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Sunday, May 29, 2011

Willie Brown Prep, falling short of goals, closes

Willie Brown Prep, falling short of goals, closes

Willie Brown Prep, falling short of goals, closes

Student Mika Henderson helps teacher J.R. Kowalsky at the school named for Willie Brown, whose image is on the wall.

For the last time, San Francisco students filed through the doors of Willie Brown Jr. College Preparatory Academy on Friday morning and past a banner that declared the public school a place "where students' dreams come true."

The Bayview district campus never really lived up to that promise. The fourth- through eighth-grade school fell consistently among the worst of the worst schools statewide on standardized test scores. The school was so old that lead-filled pipes made the drinking water unsafe.

Willie Brown Prep closed for good Friday. The building is scheduled for demolition, and its 160 students have been assigned to schools across the district for the fall.

"It's bittersweet," said Principal Karen Francois, who took the school's reins midyear. "It's just not a real



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/05/27/BAIR1JMF8L.DTL#ixzz1NkTZXClN