Dear families,

As many of you know, our school has been working closely with our Parent Unity Coalition and City Council Member Gallo’s team to advocate for the city to improve the safety of our neighborhood. This year alone, we have had multiple fires, including a giant RV fire last week on East 12th Street, very close to our school building. We have also had multiple break-ins this spring, totaling thousands of dollars in stolen items, including a pallet jack, all the tires from our Tiny House trailers, musical instruments, and recording equipment our students used for their elective.

A few weeks ago, after multiple letters from our Parent Unity Coalition, we finally had officials from the city administrators’ office visit our neighborhood. In collaboration with our neighboring district elementary schools, TCN and ICS, the city asked us to adopt the two blocks of East 12th Street from 29th Avenue to Fruitvale Avenue.

A team of 11th-grade interns, working with their internship mentor, took on the challenge of building 20 planter boxes in two weeks. Our Family Unity Coalition also jumped to action, bringing together parents for an information meeting and helping to find an affordable contractor who could help us fill the planter boxes.

Now, we are turning to you to help see this project through to completion! Please contribute what you can so that we can rent a small Bobcat next week to fill the planter boxes and to help pay for the 60 cubic yards of gravel and dirt that we will need to fill these planters.

Help us beautify these blocks for all K-12 students walking to and from East 12th Street!