And it’s going to become some kind of day school. Curbed SF reports:
The space will be used for the Children’s Day School’s middle school, plus a large gathering/performance space which it plans to make available to community groups [...]
That last part seems cool. Read on.
The main thing is, does “Allan’s Bi-Monthly Ping Pong and Berlin Techno Mixer” qualify as a community group?
UPDATE: The school already has an official website.
Tuition looks a bit hefty:
http://cds-sf.org/admission/tuition.html
But I guess that makes sense, what with the Mission being converted into a multi-millionaire’s paradise. The new residents were bound to have kids and would therefore need a private school.
Ahhh, but we’re not such a “typical” private school. 40% of our students are paying an average of $8,700 for tuition. We’ve already been on Dolores for a long time (the school began in ’83). This school is deeply committed to the Mission Community, and to diversity:
http://cds-sf.org/admission/figures.html
It’s cool if you’ve found a way to make this work. But the finances seem a little scary when you crunch the numbers.
The cost of the building will be something like $500,000 per year for the mortgage.
Now I notice you have 63 full-time employees. Let’s assume they get something like $50k each. That’s $3,339,000.
Total of both of these costs is $3,839,000.
Okay, now expenses.
Let’s assume 40% of the students are paying $8700. Given 330 students, that’s $1,148,400. The remaining students paying full tuition are contributing $4,405,500.
Now we subtract, and the remaining amount is $1,714,900 per year for “other” expenses, including things like utilities, supplies, building maintenance, food (assuming that’s included?) etc.
I’m sure your ability to do math is better than mine, but $1.7 million for all those expenses, and the others I forgot, seems a bit low.
We’ve got a great team of financial minds on the job. And the additional building gives us the opportunity to add 120(ish) students.
Of course, we’d be thrilled to accept any capital donation you’d like to contribute!
They can make up the difference by charging $10 a head to use their bathrooms on weekends.
Now THAT is a plan that would benefit all parties.
Wait. $8700 is the REDUCED tuition?! Jeebus! I was sitting here thinking “$8700/yr per kid seems absurdly high for a Junior High School.”
Clearly I am out of touch with how crazy expensive private schools are.
Oh, you have no idea. Full-time tuition with aftercare is more like $30k.
Jesus christ, that’s more than I paid for my master’s degree! That is absolutely insane.
Private school isn’t entirely a multi-millionaire thing. If you break down the numbers I suspect you’ll find a majority of dual income professional families. These schools aren’t *as* common here because public is actually decent in this city.
Anyway, this is a much better use for the place than some millionaire. Be nice.
Wrong. Public schools are not decent in the city and haven’t been for years. For the few that are good, there’s a lottery system, no neighborhood schools. Obviously you don’t have kids.
6.6 million for CDS to pay for this building is outrageous. They should focus on fixing the problems in the middle school instead of racing to expand it.
I actually do have kids.
There are quite a number of very good public schools within our reach. Some of them require a bus ride and others are a short walk. I’m quite impressed with the ones that I’ve seen.
We toured CDS and the San Francisco School when looking for a preschool. They’re both very fine places and I wish them well, but I do not consider them necessary.
Belief in the declining public school system (it’s not, actually) is a core tenet for a lot of people. A lot of people who send their kids to private schools, in fact.
Agreed. There are many wonderful public schools in the City, and if parents are willing to do just a bit of legwork, it’s not that hard to make sure your child gets into one of the ones you like.
There is, in fact, a neighborhood based bonus for school acceptance, that started this year (I have friends who live near “prestigious” public schools who got in thanks to that bonus, so it does in fact work).
There are a lot of myths that private school parents like to tell themselves to justify why they pay so much, but it is just not necessary. We have a great public school system in San Francisco that’s admittedly troubled by a handful of bad schools – take the little bit of effort to avoid the worst ones and you’ll find that the best ones are as good as any private school.
Shit! I was seriously only 6 lottery numbers away from putting my bed on that altar.
A sliding scale tuition. That’s the ticket!
Crap. I held out hope Zuckerberg would buy it and turn it into a massive party pad with food trucks among the pews.
Crap.
Screaming children.
CRAP.
Ha Ha, Zuckerberg, could pull that off couldn’t he?
I want to play ping-pong there!
Ha Ha, new Mission Mission HQ? Not unless you increase your advertising rates! That place was listed for 7-9 million!
is there some way to block this? i don’t want to drink in public at dolores so close to a public school. i cannot guarantee i won’t be severely and dangerously drunk during school hours.
Children, one of the many secret weapons of the gentrifiers!
this is an existing private school that is expanding to add a middle school, you are already getting drunk near Mission High School.
A parents’ argument is obviously more difficult to make when you’re drinking in close proximity to their high school-aged children as opposed to their precious and innocent little kindergarten balls of glowing opportunity.
How will their children ever grow up to be the founders and presidents of 501(c) nonprofits if they’re so unduly influenced by all the drug and alcohol consumption and public urination going on right across the street?
I think this is a fabulous use for the “castle,” way better than as a residence. I’ve heard about Children’s Day School and their sliding scale tuition that is proof of their commitment to diversity. I have seen their friendly and bright middle schoolers out registering people to vote and to sign petitions to help the people of Sudan. And I’ve seen their younger kids doing community clean-ups. It’s a very community-minded school and their increased presence in the Mission will be a vast improvement. We should all say Hurrah! and help make it happen.