The idea was, if you build a beautiful new public school in San Francisco where enrollment is falling, the students will come -- spurning the suburbs or private schools in the process.
But the students didn't come to Dianne Feinstein Elementary when it opened its doors on Aug. 28 at the corner of 25th Avenue and Vicente Street -- at least not the 280 kids the district hoped would show up.
Five weeks into the school year, the school is 64 students shy of expected enrollment, pushing the school $229,000 over budget with its 17 teachers. The district says two teachers and one half-time special education teacher must leave and teach somewhere else.
Principal Michelle Chang said Thursday there is no easy explanation as to why the school isn't full.
"I really don't know why students chose not to come," she said. "I don't think people had faith we were really actually going to be open."
Because of construction, the school couldn't give tours before opening day and there was no history or reputation on which families could rely to judge quality, Chang said.
Teachers will find out after school today who will go. Families will be notified by 6:30 p.m. The newest teachers to the district will be at the top of the transfer list.
First-year teacher James Zucchi, 30, could be among those. The job is the "fulfillment of a lifelong dream," the San Francisco native said. He has 11 students in his first-grade class, nine short of what was expected.
At the beginning of the year, Zucchi's class roster was full, but almost half the students who enrolled never showed up. Despite a wait-list of eager parents hoping to get their kids into Feinstein's kindergarten and first-grade classes at the beginning of the year, there are spaces available in all the grades.
The school now serves kindergarten through grade 3 and will phase in grades 4 and 5 over the next two years, serving up to 500 students in 24 classrooms.
Although there are 15 other schools across the district dealing with enrollment shortfalls, budget red ink and possible teacher transfers, the situation at Feinstein came as a surprise to school and district officials. Families can't understand why it isn't brimming with kids.
Jessica Consoer is in kindergarten, where "she's madly in love with her teacher," said her mother, Margaret Consoer.
The school's library, special art classroom and appropriately sized bathrooms in every kindergarten classroom were huge draws for Jessica's family, enticing the Western Addition residents to commute across town to the school in the Sunset District.
Consoer thinks the school district didn't do enough to persuade parents to enroll their children at Feinstein.
District officials said they marketed the school at enrollment fairs and to individual parents. They handed out pamphlets showing Feinstein as an "exciting new offering" in the district.
But other parents said they didn't know it was opening this fall. There was no Web site to describe the school and tout the computers in every classroom, the disabled access, the large playground or the $200,000 worth of new library books.
The principal said the word is getting out now and she's confident students will come next year.
"It's a fantastic school," she said. "We're definitely getting calls every day about school tours. That's a good thing."
Districtwide enrollment figures for this year have not been released yet, but San Francisco public schools have been losing an average of about 1,000 students annually since year 2000.