We are heartened and encouraged by Eric Mar’s (President of SF Board of Education) recent comments on this website, with regard to our efforts.

Our community has a unique opportunity to help advocate for equal educational opportunity for disadvantaged youth, while simultaneously saving a neighborhood school for Potrero Hill’s children. Please continue with your calls and letter writing.

Partial comments from Eric Mar:

Thanks for your organizing and advocacy for a voice for Potero Hill community members, parents and small businesses. Your letters and calls have been very influential for me. I encourage you to keep calling and inviting the other school board members, the Superintendent and district staff to visit Webster and take a stand with your community.

My conversations with Potrero Hill residents like Mayor Art Agnos and others have also been very helpful. For those parents that do not currently have children at Webster, please do what you can to support the mostly African American and immigrant Latino and Chinese parents - they really need a stronger voice in this campaign.

• Read full comments from Eric Mar

The pre-school kids of Potrero Hill (and hopefully future students of Daniel Webster Elementary School) are lending their support to save the school by sporting t-shirts.

• See photos

Dear Potrero Parents & Neighbors,

We have been working hard to do all we can to keep Daniel Webster open and wanted to update you as to where we are, where we go from here, and what you can do to help.

We’re encouraged and optimistic because this issue is no longer invisible thanks to our continued drum beating. Thanks to everyone who volunteered to help with this effort. We are doing our best to inform the Board and those who represent us that the demographic in Potrero Hill has changed dramatically over the last five to seven years. They are just now learning about the existence of the PHPA (Potrero Hill Parents Association) and the over 200 families who are a part of it - most of whom have preschool age children and many of whom would like to send their children to public school right here in this neighborhood.

Daniel Webster has been a troubled school in the past, but under the guidance of new principal Linda Anderson and the work started six years ago by Adelina Aramburo (the former principal), Annie Prozan (the Instructional Reform Facilitator) and an incredible, dedicated, hard-working staff, it’s moving in the right direction with improved test scores and greater integration among kids who speak different languages. There are parents in our group who want to get involved with Daniel Webster NOW, several years before our kids are ready for kindergarten, so that by the time they are ready, it will be a desirable and flourishing school.

But we can’t do it if there isn’t a school to go to.

A few of the highlights:

• SF Examiner 12/23 article ‘Supervisors want say in school closures‘ focusing on the frustration city leaders are experiencing because of a “decision-making process that will affect their constituents, but over which they have little control.” The article states that our supervisor, Sophie Maxwell, agrees “that more should be done to communicate with local members, but also school communities and local residents … ‘No one has spoken to me … they told my staff about the closures, but as far as a dialogue or discussion, no.’ Maxwell said she even tried to call Board of Education President Eric Mar to get some answers, but found him ‘very defensive.’ ”
• savewebster.com website launched with easy to navigate instructions on what you can do to help. Visit the site to read our mission statement, get updates about the campaign to save the school, and see what you can do to help
• Numerous merchants, realtors, and developers on the Hill writing letters to the School Board with copies to our political representatives.
• Letter hand delivered to Director of Mayor’s Office on Youth, Children & Families with copies to our political representatives
• Former SF Mayor and longtime Potrero Hill resident Art Agnos advocating via direct contact with individual School Board members
• Close to 500 signatures collected on petition (located at Good Life, Klein’s, Farley’s, and Ganim’s)
• School Board President Eric Mar visited Daniel Webster and met with concerned parents
• Potrero Hill Neighborhood House director Ed Hatter thinks Daniel Webster is a poor location for county hub continuation school for several reasons and will write letter of support (letter will be posted here)
• Flyers distributed throughout neighborhood to residences and businesses

IMPORTANT DATES:

• January 6th, 7PM: Regional Community meeting at Thurgood Marshall High School (45 Conkling Ave. off Silver). This meeting will only last one hour and emcompasses SIX schools on the closure list
• January 12th: School Board Vote
• January 13th: Elementary School application deadline

ACTION PLAN:

• A Potrero Hill only meeting with one or more members of the School Board to be scheduled
• Continue and expand letter writing campaign via residents, merchants, realtors, and developers
• Continue discussions with various news and media outlets to spread the word about the impact of the closure
• Continue distribution of flyers throughout neighborhood

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

• Let us know if you are willing to attend a meeting with School Board Members. No matter how old your kids are and whether or not you’ve decided where to send them to school, we need to show the Board that there are parents here who VALUE public education, who WANT to integrate Daniel Webster and who are WILLING to invest time and/or money in its future to ensure that it continues to move in the right direction. We hope to have this meeting sometime next week.
• Visit www.savewebster.com for sample letters and contact information for the Deputy Superintendent, members of the School Board, and our local politicians. Write letters, call, voice your concern.
• Buy a SAVE WEBSTER t-shirt and wear it around town.

Thanks to all of you who have helped so much already - particularly Mike Lin for designing and printing the flyers, and creating the website and t-shirts; Wendy Owen & Nadav Savio, Yoel & Tina Crane, Melissa Millsap and Elisa Lee for their invaluable help compiling contact lists; Avery McGinn, owner of Klein’s, for posting the petition and contacting fellow restaurant owners; Farley’s, Good Life, and Ganim’s for also posting the petition. And most especially, Art Agnos for guiding us through the political maze and helping us strategize. In addition, many thanks to all of you who signed the petition and sent letters to the School Board and our representatives. We need to keep the letters going so please let us know if you have time to spare. We need more volunteers!

We have a rare and beautiful community of committed, open minded families here in Potrero Hill….wouldn’t it be a dream come true to send our kids to school together right here on 20th & Missouri? Help us keep Daniel Webster open and then make it the best school it can be - please contact either of us with any questions or suggestions.

Happy Holidays,

Jennifer & Dena

Click here to buy a Save Daniel Webster Elementary School Adult or Kid sized t-shirt, and show your support at these following meetings:

Community Meeting to discuss closures
Friday, Jan 6, 2006, 7 - 8pm
Thurgood Marshall High School
45 Conkling Street (off of Silver Ave)

Special Board Meeting to vote on closures
Thursday, Jan 12, 2006, 6pm
Everett Middle School Auditorium
450 Church St.

Save Daniel Webster Elementary School flyers have been created to get our message out to the community, and many supportive Potrero Hill merchants now have them posted. We’ve also started to distribute the flyers amongst neighbors, and will continue our outreach efforts.

Please help us out by signing the petition (available at Farley’s, Klein’s Deli & The Good Life), putting up a flyer, and by writing a letter of support.

• Click here to download a flyer

Today Dena and Jennifer hand delivered a letter to Ms. Margaret Brodkin (Director of the Mayor’s Office of Youth, Children and Families).

The letter, in part, asks for her assistance to inform the mayor and solicit his advocacy; and her help in gathering more pertinent data on the population growth of families and children (elementary and pre-school) in the Potrero area.

• Read the letter to Ms. Brodkin

Lisa Schiff of Parents for Public Schools posted about a series of regional community meetings about school closures, mergers and relocations. Our meeting is set for Friday, Jan. 6, 2006.

What will happen at these meetings?

• School district staff will provide information to school communities about the Board of Education’s upcoming decisions on school closures, mergers and relocations.

• Community members will share their feedback and concerns with school district staff.

Regional Meeting #3
• Starr King Elementary
• Webster Elementary
• Malcolm X Elementary
• Enola Maxwell Middle School
• International Studies Academy
• Gloria R. Davis Middle
• Willie L. Brown Elementary

Friday, January 6, 2006
7:00PM-8:00PM
Thurgood Marshall High School
45 Conkling Street (off of Silver Ave)

Dena & Jennifer sent out a letter to Potrero Hill Parents and Neighbors today:

Dear Potrero Residents:

A hearty group of 8 - including 6 month old Annabel Bartlett - stayed at the School Board meeting until 11:30 - many thanks to Mike Lin who stuck it out ’til the very end….and to all the Potrero families and residents who were there earlier in the evening.

We, along with current parents at Daniel Webster, teachers, and LaMonte’ Bishop (see statement), a representative from State Senator Carole Migden’s office, were each given one minute to address the board. We packed in as much passion as we could and gave them the hard facts about how this community pulled together in two days. We told them that we represent over 200 families on Potrero Hill - most of whom have potential Daniel Webster students; about the letters of support we received for our efforts, and about the THREE HUNDRED SIGNATURES we were able to collect just since Sunday night. We tried to show that we are an active community and if given the chance, we can get involved with Daniel Webster to turn it around and make it a high achieving, desirable school.

There are 20 schools on the potential closure/merger list and there were many representatives from each school, all giving passionate speeches hoping to save their schools. Our presentation didn’t start until just after 10pm - unfortunately, many of the Webster families had left earlier to put their kids to bed, but it was AMAZING to be there to meet current parents, teachers, the principal, the parent liasion, the afterschool coordinator, kids from the school and see and feel their dedication to Daniel Webster and their hard work to keep it open.

In just two days we were able to pull together:
• 300 signatures
• Dozens of letters of support from parents, non-parents, and merchants
• A letter from former SF Mayor Art Agnos and long time Hill Resident was hand delivered to the board
• Representatives from both Carole Migden’s office and Mark Leno’s office came to the meeting - both of whom stayed well past 10pm!
• A TV camera crew who interviewed Ms. Anderson (the principal) and others on our side
• Dozens of emails to the Board
• Direct dialogue with Sophie Maxwell, our district representative, to enlist her support.

The vote is set for January 12th. We, along with our great supporter and mentor in this process, Art Agnos, will formulate an action plan right away. We’re so proud of how our friends and neighbors and fellow hill residents pulled together to support this important cause. Thank you for all your supportive emails - for the school and for our efforts. They certainly buoyed us these past few days.

We will email when we have a plan and hope we can enlist help with calls, emails, etc. In the meantime, we will leave the petition at The Good Life and also at Klein’s - please keep spreading the word!

PLEASE HELP SAVE DANIEL WEBSTER - IT’S GOOD FOR ALL OF US, OUR CHILDREN, AND THE FUTURE OF SAN FRANCISCO.

Yours,
Dena & Jennifer

Today, Potrero Hill mothers Dena Fischer and Jennifer Betti sent out an e-mail to the 200+ members of the Potrero Hill Parents Association:

Dear Potero Parents,

Having begun the process to organize a community group to revitalize Daniel Webster Elementary School with the goal to make this a desirable and flourishing educational environment for the kids on the hill, Jennifer contacted Ms. Anderson, the principal, on Friday and was distressed to learn of a pending plan to close the school, merge the current students in with Starr King, and turn the site into a Continuation School, also known as Phoenix High School, which is a last chance program for at risk/troubled youth who have been unable to complete school elsewhere.

WE ARE OUTRAGED AT THIS DECEPTIVE PLAN AND WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT. This plan was announced December 6th and will be voted on on January 10th. There is a school board meeting this Tuesday Night at 7 pm at. 555 Franklin St We have reserved two spots for speakers and we would like 5-10 additional supporters to voice our strong opposition to this plan. If you are unable to attend but would like your voice heard, we will be happy to read letters or emails of support for our position.

Since Ms Anderson started at Daniel Webster three years ago, test scores and enrollments have been on the rise. Please let her continue this valuable work in the right direction so that all of us with young children here on Potrero Hill can make our dream come true of sending our kids to a public school right here in our neighborhood. We believe that if the School Board sees that there is strong community support, as well as a large pool of parents of future students dedicated to getting involved in enriching and improving Daniel Webster, we can influence the Board’s decision and avoid this unfortunate closure.

We would like to add that for those of you who do not have elementary school age children or are not planning to send your kids to Daniel Webster, having a thriving and desirable public school in our neighborhood raises property values. It entices young families to move to and remain in the neighborhood and that’s good for our economy and our sense of community.

Sincerely,
Jennifer Betti (mom to Roman; 19 months) and Dena Fischer (mom to Sam &
Henry; 2 years)

The following letter was posted to the PotreroHillSF.com message boards, notifying the community of the SF School District’s intentions of closing Daniel Webster Elementary:

Dear Friends, Families and Supporters of Daniel Webster Elementary School,

I am writing to inform you that the SF school district intends to close Daniel Webster Elementary School. The plan involves moving our 250 students to Starr King and turning Webster (which is designed for K-5 students) into a hub for city’s at-risk high school students in County-funded schools. The “merger” plan was announced on December 6th and will be approved or disapproved on January 10th.

Originally the plan was to merge the 150 students from Starr King to Daniel Webster since we have enough room to accommodate these numbers. The district informed the parents that Daniel Webster was a site for a potential merger and our school was removed from the primary list of possible closures. However, this plan was scrapped at the last minute and now the district intends on moving the 250 Webster students to Starr King at the end of the school year. The district has not given this information to the media nor the parents so we, the workers of Daniel Webster, have been scrambling since Wednesday morning to inform the families of 250 students as well as the community.

For generations, our families have chosen to attend Daniel Webster, hailing from Potrero Hill, the Bayview, and the Mission for reasons of scholastics, Limited English learning and safety. Closing our school and trying to send students to Starr King will result in a lot of our families opting to ship their children across town instead of attending Starr King Elementary. The Board will essentially be destroying two neighborhood schools with this unprecedented and deceptive move.

There is a Board of Education Meeting on Tuesday, December 13th at 7:00 PM at 555 Franklin Street. This is our ONE and ONLY chance to try to save Webster. The vote will take place after Winter Recess on January 12th.

• Mergers and Closures PDF File from the SFUSD

Any support that you can lend to our families would be very much appreciated.

Gracias y Paz.
Bianca Ortiz
Secretary
Daniel Webster Child Development Center
phone (415) 920-5076
fax (415) 920-5077