San Francisco Opens First New Public School in a Decade in Mission Bay

City leaders, school district officials and two decades' worth of neighborhood advocates gathered Thursday at the foot of a gleaming new campus in Mission Bay to mark a milestone that has been 20 years in the making: the opening of an SFUSD elementary school in one of San Francisco's fastest-growing neighborhoods. Mission Bay Elementary, serving pre-K through fifth grade, opens its doors Aug. 17 — the first new public school built in the city in 10 years, and the anchor of a broader push to convince families that San Francisco is a place worth staying.

• Mission Bay Elementary opens Aug. 17 as the first new SFUSD campus in a decade, serving pre-K through fifth grade

• Mayor Lurie announces SF is the first U.S. city to guarantee every family access to early childhood education from birth to age 5

• New speed-limit signs and crosswalks installed around the school as part of a safe-routes-to-school initiative

• Fourth-floor Mission Bay Hub will connect high school students with STEM apprenticeships alongside neighborhood biotech firms

• Two decades of grassroots organizing — including 761 emails from one steering committee leader — finally pay off

Why it matters: Mission Bay was once an industrial stretch south of Market Street. As thousands of housing units, a UCSF medical campus and biotech offices rose over the past two decades, families moved in — but there was no neighborhood public school. Thursday's ribbon cutting closes that gap and puts the 2016 voter-approved school bond to work.