By Tes Welborn, HANC Board
Urban School reported few changes to its plan to build on St. Agnes's parking lot. They expect to start construction in May 2015 with completion by August 2016. They will return late summer with more detailed schematics.
The French-American International School's Page Street Pre-School will have 108 kids ages 3-6, and occupies the school district land on a 30 year lease. They plan to open in August this year. Several neighbors had issues about both the white zone location and the pick-up and drop-off plans. While the pick up times are spread out from 3:15 to 6 p.m., drop off is concentrated in 8:15 to 8:45 a.m. The school requires at least the parents of the youngest children to park and walk kids into school. They have 12 off-site parking spaces available for this. They think that this, plus shuttles from Oak campus, carpool encouragement, and site monitors will work for all. We asked them to return in 1-2 months to discuss traffic plans further.
The Fei Tan Academy of Arts currently has about 15 students in a Potrero campus, and is eager to move to the larger space at the Boys and Girls Club. They plan on 41 full-time students, both middle and high school, and 16 faculty. Also, they plan an on-site dorm for 10 teachers. The curriculum is a bilingual half-day each on fine arts, dance or music and traditional curriculum. Their graduates have been admitted to major universities. They have links to the Shen Yun dance troupe. We were treated to a delightful performance by three students of a balance dance/exercise. The school is looking forward to bringing Chinese arts and culture to this community. They perform at 30-70 public events each year, and at local community benefit events. We look forward to their arrival here by next spring.