potrero view

September 2009

Friends of Potrero Hill Nursery School Find a New Home

By Halley Cornell

Friends of Potrero Hill Nursery School (FPHN) has reached an agreement with the San Francisco School Board to lease the historic Irving Murray Scott School, which started as an eight-room building in 1877, and is the City’s oldest schoolhouse.  Under the ten-year deal, FPHN will restore two outbuildings on the school’s Tennessee Street grounds, creating the school’s first permanent home in more than five years.  “The school board offered us a very, very generous rental agreement, and our side of the deal is that we have to restore the buildings,” said Kristi Chester Vance, FPHN board member and mother of both a past and future school attendee.  

FPHN, which has “graduated” some 200 students, 85 percent of whom go on to attend public schools, has been couch-surfing for the past half-decade, with stays at Starr King Elementary, Potrero Neighborhood House and it’s current Excelsior location. The I.M. Scott buildings – two tired tan bungalows previously used as school outbuildings – will be transformed into a permanent preschool and a small neighborhood-use building for family education activities. The 10-year lease includes an option for a 10-year extension once restoration is complete, and offers not only a more stable environment for FPHN’s students but a chance for the school to contribute to San Francisco’s historic heritage.

 “It will be nice to finally get those buildings fixed up,” said Dr. Joe Marshall, executive director of Omega Boys Club/Street Soldiers, an organization that focuses on youth development and violence prevention that’s housed in I.M. Scott’s main building. “The outside [of the building] has been painted and there’s a basketball court up now, so the only unfinished business is those two bungalows.”

 Refurbishment comes at a price.  The buildings will cost more than $600,000 to renovate, with just $120,000 raised so far through a pair of leadership grants. The FPHN board is working feverishly to raise the remaining funds, in part through an October 4 public party, Raise the Roof, that will feature bicycle-powered bands, speakers, and drawings of the proposed property renovations.

 “It’s amazing the sort of in-kind support we’re getting already.  We’ve got an architect, a painter, furniture, someone involved in cabinetry, a development person who does foundation work,” said Vance. “There’s just this huge well of support to draw from, and all these incredible connections lined up.”

 FPHN hopes that the money it’s already secured will give other grantors and foundations – as well as Potrero Hill residents – confidence that the project is viable and worth supporting.  According to Vance, the preschool will improve neighborhood infrastructure, including maintaining green and historic building features, while helping families stay in the City.  “In San Francisco, we just see such an exodus of families, and early childhood education is key to keeping families here in Potrero Hill. Our job is to support working families who want to send their kids to this school,” she said.  FPHN plans to move to the I.M. Scott campus next fall.


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