It’s the first day of school across San Francisco, and students are arriving with a mix of fear and excitement.
At the Willie L. Brown Jr. School in Bayview, there’s even a red carpet to welcome the incoming young scholars.
The school district is facing a $59 million dollar deficit, which has some families and teachers on edge after last year, when the threat of school closures and budget cuts loomed. This year, there’s also fear that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers will raid schools in the midst of the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration.
But Mayor Daniel Lurie and other city officials were present at the Sanchez Elementary School in an attempt to quell those fears.
“SFUSD is a sanctuary district, in a sanctuary city, that is within a sanctuary state,” said Superintendent Maria Su, speaking shortly before 8 a.m. to the students, parents and teachers gathered in the school courtyard.
“We are working very closely with our city leaders — the mayor is here, Senator Scott Wiener is here — so that we can use the full power and weight of the law to make sure our students, our families and our educators are safe.”
Lurie, for his part, also emphasized safety.
“We want you to know that your teachers, your principal here, they are so excited to take care of you, to make sure that you learn, that you focus on your studies,” he said. “We are going to take care of you. You are going to be safe in this school.”
Sanchez Elementary School
At Sanchez Elementary School in the Mission, the principal was joined by Lurie, Su, Wiener, and other city officials. A long line wound through the entry of the school where students and parents were filing into the building and out to the courtyard.
But, ICE aside, parents and kids were just excited to be back.
“I graduated from here, too, so it’s cool to see my daughter graduate from here,” Griselda Fernandez said of her daughter, who is a third-generation Sanchez student going into the fifth grade. Fernandez was one of the hundred or so people who braved the crowd to hear from Lurie.
“Just to get into the ceremony, it took 10 minutes. There was a long-ass line,” Fernandez remarked.
— Jordan Montero
Buena Vista Horace Mann K-8
At Buena Vista Horace Mann, a new unknown compounded the jitters that already accompany any first day of school: Students rode the school bus to class for the first time.
This year, while BVHM’s building on Valencia and 23rd streets is being remodeled, its students will attend class at the former Luther Burbank Middle School site on the cusp of McLaren Park, now used by the June Jordan School for Equity, all the way in the Excelsior.
Last year, June Jordan was on the school district’s list of 13 schools slated for merging or closing. None of these proposed changes went into effect. For now, its high-schoolers will share their building with the kindergarten through eighth graders of BVHM.
Starting today, school buses will drive BVHM students the three miles from their usual building in the Mission to their new school in the Excelsior. Other buses are picking up BVHM students who live outside the Mission, District 11 Supervisor Chyanne Chen said outside June Jordan, where she was waiting to greet families.
Parents used to walking to BVHM have been worried about putting their kids on a bus, Chen added. She hoped to ease the transition.
At 8:45 a.m. today, the adults waiting for the bus outside BVHM said in Spanish that they were nervous about the new mode of transportation, but excited about school starting. Kids fiddled with the plastic bus passes they wore on lanyards around their necks or tied to their backpacks.
Seven-year-old Lia Mesa was thrilled by the novelty: She peered up and down Valencia Street as buses started turning the corner, periodically grinning up at her mother to make sure she saw them too.
By 9 a.m., after some confusion around missing bus passes had been sorted out, the forty-some students on the sidewalk had all been loaded onto three school buses. One father blew kisses as his kid climbed through the yellow folding doors, another leaned down to whisper to his crying child that it would be okay.
The older students were more blasé. “It’s not bad,” 13-year-old Miyah said of the bus, shrugging. They were unenthused about having to “sit through long classes” again, but looking forward to lunch. Why? “Eating,” said 13-year-old Sevena. Duh.
— Abigail Vân Neely
Willie L. Brown Jr. Middle School
Middle schoolers on the first day of school at Willie L. Brown Jr. were greeted with a red carpet — literally — and a cheering squad of teachers and staff.
The idea of walking the red carpet was a bit nerve-wracking for some incoming middle schoolers.
“Hold my hand, I need help!” demanded one seventh-grader to her friend before running through the campus gates.
Jasper and Sebastian have been friends since preschool, and are starting sixth grade together. But still, when asked how they feel about starting middle school, they both reply, “terrified.”
With a bit of encouragement from their parents and a nudge from Jasper’s mom, they slowly made their way side by side through the front entrance and down the red carpet.
Principal Malea Mouton-Fuentes stood in a pink suit waiting to greet her new cohort of middle schoolers. It is her 10th first day of school at Willie L. Brown Jr., and she looks forward to it every year.
“I love greeting the students and seeing how they’ve grown,” she said, smiling and pausing to hug a young boy, reaching over his very large backpack.
Daniel Guzman, the community school coordinator, laid out the red carpet himself. He said it’s to make “peak” moments students will remember for the rest of their lives.
As students made their way down the carpet and into the school, parents stood by for moral support.
Some students were not shy at all about the red carpet. One girl in a sparkly unicorn backpack saw the carpet and bounded down it and through the gates as teachers cheered and danced to music blasting from the speakers.
“Have a good day. It’s going to be a wonderful year,” shouted one mother as her child, already through the gates, greeted a group of friends. “Oh my god!” she exclaimed, embracing another mother and jumping up and down. “That’s our babies!”
— Marina Newman
Tenderloin Community School
At the Tenderloin Community School, which serves kids pre-K through 5th grade and is the neighborhood’s only public school, students are scurrying to make it to class on time.
Some kids show up alone. Others are rushed by parents through the entrance on mural-filled Elm Alley. On Turk Street, a dad zooms on the sidewalk with two small boys, all of their feet carefully balanced on the base of his electric scooter.
Ian, 5, says it’s his first day at this school.
“No tengo amigos,” he says, but he doesn’t seem worried. Asked if he’s going to make friends, he replies confidently: Yes.
Inside, teachers check lists and direct kids and parents to the correct rooms over the hum of excited children chattering.
Ciara poses for a photo with her grandmother holding a sign that says her age, grade and teacher’s name. There’s a spot for what she wants to be when she grows up, but it isn’t filled in.
She tells me she wants to be a soccer player. She’s dressed in a bright pink tracksuit and has already “played on a couple of teams before,” including the Junior Giants.
Her favorite part of school? “Probably recess.”
Ameri, mom of a first-grade daughter, said despite believing the Tenderloin needs to be cleaned up, the school is good.
“She was really excited to meet her friends,” Ameri said of her daughter.
In kindergarten, she wanted her daughter just to enjoy the school.
“From first grade, I will focus on her studies.”
Laila drops off her kindergartener, who is now starting her third year at the school.
“It’s very homey. It’s a big community … I know a lot of the people who work here and come out of this school,” says Laila, who has been working in the neighborhood for 15 years, now with a community-based organization.
“It’s just very community based and it’s very community focused. That’s one of the things I appreciate.”
— Eleni Balakrishnan
Frank McCoppin Elementary School
In a thin layer of morning mist in the Richmond District, Sabine, a second-grader in a large purple backpack and purple glasses, walks to Frank McCoppin Elementary School on Seventh Avenue, hand in hand with both her parents.
Sabine had a great summer. She just spent a week in Montreal at French camp, which included a field trip to Quebec City.
As we spoke, a few of her friends walked by and said hi, and she became visibly eager to enter the school gate.
“I miss my friend,” she said.
Another second-grader, Julia, in a pink quilted jacket and a teal cross-body bag, said she has nothing to be nervous about in the new school year.
She is excited to join the school’s girls soccer team, “the Rainbow Dragon.”
“I used to do soccer with both girls and boys. I really like it,” she said. “But sometimes the boys would just steal the ball.”
“Sometimes from their own teammates,” her mom added.
— Junyao Yang
City College of San Francisco, Mission Campus
Monday morning was the first day of school for Gabriela, Myrna and Mireya. The three friends crowded around a table over tamales, bear claws and coffee at the City College of San Francisco’s cafe before their English class.
The trio are taking English together.
“Every class I take, I feel like I’m learning a new word, a verb or something unexpected,” said Myrna in Spanish. She is a Salvadoran native who has lived in the United States for 15 years.
Gabriela, a Mexican native who has lived in the country for six years, nodded in agreement, took a sip of coffee and then jumped in.
“Honestly, I couldn’t wait to come back to class, because I like learning,” she said in Spanish. “It just feels good to be able to improve our English.”
“And to see old friends,” added Myrna with a laugh.
The three friends said they hope to make Monday breakfast together a tradition. As for what the classes and school means to them, the trio said they’re nothing but grateful.
“It’s so flexible to take classes here because they have different hours that can accommodate most people,” said Mireya in Spanish. She, too, is from El Salvador, and has lived in the United States for seven years. “I can see that I’m learning and developing my vocabulary.”
For Myrna, the classes and the school have become a place where she feels at home.
“I like that there’s students of different ages, there’s no discrimination in that regard. It makes me feel comfortable.” she said.
In the school’s courtyard outside, Javier Brito sat by himself, notebook in one hand, coffee in the other.
“I feel good and excited,” he said in Spanish. Brito is in his second semester taking English as a second language at City College. “I’m just looking forward to learning a little more English.”
Brito, 18, arrived in the United States seven months ago from his native Venezuela. He’s found sporadic work selling hot dogs outside Giants games and other large events.
“I don’t have any friends here. I’m always by myself,” said Brito, who added that he misses his friends, family and cuisine at home.
Classes at City College, he said, are an opportunity to meet people and to start learning English.
“I speak a little bit now, which is exciting,” said Brito. “English is hard to learn, though, especially for those who have never spoken it before.”
When asked about fears of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, he said he is uneasy, but decided not to go into detail about his case and journey to the United States.
“I’m fearful, but I just hope for the best.”
— Oscar Palma
San Francisco Community School, K-8
The Excelsior’s K-8 San Francisco Community School still has a good old-fashioned line-up in the yard before class. “Turn your cell phones off,” a staff member reminded the lower-yard kids, whose faces aren’t much bigger than a cell phone.
In the upper yard, by the playground equipment, even smaller children clumsily followed the movements that accompany the school song. They wiggled their hands haphazardly as staff and affable parents sang: “Roll over the ocean, roll over the sea, it takes a lot of love to build community.”
Ariana, a sixth-grader who mostly speaks Spanish, stood underneath the monkey bars with her five-year-old brother Thiago. She was new to the school, unfamiliar with its traditions, and concerned about making friends, but hopeful.
For other families, the SFC drop-off routine is old hat. Casey Lofberg’s second- and fifth-graders also attend summer camp at the school. For them, little changes, like lining up in the lower yard instead of the upper yard, are a big deal. “How about worrying about long division?” Loftberg laughed.
SFC was among the 13 schools slated for merging or closure last year. Today, parents like Gaelan McKeown said they were feeling “cautiously optimistic,” despite staffing shortages that will limit library hours to two days a week. This year, the school will share a nurse on call with two other schools, McKeown added.
If the school closes, Lofberg’s family may move out of the city. Her kids are adaptable, she said, but without the school community there’s little keeping them in San Francisco.
— Abigail Vân Neely
“We want you to know that your teachers, your principle here, they are so excited to take care of you”
“At Sanchez Elementary School in the Mission, the principle was joined by Lurie, Su, Wiener, and other city officials.”
These amused me. In third-grade, a very good teacher taught me a mnemonic about spelling that I still remember. Remember, the principal is your “pal”.
Thank you. The principal may be your pal but the autocorrect was not.
JE
No excuse. Proofreading is part of good writing.
Blanca —
You’re right. I wish we’d caught it but we sent out most of the staff to talk to dozens of people and write it up on the fly and occasionally mistakes do get made. It’s nice to have people tap you on the shoulder when they see those mistakes and it’s even nicer when they do so without being insufferable.
Best,
JE
Willie brown is more or less crook as we know, and he has various things named after him for slimy political patronage reasons.
Any widely accepted alternative name for this school a la
Mays field
Or
The bay bridge
??
I wish success to all San Francisco students, parents, and teachers!!
Study hard and don’t let your ambition get the better of you or you might also be criticized on a local news website.