed.

“I want my sixth graders [to know] City College [of San Francisco]  will be there to serve them [when they get to high school],” Lace said. 

She, along with Bunny McFadden, is one of two teachers running in this race. 

As a teacher, Lace said it was “disappointing” that Downtown Center stopped offering classes. She said, “Changes need to be made to help with City College’s health and long-term stability.”

“We should be preventative rather than reactionary,” Lace said about the closure. 

She believes that “Things need to get done to make sure students are provided with the resources needed, such as completion and credit recovery classes, to keep class enrollment up.” 

Lace was encouraged by her students, who were in a course recovery class  and on the verge of not passing, to run for the seat. Lace’s mission is to “strengthen our K-12 to CCSF pipeline.”

Lace sees what students need firsthand and what programs like dual enrollment and credit recovery classes offer to students in need.

She emphasizes “the importance of dual enrollment as well as career technical education.”

Dual enrollment is offered to students in high school so they can take both high school and college-level courses, collecting credit for both.

As a cosmetology graduate, Lace wants to expand the number of technical education classes offered. 

Part of her community service as Miss San Francisco was promoting her advocacy by reading to kids at schools.

Lace knows the importance of Free City, as it benefits both her students and San Francisco residents. In part, she said that it is an “important part of City College.”

Expressing concern about potential loss of an important source of revenue, Lace said “The board must be more prepared when it comes to the parcel taxes and the upcoming expiration in 2032.” She was describing what was passed as Proposition B in 2016 which allocated a $99 annual flat rate, directly funding City College.

Lace hopes to be a “fiscal watchdog,” saying she’s an “uncompromising advocate for balancing the budget and living within their means” when it comes to the spending and distribution of funds.

“Never budget money that may never come, don’t use one-time funds to fund more than one-time expenses, and do not postpone decisions until reserves are empty,” she said were the rules for ensuring the long-term financial health of City College.

“Every decision I make, I’m thinking about my students and my students' success,” Lace said.