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Board approves temporary placement plan for Cobb Elementary; Montessori to move temporarily to Jackson Street
Summary
After hours of testimony from both Cobb general-education and Montessori families, the board approved staff's recommendation to place Cobb Montessori temporarily at Jackson Street while keeping Cobb General Ed at the California Street campus; board described the move as temporary and asked staff to report back on student assignment and budget implications.
The San Francisco Board of Education on Jan. 12 approved a staff recommendation to temporarily locate the William Cobb Elementary Montessori program at the Jackson Street campus while maintaining the Cobb general-education program at the California Street site.
Associate Superintendent Kevin Truitt presented staff’s recommendation after laying out six options and a multi-year fiscal analysis. Staff identified Option 1 — relocating the general ed program to Jackson Street while preserving both program strands — as the recommended educational solution that best preserves program autonomy and community choice, but warned its implementation is subject to the student-assignment process and the district’s two-year fiscal plan.
The meeting drew extensive public comment. Cobb General Education parents, former teachers and community leaders urged the board to preserve the school's neighborhood program and warned that relocating children would disrupt special-needs services and community ties. Montessori families and program advocates said the Jackson Street site would allow Montessori to grow without displacing general-education students; they emphasized waiting lists, outside grant funding for classroom materials and successful program outcomes.
Board members probed enrollment figures, projected fiscal deficits, the child-development (pre-K) funding interplay with school-age funding and the Fire Marshal constraints on first-floor classrooms for preschool-aged children. Commissioner Feuer and others raised strong fiscal concerns given an announced district-wide budget shortfall; Commissioner Norton and others emphasized the urgency of resolving the communities’ uncertainty before round‑one enrollment offers.
Following debate the board voted to accept the staff recommendation as a temporary placement (the board recorded the result as an affirmative roll call). The superintendent clarified the recommendation as temporary — it could be revisited in a year depending on the student-assignment decision and fiscal realities — and directed staff to monitor enrollment, outreach and fiscal impacts, and return with further details.
The board’s action resolves immediate placement for families for the coming school year but leaves more detailed funding and student-assignment questions to staff and committee review.
