RichmondSFBlog reader Claudine sent me the news last week of a new mural that is brightening up the Star of the Sea schoolyard on 9th Avenue.

The mural is a collaboration between USF student artists and the first graders at Star of the Sea School. In September, the two groups met to brainstorm ideas for a mosaic/mural and came up with the theme “underneath the sea”.

In October, the artists held community work days in which all members of the community were invited to help mortar, set tiles, and grout.

“The kids had a wonderful time seeing the mosaic come to life and getting dirty in the process,” Claudine said. Her son is in the first grade class that worked on it.

Thanks to the USF student artists and the hard working first graders of Star of the Sea for helping create this nice mural for our neighborhood!

Sarah B.

The Star of the Sea first grade class with their USF student artist mentors

A closeup of the tile mosaic in the new mural

The beginning, middle and end of the mural

From Monday through Friday of this week, Argonne Elementary School (680 18th Avenue) is hosting their annual “Holiday Book Fair”. Shop their large selection of preschool through middle school grade books and gifts, in addition to adult titles including many cookbooks.

The sale is on daily in the school library from 8am until 3pm, and on Thursday night, they are open late until 8pm.

Proceeds benefit the Argonne Parent-Teacher Organization whichs support the school’s extracurricular programs.

Sarah B.

There are a couple of fun holiday-themed events going on this Sunday in the neighborhood.

From 11:30am until 3:30pm, St. Monica’s School is hosting Santa’s Village, a community event where you can have brunch with Santa, get your photo photo with Santa, let your kids become an elf in Santa’s Workshop, and do a little Christmas shopping list in their Christmas Boutique.

Entry is $13 per person. St. Monica’s School is located at 5950 Geary Blvd near 23rd Avenue.

Also on Sunday is the first of two Tal-y-Tara Christmas Teas, held at their shop on California Street near 27th Avenue. Tal-y-Tara is an English tearoom with high-tea service, as well as a polo and equestrian shop.

They serve a full tea service with sandwiches and scones, featuring live musical performances and sing-a-long, lots of games, and even Santa Claus will be on hand to read stories to the children (you’ll have to ask Santa how he’s managing to be at St. Monica’s AND Tal-y-Tara at the same time!).

Christmas Tea at Tal-y-Tara is offered this Sunday, Dec. 11 from 12noon until 6pm, as well as next Sunday, Dec. 18. The price is $25 per person – make reservations by calling 751-9275.

Sarah B.

A curious pooch looks into the Internet Archive on Clement near Funston. Photo by mike dillon

One happy hawk: Remember the hawk who had a nail shot through his beak? He was released back into the wild a couple weeks ago and was seen this week in Golden Gate Park’s Botanical Garden, doing quite well.

Richmond resident does good: Richmond District resident Anwar Ghanem was honored at City Hall for helping rescue a man from a burning car. “Ghanem’s 3-year-old daughter, Jasmine, watched her dad receive his awards. She shrugged when asked if her dad’s a hero, but Ghanem seemed to acknowledge that he is. “I feel kind of like a hero. It feels good,” he said.”

Muppet mania hits Argonne School: Mention Argonne School at the Balboa Theater this Sunday and save on your ticket to see the new Muppets movie. Mention Argonne during either of the afternoon showings (2:20pm or 4:35pm) and you will receive a special ticket price of $6 per person plus a free goodie bag.

Surf’s still up: Check out this nice set of pics in Surfing Magazine from the 2011 Rip Curl Pro Search contest that was held at Ocean Beach:

Mom & Pop school supply store shuts down: The Educational Exchange store on Balboa, one of the Bay Area’s last family-owned teacher supply stores, is closing this Wednesday.

Last week, the students at Argonne Elementary School at 18th & Cabrillo got a lesson in how to beautify their campus. Step 1: remove some of the concrete and replace it with a garden.

For the past 10 years, Argonne students have been visiting the Children’s Garden at the San Francisco Botanical Garden as part of their Youth Education Program. From that came a desire for Argonne to start its own garden on campus.

Then in February 2011, the Botanical Garden announced a new program called “Grey 2 Green”, designed to teach residents how to transform their sidewalks into attractive, landscaped areas. “Less concrete. More jungle.” is the program’s theme, which is a joint venture with the Department of Public Works.

Argonne School was selected to pilot the program and after 3 months of work, 240 square feet of sidewalk along Cabrillo near 18th Avenue was converted into a garden with 15 varieties of California Native plants, as well as bee and butterfly habitats.

The garden celebrated its grand opening last Friday which included a ceremonial planting of a Strawberry Tree (Arbutus Marina) by the students.

“Our school community has been transformed by this partnership with Grey2Green,” said Tina Eshaghpour, Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) Green Argonne Chair.

“We have seen concrete sidewalk, where people dump trash, transformed into a learning and community meeting place, where students delight in the butterflies that visit and neighbors pause to give us a smile and express appreciation for making our street more beautiful.”

Interested in transforming some of the grey outside your home into green? The Grey 2 Green program is still underway. Around 250 residents have attended the workshops so far this year, and the final one for 2011 will be held on Saturday, November 12 at the Botanical Garden in Golden Gate Park from 9am until 10am.

Sarah B.

The Kampner Hebrew Academy (left) sits right next to the Bureau of Jewish Education
on the 600 block of 14th Avenue

The rift between two neighboring organizations grows deeper this week, as they face off over a proposed antenna installation at the Bureau of Jewish Education, located at 639 14th Avenue. I learned today that both are having separate neighborhood meetings, one day apart, to address the issue.

But first, some background on the issue…

The Bureau of Jewish Education has already signed an agreement with AT&T to upgrade an existing, unmanned AT&T Mobility wireless telecommunication facility currently located on the corner of their building. According to a recent Examiner article, the Bureau has hosted antennas on their building since 1997.

The upgrade would involve removing the existing facility and installing six panel antennas on the roof of the Bureau. The associated equipment cabinets would be located in the Bureau’s basement.

AT&T, as well as other wireless carriers, often host antennas on private buildings to help boost cell phone reception in neighborhoods where coverage is spotty.

Despite having held a public meeting about the new installation in April of this year, the Bureau’s neighbor, the Lisa Kampner Hebrew Academy located next door at 645 14th Avenue, has sounded the alarm about the potential harm the antennas could pose to their students.

“We are alarmed at the potential danger these antennas may pose to our children, who range in age as young as 3 years old, to say nothing of the danger to the immediate neighborhood generally. We are therefore issuing a call to action to the entire neighborhood to protest the installation of the antennas,” wrote Mimi Real of the Academy in an email to community members last week.

But rather than hold ONE public meeting about the issue, each organization is holding their own, separate community meeting.

First up is the meeting being hosted by the Bureau of Jewish Education (pro-antenna) which takes place on Tuesday night at 7pm at the Bureau (639 14th Avenue).

Present at the Bureau meeting will be representatives from the BJE, along with Marc Blakeman, Regional Vice President for AT&T, Bill Hammett, Principal Engineer for Hammett & Edison who specializes in broadcast and wireless engineering, as well as Amy Million of KDI Consulting, who specializes in urban planning services.

“All three bring different expertise to the table, and all three will be available to answer your questions and address any concerns,” wrote Allison Brown, Associate Director at the BJE who is organizing the meeting.

On Wednesday night at 7:30pm, at the Lisa Kampner Hebrew Academy next door (645 14th Avenue), the anti-antenna group will meet to discuss the issue. Present at the Hebrew Academy meeting will be a representative of San Francisco Neighborhood Antenna-Free Union, who Real writes “is an expert on the antenna question and can clarify technical questions you may have.”

The Academy is also claiming that they were never notified of the proposed installation, and only learned of it “when the sign announcing the Planning Commission hearing was posted in front of the Bureau.”

All of this is leading up to a showdown at City Hall, when the Planning Commission will hear the issue, scheduled for Thursday, November 3.

So, whichever side of the issue you come down on, there is a meeting for you to attend this week. The question is, which one will you attend, if at all? Leave a comment to let us know.

Sarah B.

As thousands of concertgoers streamed into the Richmond District over the summer for Outside Lands and Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, several neighborhood schools saw a chance to raise some much needed funds by opening their lots to concert parkers.

Schools like Lafayette at 36th & Anza, Argonne at 17th & Cabrillo, and Presidio Middle School at 30th & Geary charged $25 a day for parking, helping relieve parking stress on the streets around Golden Gate Park. And in the process, they raised thousands of dollars for their school programs.

The Examiner reports today that all this fundraising success has caught the eye of the city taxman – aka the Treasurer and Tax Collector’s Office – who now wants his cut.

The city tax office is demanding a 25% cut of the profits made during the parking fundraisers. That’s a substantial slice – as much as $1,750 a day – of the money that these schools raise during the events.

“We had no idea,” said San Francisco Parent Teacher Association President Michelle Parker. “They haven’t been collecting it until now anyway.”

Treasurer’s office spokesman Greg Kato says that the law to collect tax on parking structures has been on the books for a while now and “applies to every parking operation, from downtown garages to dirt lots near the ballpark.”

But those are for-profit parking operations. Should the same tax be levied on a non-profit fundraiser that uses property that is normally not a parking facility?

Seems to me that the money is better spent going back into the cash-strapped coffers of our local schools than into those of the SFMTA, who stands to profit if the 25% tax is enforced on these schools’ fundraisers. Something tells me the money that lands in the SFMTA pot will never makes it way back to improving our schools.

PTA President Michelle Parker also points out that the parking fundraisers are a great way to earn more funds without, shall we say, taxing the immediate community. “What’s really great about parking fundraisers is you’re not pulling from the school community,” said Parker.

What do you think? Should these schools be expected to pay a 25% tax to the city on their parking fundraisers? Is this justified…or just plain greedy? Leave a comment to let us know.

Thanks to RichmondSFBlog reader Bob for the tip.

Sarah B.

[via The Examiner]

Between your visits to the all the school fall festivals this Saturday, stop off at St. James Preschool to do some shopping for the kids.

St. James will be hosting a used clothing sale from 8am until 12noon. Browse through some gently used clothes for kids age up to 5 years old. Plus free coffee and baked goods to fill you up.

St. James School is located at 4620 California Street near 8th Avenue.

Sarah B.