The City Council will soon determine the plan for the Brisbane Baylands. Currently, most of the Baylands lies within the Bayshore School District due to a historical technicality.

In the 1800s, Brisbane and Bayshore shared a single district: the Visitacion School District. In 1938–39, they split into the districts we have today: Brisbane with three school locations, Bayshore with one. When the Baylands was annexed into the City of Brisbane in 1963, its school district boundaries were never updated to match, leaving the land in the Bayshore School District.

At the time of annexation, the site was dominated by Southern Pacific’s rail yard and a San Francisco dump, and housing was prohibited due to contamination. However, in 2018, voters passed Measure JJ, approving 1,800 to 2,200 housing units on the site. As part of this development, the land will be remediated to the highest standard, surpassing even the remediation standards San Francisco plans for its portion of the land.

According to the Educational Opportunities in the Baylands Study, this development will generate an estimated 400 to 525 students at peak population. At full buildout, property tax revenues from the Baylands will generate approximately $35M for education, with only a small fraction of those funds benefiting Brisbane students in Central Brisbane and the Northeast Ridge.

Our local schools are a vital pillar of our community. When the Northeast Ridge was built, the Brisbane School District served as the bridge uniting new and long-time residents. As new neighborhoods arise in the Baylands, how will we connect with these future citizens?

There is a powerful win-win possibility here for both communities. Right now, high school students from both Brisbane and Bayshore face long commutes to public high schools in Daly City or Pacifica. The only local alternatives are private schools in San Francisco or down the Peninsula, which many families simply cannot afford. Unifying the Baylands under the Brisbane School District allows us to leverage developer negotiations to establish a local high school—specifically, a public charter magnet school open to Brisbane, Bayshore, and San Mateo County students. Instead of siphoning off millions in local tax revenue to a larger high school district, we can keep those dollars working locally, spare local teenagers long daily commutes, and build an innovative high school that serves the entire area.

For many local families, especially those balancing work and household demands without multi-generational family support in town, having strong, unified local schools and a high school option right here is a game-changer. Taking the tremendous burden of long school commutes off parents and kids could mean the difference between staying in Brisbane or being forced to move away.

Rather than accepting outdated boundaries that risk dividing us, we should embrace a "One Brisbane" vision. It just makes common sense for a small city to keep all its elementary students together in one district while creating dynamic new educational options for our entire region.

Please sign this petition to urge the Brisbane School District, Brisbane City Council, and Baylands Development Inc. to collaborate on the necessary steps to unite all Brisbane students under one school district and to finally build the high school that Brisbane has always needed.