Three years after fighting to keep Daniel Webster elementary school open from SFUSD closures, PREFund successfully opened Potrero Kids at Daniel Webster Preschool (PKDW). The preschool is a critical component of PREFund’s two part plan to increase enrollment at Daniel Webster Elementary. Part one was accomplished by the opening of the Spanish Immersion program for the 08/09 elementary school year. Mission Neighborhood Centers, with over 40 years of early childhood programming experience, is the administrator of the PKDW Spanish bi-lingual program. After raising almost $500,000 to complete construction, PREFund opened the school on September 30 and services 36 students ages 2 years 9 months to kindergarten age. Twenty-five percent of the students are on scholarship. Read more about the program here.

Special thanks to the many businesses that made this community preschool a reality, especially Jackson Liles Architecture and AzulWorks Construction Company. In addition, the project would not have been a reality without significant funding support provided by Low Income Investment Fund, The San Francisco Foundation, and the Eastern Neighborhoods Public Benefit Fund. For a complete list of supporters, please click here.

The preschool currently has a waiting list, so please be sure to apply in advance.

With the latest wave of California state budget cuts in educational programs, PREFund has been working hard to find innovative ways to support the hard-working staff at Daniel Webster Elementary. Through PREFund’s partnership with LYNC-SF, much needed underwriting has been secured from the Louise And Claude Rosenberg Jr. Family Foundation to fund a full 2008-09 school year of on campus “mentors” to serve as recess/lunch time supervisors. These mentors have been trained at San Francisco State’s Pacific Leadership Institute in leadership, team/community building, conflict resolution, and violence prevention. The mentors will be on hand everyday to engage with the students and initiate all-inclusive cooperative games. The program will be coordinated and administrated by Ezra Holland, partner & co-founder in LYNC-SF and Ezra Holland Consulting. He is an incredibly dynamic force and is energized and committed to making Daniel Webster a safe and inclusive environment for all students. LYNC-SF, co-founded by Timberly Hughes, owner of Jay’s Deli, is an important part of the Potrero Hill community which has been supporting our local schools for many years with innovative enrichment programs and food pantries, just to name a few.

Due to an overwhelming demand for Spanish Immersion Programs at San Francisco’s public schools, the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) fast-tracked the opening of Daniel Webster Elementary School’s Spanish Immersion Program (SIP). The program, which was originally slated to start at the school in 2009, began this academic year with two kindergarten classrooms, both of which consist of the optimal 50-50 mix of native Spanish speakers and English-only speakers.

Daniel Webster has hired two highly qualified teachers to kick-off the program. With seven years experience teaching Spanish Immersion, Katina Strong moved from Chicago to join the team at Webster. Sunshine Suit, a twenty-year San Francisco resident, transitioned to Webster from teaching high school-level Spanish. Fluent in Spanish and Italian, Suit is also an accomplished Flamenco and West African dancer. The new teachers join a dedicated Daniel Webster staff, many of whom – including Principal Moraima Machado – are bi-lingual in Spanish and English.

The new program has been designated a top priority for SFUSD’s Multi-Lingual Department, with significant resources being made available to Daniel Webster under the supervision of Kevin Chavez. The school is also being supported by Parents for Public Schools, San Francisco Advocates for Multi-lingual Education, The Potrero Residents Education Fund and the pioneer SIP kindergarten parents.