San Francisco Community School

In 1972 parents and teachers founded San Francisco Community School. Their mission was to start a family-involved, child-centered school, which represented the ethnic and socioeconomic diversity of San Francisco. SFC is a citywide, San Francisco Unified School District public school located in the Excelsior neighborhood. We are a kindergarten through 8th grade school serving 290 students.

The middle school day is from 8:55-3:35 and the elementary school day is from 9:15-3:30. We dismiss at 2:15 on Tuesdays for staff development. We have a free after-school academic and enrichment program, Third Base, until 6:30 each day as well as an on site Boys and Girls Club.

Project based learning and a warm and inclusive school culture are some of the strategies we are using to achieve our goals of eliminating the achievement gap and supporting all of our students to grow into critical thinkers, effective decision makers and productive community members.

SFC students learn in single and combined grade classrooms and generally retain the same teacher for two years through looping and combination classes. For example the K/1 team consists of a kindergarten class, a first grade class, and a K/1 combination class. As a transition to middle school, 5th and 6th graders have a block schedule with humanities, math/science, and PE daily. 7th and 8th grade students are in an advisory group of 11 students that meets daily and retain the same advisor for the two years of middle school.