Construction starts on new San Francisco elementary school
SAN FRANCISCO - The San Francisco Unified School District is preparing to officially start construction on a new elementary school in the Mission Bay neighborhood.
School officials, city leaders and community members gathered T hursday to celebrate the launch of development activities at Mission Bay Parcel 14, soon to be considered Mission Bay School when the campus opens in 2025.
The campus will primarily serve as a PK - 5 elementary school for over 500 students, but it will also include a STEM career readiness program for high schoolers, and a resource center for teachers and staff to hone their professional skills.
"The Mission Bay neighborhood is growing quickly, with 30% of homes in the area designated as affordable housing units," said Mayor London Breed in a statement. "It's really important that we continue to prioritize education where we are building housing, so I want to thank the SF Board of Education and SFUSD for highlighting this growing neighborhood that has many families in need of good school options."
SFUSD is considering it a "rare opportunity" to build a new school from the ground up in one of the city's fastest growing neighborhoods -- officials said the neighborhood's 6,000 new units of housing built are bringing in hundreds of school children.
Once neighborhood housing construction projects are complete, SFUSD expects to see 700 additional K-12 students in its schools.
"This new school increases educational access to San Francisco families in an area that has undergone tremendous growth over the last several years -- and much more growth is expected to come," SFUSD Superintendent Matt Wayne said in a statement. "The school will be at the heart of a burgeoning neighborhood with close connections to the biotech industry, public health, higher education, green spaces, and more."
With McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. and DLR Group as their design-build team, SFUSD anticipates the school to open in August 2025. Construction work will begin in November, when the project's contractor will install site facilities and stormwater management measures. Next is removing the parking lot and prepare the ground for building.
It took nearly 25 years to get to this point, after school was first drawn up in the 1998 Mission Bay Redevelopment Plan. It's also the first new school that SFUSD has opened in over 10 years.
"Looking towards our future, Mission Bay and District 6 is slated for so much new development, and families will finally have the opportunity to attend a good school close to their homes," said District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey in a statement.
The parcel, owned by UC San Francisco, will officially switch hands to SFUSD later this year.
"UCSF enthusiastically welcomes SFUSD to the neighborhood," stated Renee Navarro, vice chancellor of diversity and outreach at UCSF.
