2004-01-15 · 35 comments · 32 / 3
Mark Sulkind · spoken · 2004-01-15 · support
Director of Urban School - Urban School is an independent progressive high school that offers a rigorous college preparatory education to 250 students. The school has been in operation since 1966.
- Urban School has been located in the Haight for 27 years.
- The addition will provide badly needed classrooms, modern science laboratories, a dedicated music facility, a student cafeteria and a fully accessible main en… Director of Urban School - Urban School is an independent progressive high school that offers a rigorous college preparatory education to 250 students. The school has been in operation since 1966.
- Urban School has been located in the Haight for 27 years.
- The addition will provide badly needed classrooms, modern science laboratories, a dedicated music facility, a student cafeteria and a fully accessible main entrance to the school.
- The design responds sensitively to the scale of the buildings on Page Street.
- Urban is fighting to pay competitive salaries to teachers.
- By increasing the student body, it will strengthen the school's financial foundation.
- A maximum student body of 380 is the right size for Urban School.show more Ben Yelin · spoken · 2004-01-15 · support
- He is a senior at Urban School.
- The school is accessible by many MUNI bus lines.
- He has purchased his lunch at the various businesses in the Haight/Ashbury area.
- There are about 450 applicants every year and the school has to deny most of the applications because there is not enough space.
Jacob Cohen · spoken · 2004-01-15 · support
- He is a senior at Urban School and plays basketball there.
- He has learned to love history while attending the school.
- It would be tremendously positive if more students were allowed the opportunity to attend the school.
Susan Andrews · spoken · 2004-01-15 · support
- She has worked in San Francisco schools for many years.
- Her son went to Urban School.
- The school is very committed to being a small school. The school has no intention of taking over the Haight/Ashbury area.
Amina Samake · spoken · 2004-01-15 · support
- She graduated from Urban School and is a daughter of one of the teachers.
- If the school can expand, more students can obtain the education she was able to receive.
Suzanne Woo · spoken · 2004-01-15 · support
- She is a parent of a student who attends Urban School.
- Urban School performs outreach to public schools through their Aim High Program. Her son received tutoring from the Aim High Program.
- She encouraged the Commission to allow the expansion of the school.
- Her son was not a very good student but improved greatly through Urban's outreach program.
- The students and faculty support the merchants on Ha… - She is a parent of a student who attends Urban School.
- Urban School performs outreach to public schools through their Aim High Program. Her son received tutoring from the Aim High Program.
- She encouraged the Commission to allow the expansion of the school.
- Her son was not a very good student but improved greatly through Urban's outreach program.
- The students and faculty support the merchants on Haight Street.
(-/+) Martha Hoffman
- The point here is not if Urban School is a good school or not. The point is that the school is "gobbling" up the properties surrounding it.
- There must be ways that the school can expand. Maybe like annexes here and there?
- The school is continually destroying housing.show more Dan Wald · spoken · 2004-01-15 · support
- He was born in San Francisco and was lucky to be educated in both private and public schools.
- He understands the concerns of Urban's impact on the neighborhood and the City but also the issue of how excellent the students become after attending Urban school.
- He asks that the Commission approve this proposal.
Eva Yopes · spoken · 2004-01-15 · support
- She is a senior at Urban School and also a Board member.
- Urban School has provided her with an excellent education.
- Allowing this project will provide future students an opportunity to receive this excellent education.
Rachel Ehrlich · spoken · 2004-01-15 · support
- She moved to San Francisco in 1992 and has been an affordable housing activist since then.
- It is her belief that Urban School has more than compensated the residents who were evicted.
Allen Ridley · spoken · 2004-01-15 · support
- Although he feel the expansion of the school will affect his property value, he is still in support of the project.
- He is not to accustomed to dealing with high school students, but he has never had any problems with them.
- He has never had any problems with the traffic near the school.
Arthur Levy · spoken · 2004-01-15 · support
- His son is attending Urban School.
- He submitted a letter from the Day Labor Program Women's Collective of La Raza in support of the project.
Stan Herzstein · spoken · 2004-01-15 · support
- After going to various schools to find one adequate for his son, he will send him to Urban School.
- He feels that there is a shortage of [quality] high schools.
- This is a need that is critical in the City.
Susan Ma · spoken · 2004-01-15 · support
- She is the Director of Finance Operations at Urban School.
- There have been conversations with the Arshbury Children's Council.
- She has meet with various agencies and organizations in the area regarding this expansion. There have been issues and questions that she has been able to deal with. Most of the concerns related to technical issues during construction.
Tom Angstadt · spoken · 2004-01-15 · support
- He has been president of the Board.
- There have been various challenging questions they have had to deal with.
- Perhaps they have not been very good about certain things in the past.
- Once the Ellis Act had been issued, they turned to their neighbors for support.
- Although in the past they have not had good communication, that is different now.
- As a Board, they cannot limit the number of students.
Harry O'Brien · spoken · 2004-01-15 · support
- There is no disagreement about the conditions that would be imposed on the Conditional Use approval.
- The school has agreed to not increase the number of students for a period of time.
- The Commission cannot preclude from considering in the future what it believes is in the best interest of the City.
- He asks the Commission to approve the application.
Isabelle Beekman · spoken · 2004-01-15 · support
- Her daughter attends Urban School.
- Her daughter decided to attend this school because she felt it was a school where she would learn how to love to learn.
Elizabeth Simpson · spoken · 2004-01-15 · support
- She came to San Francisco many years ago.
- If it wasn't for the generous scholarship program of Urban School, her daughter would not have been able to attend such a fine school.
- She would like to see her daughter eat her lunch in a cafeteria and not on the steps or on a corner.
- She hopes that Urban can continue to offer scholarships and allow intelligent children the opportunity her child has.
Michael Harris · spoken · 2004-01-15 · support
- The Commission has the control of what happens to the school in the future.
- He hopes that the Commission approves this project.
Joey Cain · spoken · 2004-01-15 · oppose
- He would like to have this project either delayed on denied.
- He lives very close to the school. Ever since the school started, the street has become an institutional campus.
- He is also opposed to the units that will be eliminated.
- The traffic is very heavy in the area already and approving this project will increase the problems.
- The school has made agreements before that have been broken.
- Although … - He would like to have this project either delayed on denied.
- He lives very close to the school. Ever since the school started, the street has become an institutional campus.
- He is also opposed to the units that will be eliminated.
- The traffic is very heavy in the area already and approving this project will increase the problems.
- The school has made agreements before that have been broken.
- Although the school has an excellent program, the issue here is about arrogance on the part of the school's Board.show more Barbara Kimport · spoken · 2004-01-15 · support
- With the approval of this project, Urban School will obtain financial viability and be able to provide excellent service to the school's community, the broader neighborhood and San Francisco.
- The Board of Trustees has determined that having less than 400 students would be more than viable for the school.
- She thanks the Commission for their support.
Angela Brown · spoken · 2004-01-15 · support
Director of Admissions - Recently they have witnessed an unprecedented interest from Bay Area families in Urban School. They received over 1,300 requests for admissions information.
- For the past five years, Urban School has received over 400 applications to the Freshman class. Each year, the admissions committee must deny admission to many qualified students.
- With only 60-65 Freshman available spaces in the c… Director of Admissions - Recently they have witnessed an unprecedented interest from Bay Area families in Urban School. They received over 1,300 requests for admissions information.
- For the past five years, Urban School has received over 400 applications to the Freshman class. Each year, the admissions committee must deny admission to many qualified students.
- With only 60-65 Freshman available spaces in the class, it is very painful to deny admission to the school.
- They are eager to open the doors to more qualified students.show more Matt Bens · spoken · 2004-01-15 · support
- He lives in the Haight Ashbury area.
- He is very enthusiastic about this project.
- He is a parent of a five-year-old daughter.
- The building will also add to the life of the street.
Langston Smith · spoken · 2004-01-15 · support
- He is a sophomore at Urban School.
- He has been able to learn about social issues and be able to participate in many of the important issues that happen in San Francisco.
- If the school is able to expand, it will continue to provide an excellent education.
Caitlin Sargent · spoken · 2004-01-15 · support
Urban School Student - She is a student at Urban School, editor of the newspaper and serves as a student rep on the Board of Trustees.
- The school has provide the tools and experiences to allow students to become valuable community members and responsible world citizens.
- Students graduate with a strong commitment to doing service work.
Judy Woods · spoken · 2004-01-15 · support
- She works for one of the agencies that the Urban School sends volunteers to.
- The students are always so polite and nice.
- She hopes that the Commission will approve the project.
Fritz Streiff · spoken · 2004-01-15 · support
- He is a neighbor of the school. His experience with the school has been excellent.
- There is no place he would rather see the school.
Norm Larson · spoken · 2004-01-15 · support
- He lives on Haight Street and manages a building in the area.
- He never gets attitude from the students when he passes by there.
- He is very comfortable with the school.
Algis Sodonis · spoken · 2004-01-15 · support
- He is head of the science department.
- Science students really need to have more space for experiments, storage, etc. Approving this project will allow this.
Tes Welborn · spoken · 2004-01-15 · oppose
HANC - She is puzzled. She hears the positiveness of what the school offers, but she also sees the negative way the school goes about doing their business.
- A few years ago the school mentioned that they were not going to expand. But here they are, wanting to expand again.
- All the programs sound good and the people are good, but this is not the way to treat a neighborhood.
- There should be an enrollment cap on this institution.
Greg Gaar · spoken · 2004-01-15 · support
HANC - He has a really good relationship with Urban School.
- He really likes the school but there is still a community.
- He is just asking for a cap so that there are no more expansions.
Calvin Welch · spoken · 2004-01-15 · oppose
Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council - HANC opposes the proposed expansion of Urban School for the following reasons: 1) This is the third expansion of the school, and it was done without any community discussion; 2) while representations have been made to keep the four unit building to the west of the campus (1556 Page Street) for residential use, no binding commitment has been made; 3) the proposed expansion will a… Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council - HANC opposes the proposed expansion of Urban School for the following reasons: 1) This is the third expansion of the school, and it was done without any community discussion; 2) while representations have been made to keep the four unit building to the west of the campus (1556 Page Street) for residential use, no binding commitment has been made; 3) the proposed expansion will accommodate a 67 percent increase in students and staff at the site, but there are no new plans for drop off and pick up traffic.show more Eileen Adams · spoken · 2004-01-15 · support
Ashbury Children's Foundation - Her Board has several problems with the project. The concerns are with asbestos, lead, dust and noise.
- The proposed building will extend deeper than the other building so it will block light into the Children's Foundation.
- She is also concerned with underpinning. The construction crew will have to dig under her building while there are 80 kids and 9 infants going to s… Ashbury Children's Foundation - Her Board has several problems with the project. The concerns are with asbestos, lead, dust and noise.
- The proposed building will extend deeper than the other building so it will block light into the Children's Foundation.
- She is also concerned with underpinning. The construction crew will have to dig under her building while there are 80 kids and 9 infants going to school.
- The Urban students will be on vacation but her children will not.show more Charlotte Worsley · spoken · 2004-01-15 · support
- She is the Dean of Students at the Urban School.
- This is a very unique school that offers a lot to their students.
- There are students eating on the stairs and in the hallways. The expansion will provide a student cafeteria to address this.
- She asked the Commission to support this project.
Dominica Henderson · spoken · 2004-01-15 · support
- She recently graduated from Urban School.
- She strongly urges the Commission to allow this project.
- She has learned that it is a privilege to work with the community and other agencies in San Francisco.
- She encourages the Commission to allow an opportunity for more students.
Jim Dorncob · spoken · 2004-01-15 · support
- Supervisor Gonzalez agrees with much of the issues related to the loss of housing and the communication difficulties.
- Supervisor Gonzales believes that the proposed expansion is necessary for the vitality of the institution.
- He would like the Commission to impose a condition that would allow a maximum of 380 students.