The brand new faculty welcomes its top notch of scholars on Aug. 17.
Principal Monette Benitez cuts the ribbon, celebrating Mission Bay Elementary Faculty’s opening ceremony, in San Francisco on Aug. 6, 2026. Mission Bay Elementary is the primary new public SFUSD faculty to open in 20 years. (Gina Castro for KQED)
San Francisco’s Mission Bay on Thursday morning celebrated the grand opening of the neighborhood’s first public faculty campus, greater than 1 / 4 century within the making.
Mission Bay Faculty, the district’s first new faculty in twenty years, will welcome its inaugural college students, from pre-kindergarten to kindergarten, on Aug. 17.
The campus will finally serve transitional kindergarten by means of fifth grade college students, plus pre-kindergarteners in a related early schooling program and older Mission Bay residents who’re a part of SFUSD’s Mission Bay Studying Hub. SFUSD has estimated that the varsity shall be absolutely enrolled by 2032.
“This constructing is fulfilling a promise that we made to our communities,” San Francisco Unified Faculty District Superintendent Maria Su mentioned throughout a star-studded ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday, that includes appearances from Mayor Daniel Lurie to Giants’ mascot Lucille.
“Once we mentioned, ‘As we construct Mission Bay, we have been going to ensure that there was a public faculty that was going to serve our households that have been going to maneuver in,’” Su mentioned. “Here’s a realization of that dream.”
The trendy, four-story constructing, funded by San Francisco’s 2016 faculty bond, options vibrant, ethereal hallways, colourful lecture rooms and breakout areas and a well-stocked library, which overlooks a hard-top faculty yard. In keeping with district paperwork, SFUSD contracted with McCarthy Constructing Firm to finish the undertaking for a sum of $95,390,000.
Surrounding the campus is burgeoning Mission Bay, which has almost doubled in inhabitants measurement within the final 15 years. In that point, 1000’s of housing models have gone up within the neighborhood, which is close to each Oracle Park and Chase Middle. Greater than a dozen eating places, espresso retailers and neighborhood areas have opened surrounding the venues and new builds.
For a lot of households, that proximity is without doubt one of the greatest perks.
Lauren Loui, whose daughter Maggie is beginning kindergarten, mentioned the household takes Muni’s N Judah line three stops to get to highschool.
“We come right here on a regular basis. She is aware of it,” Loui mentioned throughout Thursday’s grand opening.
Transitional Kindergarten instructor Tonecia Harvey lives even nearer — a 12-minute stroll, or four-minute bike journey.
“I can see my home from my classroom,” she mentioned.
Mother and father have been additionally excited concerning the campus’s amenities, constructed from the bottom up over the past 4 years. The land, which was transferred from UC San Francisco to SFUSD in 2022, has been put aside for a faculty for much longer, since 1988.
“The constructing, the lecture rooms, every thing’s so nicely thought out,” mentioned mother Mythili Iyengar, whose son Seelan will enter kindergarten in just below two weeks.
Early schooling lecture rooms on the primary and second flooring embody low tables and a mini play kitchen, whereas the fourth flooring, the place the Studying Hub will now be housed, options a number of rooms with group work stations, whiteboards and mounted tv screens.
Seelan’s favourite half, he mentioned, is his classroom, which he mentioned even has sizzling glue weapons.
On the primary day of college, he’s most excited to carry up an indication he made: “It says ‘I’m prepared for kindergarten’ on it.”
