Parents at San Francisco school facing closure rally to fight district plans
Parents and students at a San Francisco school on the budget chopping block rallied Thursday outside their school to protest its inclusion on a list of proposed closures.
The San Francisco Unified School District on Tuesday released a list of more than a dozen schools facing potential closure or merger with another school.
Parents at Yick Wo Elementary School, which serves the city's Russian Hill, North Beach and Chinatown neighborhoods, say they are brokenhearted to learn their children's school is on the list.
"This school is why I stay here in San Francisco, it's important to me, it's important to my family and without this school, I don't know where we would be," said Christy Samson who is one of nearly 500 parents who signed a petition to stop the closure.
The petition started on October 9 and reached its goal in three days. Parents believe District 3 has been targeted unfairly, with three of the 11 school closures.
Yick Wo is an alternative elementary school and rates well according to GreatSchools.org. Parents say Yick Wo is a neighborhood school and everyone enjoys the ability to walk their children to school.
"We are hoping, we are fighting, we are reaching out to every board of education member, every supervisor, the mayor, whoever can help us, please help us save our school, said Samson who has two daughters at Yick Wo.
Redding Elementary would be the welcoming school for Yick Wo students. The distance between campuses is 1.2 miles. Driving distance is 8 minutes and walking would take families 30 minutes.
On Thursday, October 10 parents and students arrived to school holding 'We love Yick Wo" and "Let us save our school' posters and had a panda mascot to greet the kids.
Christy Wu, who has a son in third grade, says when she learned about the closure list, she felt her heart was "broken" because she loves their school community and it all feels like a "big family."
According to the district, the plan to shift some 2,000 students would save SFUSD approximately $22 million.