Founded in 1909 on a lot presently occupied by the Potrero Hill Public Library, for a time Daniel Webster (DW) Elementary School was one of the Hill’s three main schools, along with Irving Scott and Patrick Henry. DW relocated to Missouri and 20th streets in 1917. Its building was remodeled for seismic safety in the 1960s.
Irving Scott was open from 1865 to 1974; its former campus now houses the Alive & Free/Omega Boys Club. Patrick Henry closed its doors in 1969, ultimately becoming the site for Downtown High School.
In 2005, when declining enrollment put Webster in jeopardy of being closed, neighborhood families rallied to save it.
“The school’s numbers were dwindling to almost nothing and they couldn’t justify continuing the school with no students,” said Edward Hatter, Potrero Hill Neighborhood House executive director. “Of course, the school district was looking for the path of least resistance by forming an alternative school, but these kinds of schools were more for students with behavioral or learning issues. When families on the northeast side of the Hill got wind of the news, that’s the last thing they wanted to deal with.”
An ardent group of affluent parents and community activists developed an innovative proposal to increase Webster’s enrollment, which was accepted by the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) and Board of Education (BoE). The school’s appearance, curricula, and teaching staff were enhanced. Following Starr King Elementary School’s success with offering a Chinese language immersion program, Webster added a Spanish immersion option. In 2006, Potrero Residents Education Fund (PREFund) was established to support the effort.
“Since the origin of PREFund, they were able to not only keep the school going and introduce the Spanish immersion program to attract more people; the school has been growing and thriving,” commented Mariangela Mistretta, a DW parent of two kids. “The common effort and intention has always been for the greater good, to make sure the community grows and all the kids are taken care of. This has been the goal, year after year, principals change, teachers change, but the purpose remains the same.”
In collaboration with Mission Neighborhood Centers, PreFUND established Potrero Kids at Daniel Webster (PKDW) in 2008. In 2012 Potrero Kids Third (PK3), catering to two to three-year-olds, was established in Dogpatch. Collectively, the two campuses accommodate around 100 children, one-third of whom receive tuition assistance. Most families reside in Dogpatch or Potrero Hill, some live in the Mission or Mission Bay, a few are from Bayview or Bernal Heights. The majority of Potrero Kids graduates enter SFUSD schools, an average of 10 to 15 percent enroll at Daniel Webster, while five to 10 percent pursue private education.
“There is a common effort to celebrate minorities and a variety of voices which have been really touching and inspiring,” Mistretta emphasized. “Among other programs, the school has an African American Student Affinity Group, and an English learner Advisory Committee. The staff is really committed to bringing all the cultural aspects of the community into the conversation. Every month the school celebrates a different culture or tradition, such as Indigenous history, Diwali, Dia de Los Muertos, African American history, or the LGBTQ+ community. Daniel Webster also has a Wellness Center led by Jen Caldwell and Ms. Susi, which has been amazing at offering socio-emotional learning, counseling, and support to the kids.”
“I started developing my own mindfulness practice in 2013, and I was inspired to bring my practice into my work in schools by teaching mindfulness,” said Susanne Brennan, affectionately referred to as “Ms. Susi” by her students. “However, schools at the time were not hiring mindfulness coaches. A position opened in DW in 2014 called an instructional reform facilitator, so I started doing that part-time, while my children were students at DW. I used grant money outside of school that first year to start the mindfulness program. It was loved by teachers, students, and parents, so then the PTA decided to devote some funds to support the mindfulness program the second and third years. I was really intentional about teaching the students but also inviting the teachers to learn these skills, because I knew if a teacher’s nervous system is not grounded, then the school would not be grounded. I was able to get grant funding through Mindful Schools from 2017-21 to continue to implement whole school mindfulness and then was hired as a full-time Social Emotional Learning coach and teacher in 2021 until the present.”
In 2015, Brennan initiated the Mosaic project at DW, an acronym for Mutual respect, Open mindedness, Self-respect, Attitude, Individuality, Community. Mosaic was founded in 2000 by Lara Mendel and Margaret Hodder in Oakland to nurture community building skills in the context of diversity. Its main program is the Outdoor Project, in which fourth and fifth graders from an array of socioeconomic, racial, and ethnic backgrounds engage in a week-long experiential camp. As a spinoff of the Mosaic project, Brennan launched the Peace Ambassador Program, in which she’d meet with students who attended the camp over eight weeks to continue discussions on creating community and appreciating differences.
The Wellness Center is a component of Webster’s Care Team, a collaborative effort by school staff to encourage student success. Anita Parameswaran serves as a reading support specialist and works with the school social worker, Jen Caldwell, and Brennan to engage with pupils who may not be progressing academically.
“If a child is not yet at grade level in reading the teacher will refer them to me for reading intervention,” said Parameswaran. “If, after a couple cycles, the student still hasn’t improved and we are seeing specific issues such as processing, signs of dyslexia…we will then refer the student to the Care Team for a student success meeting with the family to discuss further options, one of them being psychological testing to see if there is a deeper issue. Depending on the results, a student will either qualify for an IEP, 504 plan…or they will deem that the student doesn’t qualify for services at this time. However, this helps the family as well as the teachers understand how to better serve the student.”
Webster also offers the After School Enrichment Program (ASEP), which uses a blended funding model, with scaled tuition for those who can afford it, scholarships for families who rely on free or reduced-priced lunches. The program is offered for four hours after school to provide academic support and enrichment classes.
“We began in McKinley in 1999 and we moved into Daniel Webster twelve years ago through a connection of a parent who felt there was a need at DW as well,” said an ASEP employee, who declined to give his name. “We build our curriculum to mirror grade by grade curricula in the school day, so students are being reinforced with similar concepts after school as they are learning during the day, and that varies grade by grade. The program is built to also equitably include students who are of high need who are struggling with certain subjects or behavioral challenges, since we have our office in the school site, we leverage resources in the school to help cater our support to help a student be successful.”
With tight SFUSD budgets, funding for support programs and other needs are largely dependent on the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA).
“We worked in partnership with the principal and the School Site Council to fill in the gaps based on the SFUSD budget,” said former PTA president, Julie Shumate. “There was really good communication between the principal and PTA. Our fundraising ended in March/April in time to finalize next year’s budget alongside the school, to complement their finalized budget. I thought we were ambitious, raising about $200,000 a year with about $150,000 coming from Taste of Potrero. It was an amazing, fun and huge party. The participating bars and restaurants donated the food, booze and labor so the PTA could maximize profits from the ticket sales. Additionally, the PTA had members who were familiar with education to help with the decision making about how to spend the money, but the final budget required a vote by the General Assembly. Our biggest ticket items were salaries, primarily the Visual Arts teacher, lunch monitors, part of the librarian’s salary, and part of one of the paraprofessional’s salary.”
“Our goal has always been around $250,000 and when we weren’t as highly resourced Taste of Potrero helped us leverage the community to raise funds. We learned to run a professional quality event and it was great,” mentioned Rebecca Kee, current PTA president. “The event sort of ended with the pandemic and we were also having discussions about not continuing fundraising on that scale anymore, since it was all being run by a majority of working moms with full time jobs. We shifted into a direct-ask campaign with the principle of asking for donations from the more affluent families of DW during small fundraising events like a dinner, which has resulted in us raising almost the same amount.”
With declining budgets, many SFUSD schools are struggling to maintain their school’s appearance and structural soundness, or even have enough classroom teachers. Daniel Webster and Starr King have been able to fill funding gaps through the efforts of their PTAs, with families who have resources and organizing capacity.
“At the end of the day many of our white families have the means for their kids to be tutored at home, but so many of our other families don’t have that opportunity so we do our best to serve the students’ needs of the kids who need it most. It’s the understanding that if our highest needs kids rise, then everyone rises,” said Parameswaran. “It would be incredible if we had two teachers in every room, especially in the GE track, as there tends to be higher burnout compared to the SIP strand, this way, teachers have the ability to divide and conquer, one person can be pulling small groups while another person can be teaching the whole class.”
“I just wish that there would have been more resources for the students; more in classroom support for the students that need it,” said Shumate.
“The PTA is not well-representative of the school or community’s demographics,” said Kee. “I think this is true across the board, not just at our school, but all of SFUSD. Although there have been people-of-color on our team, the vast majority of people in the executive team is all white, which is historically consistent. We have tried to trim some of the obstacles away and we’ve done that very successfully to connect different communities and demographics but at the end of the day, people who are better resourced are just at a different starting line and have more ability to be involved intimately, and this is a systemic problem.”
Tamala Motta 
Danny Pham 
Alina Ferguson