Balboa High School special education teacher Ian Williams is a pro at scrounging for pencils, old newspaper comics, and other funky trinkets to give to his students. He finds them at SCRAP, the arts and crafts recycling shop that was cofounded 50 years ago by iconic SF sculptor Ruth Asawa.
Williams, who’s been digging through SCRAP’s bins for 15 years, would love to find another one of his all-time favorites: a pencil with a horse head on it and the words “Hold your horses.”
“You really never know what you’re going to get there,” says Williams, who is approaching retirement. “There’s nothing more depressing than an overpriced garage sale. That’s not like this place.”
But the days are numbered for SCRAP, at least as Williams knows it. After 25 years in the Bayshore industrial district, SCRAP has to move. Its landlord, the San Francisco Unified School District, is knocking down the old warehouse to make way for a new $200 million central kitchen that will cook meals for students across the city, The Frisc has learned.
The kitchen is one of the keystone projects SFUSD promised would come out of a $790 million facilities bond last November, which passed with 75 percent of the vote.
Asawa, a world-renowed sculptor whose name adorns SFUSD’s high school for the arts, founded SCRAP in 1976 with Anne Marie Theilen, then on the SF Arts Commission. Teachers through the decades have recycled supplies from SCRAP in their classrooms, from Heineken poster boards to stickers for math lessons. Aisles are stuffed with bins of fabrics, school supplies, old National Geographic magazines handy for collages. There’s plenty of material for free, or nearly so.
“It’s basically a candy store for teachers,” says Todd Berman, a teacher at Paul Revere PreK-8 School and former director of the San Francisco Arts Education Alliance. “It’s a bin for inspiration that directly leads to results for students.”
The nonprofit announced in a January email that its five-year lease (the rent is $1,000 a month) would end in June, and that it urgently needed leads for new space and “significant financial contributions.”
“Over the last six months, we have laid the groundwork to face these challenges: defining our real estate and financial parameters and developing key relationships,” the email said. “With your support, we’re confident we can overcome these challenges and secure SCRAP’s future in San Francisco.”
Since then, SCRAP and the district have worked out a one-year extension, which the Board of Education must approve in May, but its future home remains uncertain.
A fundraising campaign is in development as it determines how much it will need to relocate and expand, said SCRAP board member Steve Lambright, adding that the goal is to use the move to grow.
‘Broken-down charm’
SFUSD’s sprawling property portfolio has become a hot topic the past couple years. Its underused or empty lots, such as an undeveloped space in the Inner Sunset, are often cited as prime spots for new housing for teachers, who have trouble affording lives in San Francisco. One site near Ocean Beach took two decades to convert into an apartment complex with 135 affordable units.
In 2023, the district pledged to close about a dozen schools, then shelved the controversial plan last year. But the exercise highlighted questions about the best use of its property.
There’s no indication to date if SCRAP can move into a different SFUSD-owned site. Wherever it ends up, Balboa special ed teacher Williams hopes the spirit stays intact. The unique finds are one thing, like high-quality German markers or a Cesar Chavez placard to boycott grapes. But he’ll miss the giant, gritty warehouse and its narrow gravel driveway that fills with puddles when it rains.
“For me, part of the appeal is the broken-down charm,” Williams says. “I just hope they can keep its quirkiness.”
Barbara Chisholm, a retired instructional coach who taught math to three to five year olds, found developmentally appropriate materials like old board pieces to make into new games and stickers to make visual models with numbers. “Our youngest learners need to hold math ideas in their small hands to learn, and SCRAP has provided!” Chisholm writes via email.
SCRAP hopes a new larger space will expand upon what teachers love, such as artist-led workshops that show how to adapt materials to special education students’ needs. The workshops count toward teachers’ paid professional development hours. SFUSD and SCRAP have other ties, such as an arts program that visits the district’s summer and afterschool programs, and invoices for teacher purchases billed directly to the district.
The district says their ties won’t end when SCRAP moves. “SFUSD is working in partnership with SCRAP and deeply values our collaboration with the organization,” says district spokesperson Katrina Kincade in an email.
The district says it’s open to a longer lease extension if the kitchen plans are delayed. Demolition of the current structure is slated to start in 2026, with the kitchen ready to start cooking in 2029. The central food hub would advance SFUSD’s goal of eliminating 80 percent of pre-packaged meals for students, and bringing it in line with other large urban districts that have their own infrastructure to provide meals.
“We will also be able to improve the quality of meals by purchasing and serving locally sourced ingredients and produce,” says Jennifer Lebarre, executive director of Student Nutrition Services operations, in a comment provided by a district spokesperson.
Until then, teachers hope SCRAP can keep feeding students’ imaginations and projects. “People are afraid SCRAP may not be the same SCRAP a year from now,” board member Lambright says. “This is an opportunity for SCRAP to realize its potential.”
I like scrap, but gee whiz those employees give me the evil eye!