West Seattle schools: Waitlist information, school by school

Earlier this week, after hearing from a West Seattle parent concerned about the waitlist situation at local Seattle Public Schools, we asked the district for school-by-school waitlist information. They said they’d try to make it available by the end of the week – and they did. Here’s the current breakdown, school by school, grade by grade, district-wide. The waitlist is for students whose families asked that they be assigned to that school, though it’s not their “neighborhood” school. There’s usually a fair amount of movement on the list before (and shortly after) school starts, but for now, here are the five longest West Seattle waitlists:

Chief Sealth International High School, 9th grade waitlist – 83
Pathfinder K-8 kindergarten waitlist – 48
Gatewood Elementary kindergarten waitlist – 28
Lafayette Elementary kindergarten waitlist – 28
Schmitz Park Elementary kindergarten waitlist – 20

The Sealth 9th-grade list is the second-longest districtwide, eclipsed only by the 88 waiting for 9th grade at Garfield High School. If you have a student on a waitlist, you can check her/his status here (the district says it’s usually updated on Fridays).

Herman June 11, 2011 (1:01 am)

18 kids waitlisted for Alki-K? Whaaa?

Jasperblu June 11, 2011 (5:58 am)

We live in Fauntlee Hill & requested Roxhill as our #1 option school choice, as Arbor Heights is our “area” school & we did not want to send our daughter there. Roxhill has three K classes, all w/ an average of 18-22 kids. Those numbers work for me, compared to 25+ kids per K class (with 3 or 4 K classes each!) at schools like AH, Lafayette, Gatewood, etc. Glad I didn’t even bother putting Pathfinder & Gatewood at the top of our list, since clearly they will have way more kids than they can handle.
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Looks to ME like West Seattle needs another elementary school (or two, or three).
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The problem of course is, will the majority of WS parents ever want to, or even be willing to, send their kids to any other WS school than the ones they perceive as “best” or “better” (i.e. Lafayette, Schmitz, Pathfinder). I’m guessing not.
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So the popular schools will continue to be way overcrowded, and the un-popular schools will continue to struggle. Neither of which scenario is really very good for any of the kids being “educated” in the SPS system.
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As a side note: I see there is a waitlist of a few kids at Concord for one of their K classes, but their immersion Spanish K class isn’t on the list at all. This surprises me. I know other immersion language tracks in the city have long waitlists (or so I’ve been told). Did Concord not meet expected enrollement for their International program? Is it possible there is still room for more kids at Concord? And why on earth don’t we have at LEAST one WS elementary school that has implemented an immersion language track (to feed into Denny & Sealth)? Hmmmmm…
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But I digress. Gosh, I sure hope we all manage to land our kids in a school & with a teacher we can 1/2 way get excited about come September. So far, I’m excited about Roxhill for my kid. Hoping SPS won’t let me down on that. Good luck everyone!

Clay June 11, 2011 (7:01 am)

We’ve got a kid on one of thse “long” waitlists. Does anyone know whether historical data is available on how many kids were admitted from the waitlist at each school? It would be nice to have some sense of our chances.

WSB June 11, 2011 (7:19 am)

I couldn’t even find the waitlist docs from last year since the district has changed its website in recent months … but even if that’s available, it would be hard to use as a gauge, since this is only the second year of the new Student Assignment Plan, and enrollment in the district in general has been rising, which wasn’t so much the case in the past – TR

Bonnie June 11, 2011 (9:13 am)

Are some kids on more than one waitlist? Meaning they put Pathfinder down for #1 and Lafayette for #2 and got waitlisted for both? Is it still possible for them to get into their #2 choice or do they only put them on the waitlist for #1?

DBurns June 11, 2011 (9:20 am)

Here’s a perspective from someone who’s been there:

At the elementary level the wait lists are very mobile. It could take up to even a couple of weeks after the first day of school to get it figured out, and the most persistent will be most likely to “win” (it’s actually sort of like trying to add in to a college class).

You can change schools! I know the idea of continuity, history, roots, foundation, is all a great plan, but the truth is that your child can have good and bad social and academic experiences at ANY school – the “good” schools have bad teachers and bullies too.

It’s kindergarten – keep that in mind. My kids are 9th & 11th next year and while they have some great K memories, I’m pretty certain that they are not impacting their lives in any way at this time. However, they do still have friends from that school that they have run into throughout the years, though they only stayed at that school with them for a few years. By the time your kids feed in to middle school, if they have switched schools, played sports or been involved in the WS community (church, volunteer, community centers etc.) they will know a ton of kids. I used to say to my kids, “How do you know that kid/person?” but soon realized that they know so many people that I don’t! (Part of letting go I guess!)

Schools change and so does your kid. We took our kids out of private school to go to Sanislo and eventually Denny. At the time Denny was the “bad” school, “at least put her at Madison” my friends said. Jeff Clark and the DIMS Staff has done a lot for Denny and it continued to change for the better, but my advice is that if you are placed in a school that is not your first choice – GO THERE OFTEN. Get to know the kids, staff, and try and reach out to the parents. VOLUNTEER. Remember, 5 year olds don’t know they are at the “bad” school!! (Unless you’ve already told them). I don’t agree that the unpopular schools are necessarily “suffering” – I think there is plenty of opportunity to work on that school experience for all of the kids. Obviously, if you are a parent who is this concerned at this level, you are clearly involved. That won’t change as your kids grow. You may have to work a little harder to find people with “like-parenting” perspectives, and keep your mind open to new ones as well.

Academically – my experience is that regardless of public, private, “good”, “bad”, it’s YOUR responsibility to be sure that your kids are being educated. Period. Teachers in any school, with any class size, can only teach to kids who are available to learn. It’s true that a variety of challenges come up when you have a variety of demographics in the classroom, but isn’t that real life???

I’ve spent a lot of time over the last 16 years thinking and talking about this so I have many thoughts and find it so interesting to watch.
Best of luck!

add June 11, 2011 (9:29 am)

Here, here DBurns! Well said.

WSB June 11, 2011 (9:44 am)

Speaking personally and not as editor, ditto on “what DBurns said.” Our son, now in high school, has been in public, private, online, and hybrid (he started out in a co-op preschool!) programs. The key to success is the teacher(s) much more than the school – and it’s hard to tell how they and your child/ren will do until they are actually working together. And I have one other bit of advice – if you learn there is something catastrophically wrong, and you cannot remedy it with speaking to teacher(s), principal, etc., do not hesitate to move your child if you feel that is your only option for their safety/sanity/success/whatever. Once you’ve exhausted options, don’t just “hope” it will get better. Good luck to all – TR

Suzanne June 11, 2011 (9:43 am)

DBurns – I totally agree.

eye June 11, 2011 (11:30 am)

Wow—we have a serious overcrowding issue in west seattle that is going to take a huge amount of creativity to possibly even begin to fix. How is it possible that a City like Seattle has a huge waiting list for a high school (Sealth) that:

1- Is eligible for federal grants for one of the poorest performing schools in the entire state (not just our district), right along side another troubled school that needs to improve, Rainier Beach.
2- Has a terribly low percentage of students who pursue a post high school education
3- Can not get it’s best and brightest into our state public institutions

As our child approaches his high school years, we hope he can move from private into public, but we are very concerned about the new assignment plan. Since we rent a home we may be able to move (we currently live in the south end of WS but will not go to SPS if Sealth is our only option), but we fear that with the crowding issues the lines may eventually be redrawn. We would like to be able to stay in West Seattle and are very hopeful that WS continues to improve and provide our community with a decent option for a good education.

Cait June 11, 2011 (12:31 pm)

DBurns – YES. Dear lord, YES. Agreed!

Public School Advocate June 11, 2011 (1:49 pm)

@JasperBlu — Concord is considered part of the West Seattle region and IS the language immersion program that feeds into the Denny/Sealth track. If WS were to add another language immersion program in a more central WS location they too would be guaranteed a Denny/Sealth assignment yet that would add even more enrollment pressures to an already “in demand” school. I imagine these tracking/assignment policies for specialty programs will need to worked out before we’ll see another language immersion program opened in WS. Plus, SPS will really need to evaluate the demand for this type of program. Personally, I see more families wishing for some type of language offered in the classroom (not just after school), yet not to the degree a language immersion program is structured.
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Also, it really saddens me that families get caught up in the whole game of trying to get their kids into a perceived “better school”. All schools have their pluses and minuses (this includes private too) and if families were to embrace ALL schools in our community, not just the schools with the highest test scores or the ones that raise the most money, our ENTIRE community would be better off.

educada June 11, 2011 (4:22 pm)

Alki Elementary, our dear school: We will miss your awesome teachers, your hard working PTA, your dedicated principal Miss Codd. We will never understand why your waitlists have never been skyscraper high and now we are moving to one of the most sought after schools in the district, John Stanford International School.
Good luck everyone!
The Slye kids

AIEC June 11, 2011 (7:00 pm)

@eye,

I suggest you do some more research with respect to the points you make. Yes, Sealth was eligible for a federal grant based upon one statistic, that its graduation rate wasn’t improving as fast as set by OSPI. SPS didn’t pursue the grant because the school has recently undergone a substantial programmatic improvement (adding IB, becoming an International School). It takes a few years for statistics to catch up as cohorts progress.

I have no doubt that the current freshman, sophomores, and juniors will be going to college in large numbers, particularly as they (like this year’s seniors) will have the option of the 13th year promise scholarship. Don’t forget that the inability to afford college doesn’t mean that students are graduating without the skills to attend college.

The Sealth valedictorian who was profiled in the paper for not getting into UW identified that he chose not to take IB courses. In a time period where UW is upping the standards for resident admission, he missed a chance to make himself far more attractive to the admissions committee. would have made him for more attractive. A bit of a moot point, as he was ultimately admitted to UW based on his appeal, filed before the story was written.

Have you toured Sealth? If not, I suggest you do. There is a reason why only Garfield has a bigger waiting list.

PS: it’s= it is.

eye June 12, 2011 (7:58 am)

@AIEC–thank you for catching my typo, and for = far (with respect to typos). I have been to various events at Sealth (as well as many other schools in the area). We have not officially toured as things changes so much and we have several years to go before needing to make HS decisions. (We love to support the schools in this neighborhood and hope for success for all of them.) But currently with a concern for a decent education it does not seem the place to be (at least for us) based on the word from former graduates and what we can currently gleen from other sources–maybe that will change. My frustration, however is that with the lines drawn on the ground that tell you where you must attend and my uncertainty that they will not change–it makes it hard for a families to make decisions. And I am very concerned about what appears to be a trend towards overcrowding in many of the schools in our neighborhood

Public School Advocate June 12, 2011 (12:05 pm)

@eye – you mention in your latest post, “We love to support the schools in this neighborhood and hope for success for all of them” yet in your earlier post say “we hope he can move from private into public”. Since you are currently a private school parent, I’d be curious to know what you (or other WS private school parents) are doing in regards to supporting your local WS public schools. Volunteering? Tutoring? Donating money or supplies? Advocacy work? Participating in fall/spring clean-ups?

Shannon June 12, 2011 (1:10 pm)

@eye,

I suggest that before you write off CSIHS, you speak with some current students and families. It has changed a lot in the last few years, and I question if former graduates have the ability to accurately describe the current course offerings, staff, and climate.

When the time comes for high school, if you decide your neighborhood school isn’t for you, you still have public options. There are several SPS option high schools, including the Center School, the NOVA Project, and the new STEM program at Cleveland. You can also apply for a seat at any other SPS neighborhood high school. If your child gets in or not will depend on overall high school enrollment, what schools are popular at the time, and how the various tie breakers apply to your famiy. (Remember that WS area students have a special tie-breaker to get them priority to the “other” high school in WS, i.e. CSIHS if in the WSHS area and WSHS if you are in the CSIHS area).

You can also pursue a non-resident transfer to another school district, Mercer Island and Vashon are always looking to import students to make up for decreased resident population. All of the Highline schools usually are open for non-resident enrollment, and there are a set number of seats at Avaiation High School that are for SPS non-resident transfers.

If none of those options appeal to you, you can stay local for private at Kennedy or Hope Lutheran.

I encourage you to support the Southwest Seattle schools with your time, as volunteers are always appreciated.

J June 12, 2011 (5:40 pm)

Thanks WSB for pressing the district for these numbers. This is valuable information for any parent with a child on the waitlist.

West Side Girl June 16, 2011 (9:31 pm)

I wonder why there is no wait list for WSHS?

george June 19, 2011 (4:52 pm)

The point being for trying to get in at the kindergarten level is that it can lock you in for the duration of elementary school years, rather than jumping ship mid stream. This builds continuity for the child and the parents with the PTA and teachers. So yes, K is a big deal for a lot of people, don’t discount it.
Also, persistence means nothing on the waitlists. Its stictly lottery aftet the basic tiebreakers like siblings. The best way is to move into the boundary, but beware if they change the boundary after you move.

Sorry, comment time is over.