news starts right now. >> once again, these are not easy decisions. i acknowledge that what we're doing here are

impacting people's livelihoods. these are people who live here with us. empathetic but committed to making tough decisions. san francisco superintendent says that is the severity of the budget crisis facing her school district. good evening. i'm ama daetz. >> and i'm dan ashley. thanks for joining us. right now, the san francisco school board meeting is just getting underway. they are expected to vote on sending preliminary layoff notices to more than 550 employees. >> it's all in a desperate measure to address a $113 million deficit. abc seven news reporter louis pena is here with more. louis. >> yes. ama and dan shefs daetz. superintendent maria su said this is part of balancing the budget. and now this is a live look outside the school district's headquarters, where the meeting is set to begin in about 90 minutes. by state law, the school district is required to issue preliminary layoff notices by march 15th to employees who may be impacted by this reduction. and tonight, the

board is expected to vote to authorize this next move. the san francisco unified school district is on the verge of terminating hundreds of positions as it focuses on closing a $113 million budget deficit for the 2025 to 2026 school year. >> while it is very painful, it is very necessary for us to reduce our existing workforce. >> s.f. usd's superintendent maria su confirming the district is gearing up to begin drafting layoff notices to at least 559 of its employees on this first round. >> these are preliminary notices. they are not final, and they are not an indication of immediate separation of our employees. >> after tuesday's board of education vote, s.f. usd will use a seniority list and other methods to determine which

employees will receive the preliminary notices. the final notices will be issued in may. >> the district has experienced a significant decline in overall enrollment consistent with statewide trends, and yet we have kept staffing levels largely the same. it simply is not sustainable. >> as layoffs loom. the teachers union is asking their members to hold on. >> we're sending out emails saying, check in with us in april, because now what starts happening is that school sites are going to talk about their budgets. many of the school sites still haven't received their budgets. it's this late. >> parents are now growing frustrated, asking for the district to keep in mind all students. >> on the special education kids. we are going to lose. on top of that, we're going to lose more support for these students. and as a parent, i'm very concerned. >> aside from these preliminary notices, the district is also offering early retirement plans, reducing contracted services and maximizing restricted funds. will it make a difference? >> our workforce accounts for

80% of our expenditure. and yes, i do believe that it will make a difference. while this is going to be really painful for us to go through, at the end of the day, it will help the district remain solvent. >> as of usd's, superintendent said over 300 employees have shown interest in the early retirement packages. that plan still needs to be approved by the board next month, and tonight we'll keep you updated on what the board votes in the newsroom. luz pena, abc seven news. >> all right, luce, thanks very much. a new study on the $20 minimum wage for fast food workers found little negative impact on the restaurant industry or consumers. uc berkeley's center for wage and employment dynamics found that after the 25% wage increase, food prices only increased about 1.5%, or $0.06 on a $4 burger. it also found the increase did not negatively affect fast food employment, and the number of fast food restaurants in fact grew in california.

>> in san jose, the city is offering a train or bus ticket to unhoused residents so they can go back to their home cities and reconnect with their families. it's called the homeward bound program and is modeled after a similar san francisco program of the same name. abc seven news reporter dustin dorsey has more. >> each of the thousands of people who live unhoused in san jose have a story. stories of how they got there, and stories of how hard it is to get the help they need. >> this program, homeward bound, offers one way out. >> a new pilot program to connect people with friends and family who can support them from a few dollars to $1,000. the city will pay for bus or train tickets for wherever people need to go, helping in more ways than one. >> if our outreach workers can offer people family reconnection services immediately, that saves a bed in our shelter system. for someone who truly doesn't have anyone to support them. and we already have people who are raising their hands and saying yes. >> this program takes lessons

learned from san francisco, where new mayor daniel lurie seeks expansion after successes. san jose outreach teams will go right to the streets to find out if people have a better place to go. and through the program's $200,000 budget, the city will cover the bill to get them there. >> we're going to go through a verification process that allows for flexibility to ensure that receipt can take many forms, whether it's in a person's house, whether it's landing, it's just a touch point in the community, or whether the landing is a touchpoint in the community. connecting to a job. >> mayor matt mehan recognizes that this program is not for everyone, and it's not a perfect solution to ending unsheltered homelessness. but he says it's a start. >> we cannot let the perfect be the enemy of the good. it's going to take many different strategies. >> unhoused advocates sandi perry agrees and has hope for this program. but he worries about more temporary solutions focused on just moving people around. >> it's not to end the suffering of people that are unhoused. it's to basically end the visible suffering. that's really my critique, i'd say, of the mayor's plan is that it's

completely oriented around ending the visibility of homelessness, but not ending homelessness altogether. >> just like there are many stories, there are many solutions. and that work continues as leaders seek to build a better bay area for all in san jose. dustin dorsey, abc seven news. >> today, california leaders and lawmakers met to discuss how to best implement proposition 36. that's the measure which voters passed last november, which increases the penalties for certain theft and drug crimes. the legislature and local governments are now tasked with increasing funding for jails and crime prevention programs. a public defender in contra costa county says they're already seeing the effects. >> we're seeing already a very high percentage of people of color impacted by prop 36. we're seeing a 20% spike in january alone in jail bookings in contra costa county. we are seeing cases filed, theft cases, drug cases and again, many more felonies being processed through our local system. so more help

is needed. >> many groups say prevention programs have shown a decrease in repeat incarceration. >> oakland police say the driver of a stolen car hit and injured two officers this morning. police responded to the 85th avenue dmv to reports of people sleeping in a car. when they got there, officers noticed the plates of the car had been switched and verified the car was stolen. when police tried to take the driver into custody, they took off hitting a police car, then hitting two officers. >> it's not okay for an individual to feel that they can harm or attack anyone, law enforcement or community. it's not okay, right? so we want to send that message that if you feel you're going to come to oakland and commit crime, we will hold you accountable, whether it's against the police or community. >> police say they have identified the driver of the car, but they have not been able to locate them and take them into custody. >> police are looking for the person who shot a man on highway 24 in oakland this afternoon. it happened in the eastbound direction just past the broadway exit. the victim was in a white sedan, but the chp says he

managed to get out and get to the hospital on his own. he was struck in the leg and is expected to make a full recovery. the freeway was shut down for about two hours while investigators combed the scene for evidence. it reopened at about 230 this afternoon. there is no word on a suspect or any arrests. >> we've learned the police officer who was killed in a mass shooting in pennsylvania over the weekend was a bay area native. officer andrew duarte was born in oakland and graduated from burien christian high school in walnut creek. the school posted about him on facebook today. officer duarte died in the line of duty saturday while confronting a gunman who had taken several people hostage at a hospital in pennsylvania. his mother emotionally recounted the moment she had to identify his body. >> he just looked like he was sleeping. and i kissed the top of his head, just like i did the day he was born. it's

>> five others were injured in the shooting. investigators say the gunman felt the hospital could have done more to save his terminally ill wife. officer duarte's funeral will be held friday in pennsylvania. >> coming up, big changes for california homeowners now. after more than a decade, cal fire has released new maps highlighting areas most prone to fire danger. what it means for people living in the bay area and where you live. when with chronic migraine?

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map showing new levels of detailed fire risk in cities all across the bay area. >> it could mean some big changes for california homeowners. here's abc seven news reporter leslie brinkley with the latest. >> cal fire says new science is giving them a new view of fire severity risks across the state. just released drafts of new fire

maps will guide where stricter building and landscape rules will eventually apply. >> we believe that this new model and latest science is more accurate than the depiction 15 years ago. >> you can type in an address on the new fire map and find out if that location has a moderate or high risk, or very high risk. the red very high risk zones have changed most drastically in sonoma county, especially after the tubbs fire destroyed thousands of homes in 2017. now, 7600 acres are deemed within the state's very high fire severity zone, compared to just 11 acres 15 years ago. very high fire risk acreage has also doubled in orinda. on the other end of the spectrum is oakland, where 1945 acres are deemed very high fire risk compared to almost 11,000 acres at risk back in 2010. >> we are grateful that they continue to reevaluate these

maps to see what hazards exist. we have a good relationship with them as well as our regional partners. >> local jurisdictions have 120 days to make adjustments to the maps, to make sure they align with local property lines and roads. >> they can add areas to the map. they can remove areas that we recommended. >> homeowners in the very high risk fire zones will have to comply with upcoming state regulations for an ember resistant zone. the first five feet around the home that should be free of plans wood fences and mulch. fire officials say those things contributed greatly to the devastating speed and spread of the palisades fire earlier this year. so changes are coming. >> it's worth it not to have your entire house burned down after we saw what happened in l.a. >> you just hope and pray and life goes on. >> cal fire will finalize the new maps later this year. in the east bay, i'm leslie brinkley, abc seven news. >> coming up, it was another beautiful day around the bay area. look at this shot outside

after the break. we're going to have abc seven news meteorologist sandhya patel with us

sonoma coast is finally being removed this week. it's been near salmon creek beach since september of 2016. that's north of bodega bay. debris has been getting in the water for years, ranging from plastics to other items that could be extremely harmful to animals. the national oceanic and atmospheric administration is helping with this cleanup. >> so there's the obvious risk to wildlife ingesting materials. there's pollution on board, like petroleum products and other hazardous materials, and those can affect water quality, but also marine life, especially young juvenile marine life or larval stage marine life. they're really highly sensitive to toxicity in the water. >> government funding is helping to pay for that removal. >> all right. well, let's talk about this spectacular weather forecast. a little foggy in the beginning, but turned out to be a beautiful day.

>> yeah, the sun came out and it definitely warmed up. sandy. >> it did indeed. and let me show you some live pictures right now. absolutely gorgeous views just soaked in sun, no matter which direction you look. in case you want to go and enjoy the sunshine at the beach. be careful. this is a view from our santa cruz camera, where the surf is pounding the coastline, and we do have a high surf advisory until 4 a.m. tomorrow. those large northwesterly swells breakers 20 to 25ft brings dangerous swimming and surfing conditions as the risk of rip currents and sneaker waves go up. bodega bay right now 15 foot waves. high pressure is in control of our weather. that brought us the sunshine and the warmth today. this ridge is going to control our weather for the next couple of days before things change. but you recall this morning there was some very dense fog around the bay area. this is a visible satellite picture showing that to you, but it did evaporate and we ended up with a nice sunny day, as we had expected. those temperatures

anywhere from the low 60s to the upper 60. right now, as we check out a live view from our sutro tower camera tomorrow. sunny, even warmer thursday night into friday and isolated shower chance can't be ruled out. and then this weekend we are looking at the rain. returning to the bay area. we go hour by hour and if you are stepping out to enjoy the nice weather 6.15 5060 as we head towards 8:00, it is still comfortable in the 50s. it's going to be slow to drop off tomorrow morning. numbers will range mainly in the 40s and then as we head into the afternoon hours, these temperatures anywhere from 5 to 15 degrees above average for this time of year. and you have another nice evening coming your way tomorrow. so your morning temperatures will look like this 40 for all of you. there will be some patchy fog, but nothing like today where we had a lot of fog around and it was dense and pretty widespread. tomorrow afternoon, 75, in santa rosa. fremont 78, san jose 72. concord. oakland 70, in san francisco. as we look ahead to

the weekend, a system gets in here. saturday night brings an opportunity foromwet weather. wet weather continues on sunday, and in the sierra, this turns over to snow early monday. there's still a slight chance, but i think this really just opens up the door for more opportunities for rain as we head into march. so here's a look at the rainfall projections going into monday. about a third of an inch in san francisco, a quarter of an inch there in santa rosa. the accuweather seven day forecast looks like this. you've got yourself the warmest day of the week tomorrow, with temperatures in the 60s and 70s. cooler on thursday and friday, but the isolated chances basically between thursday night and friday. and then as we head into march, it's much cooler. and we have a level one system for oscar sunday, slight chance of showers on monday and a chance on tuesday. ama and dan. >> so get cozy on the couch and watch the oscars. absolutely. thanks, andy. >> all right. the nba's all time leading scorer. that's diana taurasi, and now she is retiring. the 42 year old is a three time wnba champion, two

time finals mvp and has won six olympic gold medals for team usa. taurasi remains the only wnba player to surpass 10,000 career goals, and was voted the greatest of all time by the fans. >> today, the san francisco board of supervisors honored dorothy latham for her contributions to the city as well. latham has been living in the same home along ocean beach since 1960. she has spent much of her life fighting against the decline of black and low income people living in san francisco. in 1963, she shefs usd and became the first black teacher at columbus elementary school. after 32 years, she retired as a principal in the district. she was also appointed by then mayor dianne feinstein to the first rent control board. latham also helped open san francisco's museum of the african diaspora, or moab. in 2005. >> all right. well, still ahead here, we're getting ready for the oscars this sunday right here on abc seven. and coming up, we'll give you a look at the

nominees for best actor and best actress. stay with us. >> i'm reggie aqui. >> i'm lyanne melendez. >> i'm luz pena, i'm tara campbell. >> i'm j.r. >> stone at abc seven news. we deliver local stories with. >> real answers. >>

fans. even more reason to get excited about memorial day weekend this year. it just released its lineup for the after dark shows happening around the festival. legendary bay area rapper e-40 is among the performers. so is guitarist robby krieger of the doors and indie pop vocalist lauren mayberry. the after dark concerts are in napa and several other bay area cities. tickets go on sale tomorrow at 10 a.m. bottlerock runs may 23rd through the 25th. >> that is good fun. great lineup. well, the countdown is on to hollywood's biggest night. we are now four days and a few hours away from the oscars right here on abc seven. so who will take home the awards for best actor and best actress? abc news reporter jaclyn lee has a look at the nominees. >> could this be demi moore's

year? the 62 year old actor just won her first ever acting award at the golden globes last month, for her performance in the substance. >> i had this magical, bold, courageous, out of the box, absolutely bonkers script come across my desk called the substance, and the universe told me that you're not done. >> now she's a contender for best actress at the oscars, joined by fernando torres from i'm still here. and mikey madison, who was stunned by winning best actress at the british bafta awards for the movie honora. >> really wasn't expecting this. i probably should have listened to my publicist and wrote a speech or something. >> actress karla sofia gascon breaking barriers, playing two roles in amelia perez. now the first openly transgender person to be nominated for an acting award at the oscars.

>> now, gravity. >> powerhouse vocalist cynthia erivo, hoping to defy gravity with her nomination for wicked, a role she felt deeply connected to. >> i felt like i recognized something in the character, the feeling of being on the outside, being a bit different, not fitting in. and so i guess i there was something about it that felt familiar. >> in the best actor category, adrien brody is hoping to win his second best actor award after winning his first golden globe for the brutalist. >> there was a time not too long ago that i felt that this may never be a moment afforded to me again, so thank you. >> also in the category, timothee chalamet, who starred in two best picture nominees, dune part two and a complete unknown, where his portrayal of bob dylan earned him a best actor nomination. getting the stamp of approval from dylan himself. >> he's a man of few words, so

any of those words spent saying, hey, good job, young man, man, i'll take that with me forever. >> other best actor hopefuls include colman domingo getting praise for his role in sing sing, which he also produced. ralph fiennes for his role as a cardinal overseeing the election of a new pope in conclave. >> supervision of the selection is a duty i never thought i'd have to perform. >> and sebastian stan. >> i got flair and i'm smart. >> so playing a young donald trump in the apprentice, all hoping to win that coveted statuette. jacqueline lee, abc news, los angeles. >> and once again, you can watch the oscars this sunday right here on abc seven. and for the first time, the oscars will stream live on hulu as well. >> and we do have much more news still ahead at 530, including the latest on state farm's emergency request for a 38% rate hike. now, the state insurance commissioner has called a meeting to explain why seven on your side's stephanie sierra will be here with what we can

expect when the parties meet tomorrow. plus, replacing traditional housing materials with more natural ones like hemp eggshells and mushroom root. we're going to tell you how these futuristic ideas are tied to the bay area, so please join me for those stories and more at 530 over on abc seven bay area streaming tv. >> we will indeed. and that that new building material story. >> is fascinating. >> really? yeah, we'll have to see. >> all right. >> that is it. if you're watching us here on tv world news tonight with david muir is next. be sure to catch ama on the stream in just a couple of minutes for sandhya patel. all of us. i'm dan ashley. we appreciate your time. >> and i'm ama daetz. we'll see you again at six.

tonight, several breaking stories as we come on the air. this near disaster at a chicago airport. a passenger jet coming in for landing when another jet crosses the runway just seconds before. and you'll see it. >>al,