The Bay School of San Francisco

The Bay School of San Francisco
Location
35 Keyes Ave.
San Francisco, California
United States
Coordinates 37°48′02″N 122°27′21″W / 37.80045°N 122.45597°W / 37.80045; -122.45597
Information
Type Private
Established 2004
Head of school Luke Felker
Faculty 38
Grades 9-12
Number of students 355
Color(s) Blue, white
Athletics Soccer, volleyball, baseball, lacrosse, softball, basketball, golf, cross-country, track, rock climbing, sailing, tennis
Mascot Breakers
Website http://www.bayschoolsf.org/home

The Bay School of San Francisco is an independent, coeducational, college preparatory high school that opened in 2004. The school moved into its current location in the Presidio of San Francisco in 2005. Its stated mission is to balance challenging academics with a mindful approach to learning and life. Their goal is to see students unlock their individual and collective potential so they can begin to realize their roles in a dynamic world.

History

In 1992, Malcolm Manson, a former headmaster of Marin Country Day School and the Cathedral School for Boys, conceived of the idea of a new high school. In 1996, the school became incorporated.[1]

The school opened in 2004; at that time, a single class of freshmen made up the student body. During the first school year, students attended classes in a temporary building, a "long, majestic white building on Schofield Road facing the bay".[1] In August 2005, the school moved to its current (permanent) location on 35 Keyes Avenue.

Campus

The Bay School of San Francisco is housed at 35 Keyes Avenue.[2] The building, Building 35, was constructed in 1912, to initially be used as cavalry barracks, and later as bakers and cooks barracks, before becoming the headquarters for the U.S. IX Corps, which was responsible for all U.S. Army facilities within the Western United States. After major renovation, Building 35 reopened as The Bay School's new campus in August 2005.[3]

The building contains 62,000 square feet (5,800 m2) of space. Among other things, it houses a 3,000-square-foot (300 m2) library/media center and 4,500-square-foot (420 m2) student center on the ground floor. There are 21 classrooms on the second and third floors.

Students

The 2015-2016 academic year sees the student body grow to 355 9th-, 10th-, 11th-, and 12th-grade students.[4] Students come not only from San Francisco, but also from other parts of the Bay Area, including Marin County, the Peninsula, and the East Bay.

Curriculum and activities

The Bay School offers a college preparatory curriculum. Bay offers a comprehensive 4-year program in Mandarin Chinese.

Students are given Hewlett-Packard laptops as part of a one-to-one laptop program. With core values including diversity, equity and inclusion, each student is given the same laptop computer that they keep with them all four years.

Students are fed nutritious organic food served by Arce Gourmet, as well as served breakfast each morning including, a toast bar with homemade jam, fresh fruit, and the infamous bay-gel.

Bay seniors take part in the Senior Signature Project Program which requires a minimum of 65 hours of field work in a topic of their choice, and a formal presentation and/or paper at the end of the project. [5]

The school fields teams in boys and girls soccer, boys and girls basketball, volleyball, boys and girls tennis, boys and girls golf, baseball, softball, and lacrosse. In addition, activities such as yoga, dance, martial arts, rock climbing at Planet Granite, physical conditioning and sailing are offered.

Precepts and meditation

One well-known feature of the Bay School is a collection of "precepts" that are indicative of various ethical areas students and other members of the community should be mindful of (including relationships with others, the best ways to learn, and how to treat the earth). Complementing the precepts is group meditation, which usually occurs daily during morning gatherings. Typical morning meetings including ten minutes of a presentation or artistic performance (by students, faculty, staff, parents, or an outside speaker), followed by five minutes of meditation, and then the remaining time for an all school meeting with general announcements. The school extols the value of meditation, citing that meditation has been demonstrated to improve the mental fitness and behavior of students. For instance, college undergraduates who practiced 20 minutes of meditation over a period of 5 days "showed greater improvement in conflict scores on the Attention Network Test, lower anxiety, depression, anger, and fatigue, and higher vigor on the Profile of Mood States scale, a significant decrease in stress-related cortisol, and an increase in immunoreactivity" when compared to students who spent the same time just relaxing.[6]

The Precepts are:

References

  1. 1 2 Millard, Max. "Presidio's new Bay School welcomes first freshman class", Marina Times, September, 2004. Accessed April 7, 2008.
  2. ↑ http://www.bayschoolsf.org/about/press/06-Presidio-Post-Jan.pdf
  3. ↑ "The Bay School Campus at 35 Keyes Avenue". The Bay School. Accessed April 8, 2008.
  4. ↑ http://www.bayschoolsf.org/About
  5. ↑ "Senior Projects & Field-Based Learning". The Bay School. Accessed April 8, 2008.
  6. ↑ Posner, Michael et al. (2007) "Short-term meditation training improves attention and self-regulation" Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. October 23, 2007 vol. 104 no. 43 17152-17156

External links

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