Planting the seeds for a new Webster ES

A new Spanish bilinguial preschool at Webster ES is accepting applications. If you are interested in applying check out the Potrero Residents Education Fund (PREFund) website. The goal is to open the school either this spring or next fall. It will be a private preschool on the Webster campus that will be administered by Mission Neighborhood Center, a group with over 40 years experience managing childcare programs. More information about the preschool plans can be found on PREFund's preschool info page.

But the bigger story here goes back to the last round of school closures in 2005-2006. The Daniel Webster campus had been included among the schools to be closed. A group of local residents, many with preschool aged children, mobilized to help save the school. Ultimately the school was spared, but the community efforts did not end there. The new preschool is hopefully the next step towards a revitalization of the school:

Yes, a major initiative of the Potrero Residents Education Fund (PREFund) is to open a Spanish Bi-lingual preschool at Daniel Webster as part of its strategy to turn the elementary school into the best school it can be.

The hope is that the preschool will not only provide a much needed preschool option to young families on the Hill, but also serve as a natural feeder into Daniel Webster Elementary School, thus increasing its enrollment.

PREFund is organized so that it can support all educational needs in all schools on the Hill, but Daniel Webster is its priority project for the next year.

The PREFund group has already accomplished a great deal and deserves a lot of credit for the hard work they've done. Speaking of credit, they are accepting donations! But there is a great deal of hard, sustained work to be done before the preschool is operating, the fund raising goals met, the desired Spanish immersion program approved, and school fully revitalized with robust enrollment figures. Stay tuned. And spread the word.