The PHPA’s (Potrero Hill Parents Association) Daniel Webster Prospective Parents Committee is a group of mothers, fathers and residents who share a common desire for our children to attend a neighborhood public school. Our initial mission centered on investing our time and resources into improving Daniel Webster Elementary School, even though many of our children are several years away from kindergarten.

The Daniel Webster Prospective Parents Committee believes in public school education and the social benefits derived from having children in Potrero Hill live, play, and attend school together. We live here, our children are spending their preschool years playing together here, and we want our kids to go to elementary school here too.

It is no secret that Daniel Webster has historically been at the lower end of California State Test Scores - a sad fact that has discouraged neighborhood parents from enrolling their children there. However in the past two years those test scores have improved, the curriculum has been enriched with student-centered cultural (CELL/ExLL) and self-esteem (Tribes/CHAMPs) programs, partnerships with local corporations have been developed to support resources to the school and classroom (GAP Foundation), as well as support of a school uniform dress code program (Wells Fargo Bank).We, as prospective parents, are dedicated to building upon these positive trends in every way possible and in partnership with the current faculty. In fact preliminary conversations our former mayor and longtime Potrero Hill resident, Art Agnos, had with Superintendent Ackerman this past summer even raised the possibility of enhancing Daniel Webster’s Spanish/Cantonese dual language programs with Chinese and Spanish Immersion Programs as early as the fall of 2006.

With this in mind, we were shocked and dismayed to learn that Daniel Webster is being strongly considered for closure by the San Francisco Unified School District with little community input or public discussion.

We are certain that this closure will negatively impact our neighborhood. As a result, we have temporarily revised our mission from one of enhancing this improving neighborhood school … to saving it from closure. We hope to achieve this through the combined energy and efforts of many mothers, fathers and concerned neighbors who care deeply for our community and our children’s future.