We're pleased to report that on Thursday, April 26, we received the Conditional Use Permit for 601 Dolores by a unanimous vote! Three of our middle school students, Sam, Anjali and Maya, attended the planning commission hearing and spoke eloquently on behalf of the school about the importance and value of making 601 Dolores the CDS Middle School. Parents, children, neighbors, faculty and staff stayed late into the night to show support for this project and our school. There will be more milestones to come, but this was a big one! Don't miss the video below, renderings from Jensen Architects, and this article in last Sunday's San Francisco Chronicle about the hearing. Thank you to everyone who helped make this possible - it was a true community effort.

601 Dolores renderings by Jensen Architects

We were thrilled to share our new space with our grandparents and special friends at our annual Grandparents and Special Friends Day in November! Family members gathered in the nave for a musical performance by several of our classes before returning to our 333 Dolores campus for classroom visits. We warmed the space with music, friends and family and look forward to creating more traditions in our new home. 

We’re thrilled to announce that Children’s Day School is the proud new owner of 601 Dolores Street. We’re very excited to have this new space for our middle school students and program. Right now, our focus is on the process with the City to convert the space to school use. To that end, we have filed applications for Environmental Review and Conditional Use.  If you are a neighbor, living within a 300-foot radius of 601 Dolores, you have recently received the City's notice that the project will be undergoing environmental analysis. That is the first step in this process. We anticipate the environmental analysis will be complete by the end of the calendar year. It will include a transportation study and an evaluation of the building as a historic resource. Please check back for more updates as the project progresses. 

Welcome to Children's Day School on Dolores Park. We are delighted to announce that Children’s Day School is now in contract to purchase the extraordinary “Castle on the Park” at 601 Dolores Street, overlooking Dolores Park. We identified this magnificent property—only two blocks from the original CDS campus—as the perfect new home for our growing middle school (our preschool and elementary students will remain at 333 Dolores). We don't plan to change the exterior of the building, but we will build classrooms inside.

The Children’s Day School Board of Trustees has long been searching for appropriate and appealing space for the expansion of the school to include two sections per grade through 8^th grade. Not only will this planned acquisition perfectly house our middle school (grades 5-8), it will also enable us to remove temporary preschool bungalows and thus increase outdoor learning environments and farm and garden space at our 333 Dolores campus, and gain a large indoor gathering and performance area. 

Built in 1910, the 20,000 square-foot building had been a Lutheran church. After the church fell into disuse, an individual purchased it, completed extensive seismic and interior upgrades and lovingly converted the building into a private residence that preserves its openness and elegance. As the home of the CDS middle school, the building we envision will have nine classrooms, as well as a community gathering and performance space which we intend to share with community and neighborhood groups. Our middle school teachers are very enthusiastic about the opportunities for collaboration, expansion and program enhancement this space will provide. And, because we already have a large parking lot and drive-through driveway at 333 Dolores, we are confident that we can minimize our parking and traffic impact at 19th and Dolores Streets.

We hope you will join us in the excitement of envisioning what Children’s Day School will become with the addition of this beautiful space where CDS students will grow, gather and learn. We will soon be sharing additional details about this project and welcome your comments.

We are thrilled to expand in the neighborhood that we call home and look forward to deepening our connection to neighborhood residents, businesses and community groups.