Wait, weren’t we just trying to close some SF schools? We were, but the SF Unified School District is still opening another elementary school this fall in the burgeoning Mission Bay neighborhood.

You’ll recall that the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) tried to close 11 schools in the district about a year ago this time — a move that was met with much pushback from parents — as the district is running huge deficits and has markedly declining enrollment. But instead, the district ended up pushing out their superintendent and shelving the plan to close schools. Though the Chronicle reported Wednesday that the SFUSD is still closing one high school, albeit a tiny high school called the Academy that does not even have 100 students enrolled.

So it might cause some head-scratching to learn that the SFUSD is opening another new elementary school next fall, as the Chronicle reports, despite the fact that their enrollment continues to decline. This school at 1415 Owens Street will be called Mission Bay School, it’s slated to open next August, and will eventually ramp up to serving 450 students at the Pre-K through fifth-grade level.

The Chronicle says the school will also have a "science and technology center for high school students."

“Mission Bay School represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to align our growing communities with high-quality neighborhood schools while also expanding access to Spanish Immersion,” SFUSD Superintendent Dr. Maria Su said in a statement. “This plan keeps communities together, honors what families want in educational opportunities across the city, and ensures we are building schools where students live.”

Of course, a summer 2024 report in the Examiner said this school was already supposed to have opened “by fall 2025,” and that did not happen. But that delay was an intentional decision by the district.

“The decision to move the school opening date back to the 2026-2027 academic year was reviewed and considered by the superintendent, members of the cabinet [SFUSD’s management team], and enrollment center staff,” SFUSD bond program communications director Kate Levitt told the local publication Potrero View. Levitt added that the district needed “adequate time to plan the Mission Bay attendance area, engage in targeted community outreach, hire the school’s leadership team, and build its programs. Everyone benefits from a smooth and successful school opening.”

Critics will likely balk that the new school comes with a $129 million price tag, at a time when the district is running a deficit. But the new school has already been paid for by a $744 million school bond that SF voters approved in 2016.  

And it certainly makes sense for the emerging Mission Bay neighborhood to have its own school, as there’s plenty of housing development that has happened there — and this gives families a reason to stay in the city. But it may make less sense if SFUSD comes back with plans to shut down more schools when they just spent more than $100 million on a brand new one.

Related: SFUSD Avoids Teacher Layoffs Thanks to Early Retirements [SFist]

Image: SFUSD