Message from the Principal

Dear Bret Harte Community, 

I hope everyone is having a restful and wonderful summer and I hope that you've had time to connect with loved ones.  I can't tell you how excited we all are to welcome our scholars and families back for another amazing year at Bret Harte Elementary School.  Our first day of school across SFUSD will be Wednesday, August 16th, 2023 and our daily Morning Assembly begins at 8:30am on the soccer field.  Students may be dropped off beginning at 7:45am and we ask that all families please use the main Gilman Avenue entrance when dropping off and picking up students.  Our bell schedule will remain the same this year with school beginning at 8:40am daily.  Dismissal on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday will remain 2:55pm with our weekly minimum day (1:40pm dismissal) on Wednesday.  If you are interested in after school care, Ms. K. and Ms. Afu are in Room 114 and are accepting applications for our on-site Beacon program.  After school programming begins at dismissal each day and runs until 6:00pm nightly.  

Our Bret Harte teachers and staff are working diligently to plan an academically rigorous and standards-based instructional program for our scholars and we are laser-focused on making measurable significant academic growth each year.  While our achievement is on the rise, we are in relentless pursuit of each and every scholar meeting or exceeding each and every standard.  To that end, please be sure and send your scholar to school each and every day on time.  Excellent attendance is of the utmost importance for us to have the maximum time with our scholars at school.  If your student is sick, please alert the office as soon as possible by calling (415) 330-1520.  Again, though, we strive for excellent attendance, which means coming to school each day on time.  

Our annual Transitional Kindergarten and Kindergarten Orientation will take place on Monday, August 14th at 4:00pm in the Bret Harte Cafeteria.  If you have a TK or K scholar, we invite you to come and meet your student's teacher.  Ms. Riggs, our Assistant Principal, and I will be there along with our new Community School Coordinator, Karla Zambrano-Armijos, who many of you know in her close to a decade of work with us in our Early Education School.  I'm excited to introduce everyone to our new and returning staff at Back to School Night and I will have many more details on this event in the days to come.  

Finally, we will have coffee and breakfast snacks for all families on the first day of school following Morning Assembly in the cafeteria and I look forward to seeing everyone there to personally welcome you back to what will, undoubtedly, be a remarkable 2023-24 school-year!   See you on Wednesday, August 16th!

Best wishes always, 

Jeremy Hilinski, Ed.D.