After a teachers' strike wiped out five instructional days, the San Francisco Unified School District school board did what school boards do best: made a decision that looks responsible on paper while solving absolutely nothing in practice.

The board voted to tack a week onto the end of the school year, pushing summer break back to make up for lost time. Clean. Logical. Almost entirely useless.

Families have already spoken — with their calendars. Summer camps are booked. Vacations are planned. Childcare arrangements are locked in. Parents across the city are making clear they don't intend to show up for a bonus week of school that nobody asked for and nobody will attend. The district will burn through operational costs to keep buildings open and staff paid for what amounts to glorified study hall.

Meanwhile, the political theater around the strike itself deserves its own critique. Elected officials lined up to walk picket lines and post solidarity selfies — great optics, zero substance. At least one school board member had the nerve to say what others were thinking: where were the actual policy proposals? Where was the reform language? Showing up in a union t-shirt is easy. Fixing a district that's been hemorrhaging students, credibility, and cash for years is considerably harder.

San Francisco has a school district with real structural problems — bloated central office costs, declining enrollment, deferred maintenance, and chronic budget gaps. The strike was a symptom. The make-up week is a band-aid on a band-aid.

If city and state leaders want credit for supporting teachers, they should try supporting students too — with honest conversations about what SFUSD actually needs to function. That means structural reform, not performative picket line cameos and a phantom week of June school that the city will collectively skip.

The kids deserved better than a five-day strike. They definitely deserve better than this.