Wallingford is fortunate to have some excellent public elementary schools, although they are unfortunately fractured in their attendance areas. Just last year the decision was made to make both John Stanford and McDonald school “option schools”, meaning nobody in Wallingford is guaranteed entrance. There’s a complicated lottery system that assigns a certain number of slots to students in the walk zone and then to other buckets as well, so nobody is guaranteed a slot.
The primary reason Sherry Carr (our school board representative) gave for Wallingford having two option schools and no neighborhood schools in the neighborhood is that JSIS and McDonald were becoming too desirable, so managing their capacity with boundary changes was getting too difficult and contentious. The fact that they are both language immersion means that parents needed to be able to not choose one of those schools, so designating them option schools made sense. It still seems stupid to me to bus kids across the street from one of those schools to a different school several miles away if they don’t want that, but that’s how things ended up.
On top of the complication of choosing language immersion or not, you also can choose a K-8 option school for your child or not. If you pick Salmon Bay you’ll get bus service, if you pick Hazel Wolf you’ll need to get them north of Green Lake now and then on up to Northgate when their new building is finished in 2 years. The upshot is that you have a lot of schools to look at, and you better have your backup schools figured out- not just your 1st choice, but your 2nd and 3rd as well. Here’s a map of where everything is at:
I’m skipping Licton Springs in this write up as we toured it and it is super teeny tiny and moving north of Green Lake in 2 years. I’m also skipping APP, as you need to test into that. Here’s the teacher survey results, with interesting bits in bold. The numbers are about 1 year old (from last year’s survey, but just recently published):
| Teacher Survey Results | B.F. Day | Green Lake | McDonald | John Stanford | Hazel Wolf K-8 | Salmon Bay K-8 |
| Healthy community- respect, appreciation, enjoyment of work | 86 | 94 | 98 | 98 | 93 | 88 |
| School Safety- bullying is dealt with | 77 | 91 | 94 | 90 | 91 | 87 |
| Learning environment- student behavior | 52 | 89 | 97 | 89 | 89 | 93 |
| School Professional Community- teacher collaboration | 62 | 88 | 89 | 88 | 77 | 49 |
| Helping kids that struggle (MTSS) | 73 | 76 | 67 | 75 | 74 | 48 |
| Teacher Survey Average | 70 | 88 | 89 | 88 | 85 | 73 |
My reading of the numbers is that B.F. Day has some behavior issues to deal with, and Salmon Bay has suffered from weak administration (they have weak collaboration and special education numbers). Green Lake looks great, and they have a largely new building as of this year. John Stanford and McDonald are solid, and if you want a K-8 and can schlep your kid to school and back, Hazel Wolf is a solid choice (they move to a new building in Northgate the year after next).
Here are the numbers from 2 years ago regarding demographics and school performance. McDonald was still a new school then, so take the numbers with a grain of salt there:
| Demographics | B.F. Day | Green Lake | McDonald | John Stanford | Hazel Wolf K-8 | Salmon Bay K-8 |
| Students in grades K-5 | 336 | 259 | 277 | 451 | 388 | 320 |
| Average class size | 24 | 25 | 24 | 25 | 24 | 27 |
| Demographics- White | 51% | 73% | 69% | 60% | 55% | 78% |
| Demographics- Free / Reduced Lunch | 38% | 19% | 11% | 6% | 36% | 11% |
| Exceeding typical growth- Reading | 55% | 49% | 32% | 48% | 47% | 57% |
| Exceeding typical growth- Math | 68% | 57% | 55% | 60% | 53% | 47% |
In terms of demographics, Hazel Wolf and B.F. Day are where you want to go for diversity, or avoid for non-diversity, or don’t care if you are color blind like Stephen Colbert. I don’t get much more from the numbers than that. Maybe B.F. Day has a great math department?
The choices are overwhelming. It seems like the rest of the city went back to neighborhood schools a few years back, but here in Wallingford school choice still rules the day. Unlike the Middle School write up I did yesterday, I didn’t do elementary school tours and my kids didn’t attend school in this neighborhood (my wife was a teacher at Whittier in Ballard, so that’s where they went). Given that, my write up here is a little shallow. Please help with insights in the comments section!
I toured JSIS, MacDonald, B.F. Day and Greenlake this year. We are assigned to B.F. Day. Almost everyone I meet who is assigned to B.F. Day is opting not to go. It’s such a tragedy. When I toured B.F. Day, I thought if all of us parents touring actually sent our kids there it would be a great school. But everyone is so afraid to go it alone, and I am scared too.
I believe in supporting public schools and I don’t want to shelter my child from reality by sending them away from their neighborhood or by purchasing school so they are not confronted by the realities of a economically stratified society. My child would start school in the 2016. Is there anyone else out there who feels the same way who will be sending their kids there? I feel isolated but maybe it’s the families I’m hanging out with.
My daughter is in kindergarten at BF Day so I can’t speak to years past, but we really like it. They have a new principal this year and he seems to be really focusing on positive behaviors and a positive learning environment and working with the teachers. All the kids seem super happy and nice, my daughter is learning. I didn’t bother with any of the option schools because we can walk to BF Day and I didn’t want language immersion.
impliedobserver – it’s probably who you’re hanging out with. This blog in particular seems to be filled with people hating on BF Day. I’ve had discussions with other BF Day parents about it, so I’m not alone in feeling that way. The school is great, the teachers are excellent. The PTSA is SUPER involved. I don’t know what everyone is so afraid of
It strikes me as ironic that our homes are worth so much because of the adage: location, location, location. Let’s face it, the same house in Northgate would be a lot cheaper. And yet, people will send their kids out of the neighborhood for school. B.F. Day is walkable for us too and that’s a strong selling point as far as we’re concerned.
Thanks for the pep talk.
We’re renters and I fear we will soon be priced out of the neighborhood, but I don’t want to leave Wallingford/Fremont because I don’t want my daughter to switch schools. There are lots of reasons BF Day gets bad numbers, but none of them are reflected in the actual school environment/parent community.
I have a 7th grader who went to B.F. Day from Kindergarten to 5th grade and I currently have a 3rd grader at B.F. Day. Having been a parent at the school for 8 years, I can honestly tell you that there’s nothing to be afraid of. Seriously. The teachers, the staff, and the PTSA are all really wonderful people who care very deeply about our kids’ learning, safety, and success.
For the past four years, our current crop of PTSA parents have been working tirelessly (I can say this as someone who is not able to always be actively involved) to bring some of the best after school enrichment programs geared for kids to have a great time while learning (creative coding; cake making; Lego building, and a new “Plant to snack” gardening program).
Our new principal is actively engaged and holds regularly scheduled evening chats and he, along with a Building Leadership team and the PTSA are currently working on the strengthening SPS Spectrum Program (advanced learners who are one year ahead) particularly particularly around offering more specialized opportunities for Project Based Learning and problem solving activities.
We have a brand new playground which was partially funded by a neighborhood matching grant program and made possible by a parent who worked so diligently to have such a wonderful plays pace outside.
Every Monday morning, there are “family” assemblies of which parents are invited to attend, which helps to keep families connected to the school.
I hope this sheds some light about B.F. Day and helps to dispel any unwarranted fears about the school.
We are just wrapping up at JSIS with 2 kids having gone through from K thru 5 (Spanish track). Overall, we’ve been very happy with the quality of the teaching. Out of the 12 teachers my kids have had over the years, all but two have provided good or excellent instruction. Most of those teachers have remained at JSIS, though we have lost a couple of good ones over the years (on the Spanish side). Teacher longevity is a decent measure of school climate I suspect. We have been much less satisfied with the quality of the administration (ever since Aramaki left). At times executive decision-making is less than participatory, and communication on important issues not so stellar. Overall though, it comes down to the teaching, and we’ve been very happy on that score.
I work in SSD so whenever this type of article comes around I huff and puff and think about what to say or not say. Kids will learn better if their classroom and school provide ideal conditions for learning: friendly, competent teachers; quiet, no major distractions; clear lesson plans; graded papers with feedback which is helpful; materials and supplies clean and ready; the classroom, floor, desks and sinks etc.. clean. Go, look around a lot. Listen to how teachers talk to kids and to how some kids verbally express themselves at lunch, recess as well as during ” prospective parent visitations”. As you decide to enroll your child consider effects of bus time ( if that happens); what is gained and lost through immersion programs.Is the principal visible and in the halls before, during and after school as well at some recesses? Finally plan on helping out in the classroom or offering to take materials home to cut out templates or label folders etc.. not all help must be done onsite.
i have a 4th grader at BF Day and have been really thrilled with it. He’s in Spectrum, and yes the math attention he’s been getting is better than what he was getting at JSIS (which is also a great school).
Once we decided that BF Day was a better fit, the move just seemed to make sense. If people are scared of the diversity (economic and racial), then perhaps it isn’t for you. Test scores are skewed a bit due to ESL and special needs programs, but again it has been great for us.
We’ve had kids at both JSIS and Greenlake. We also seriously considered Hazel Wolf for both middle school and K-8. We truly enjoyed the JSIS experience for 7 years (Spanish). As the school got bigger we did see a change in the community – it was hard/impossible to have all school events, seemed like the same volunteers, etc. The amount of money the families raise through direct appeal to support the immersion program can be mind-boggling ($800/kid?). I also found it to be a very segregated school based on which language program you were in. However, it is impressive how well my oldest child can communicate verbally in Spanish. But the benefits really seem to diminish as they move to Middle School where they are in spanish for 1 class and the teachers have to spend a lot of time breaking bad habits/poor grammar developed in elementary school.
Our youngest child, is dyslexic and the immersion program just isn’t a good fit so we are now at Greenlake Elementary and are really happy and excited to be at this school. We really like the team teaching, it’s a much smaller school, has multi-grade classrooms. The only thing that is disappointing but it’s not really the school/teachers fault is there are 30+ kids in a class. The way they mix up their day there is plenty of time with a lower ratio but the homeroom class is pretty big. All the schools in this area are dealing with larger class sizes so this issue isn’t isolated to Greenlake. We are still integrating into the community but it’s easy to tell/see/feel the commitment and support the school gets from the teachers and parents.
We also looked at Hazel Wolf and from just a school perspective really liked it, we have friends with kids there and they’ve been really pleased. Ultimately we chose Greenlake and Hamilton because they are our neighborhood school and we really value the connection as friends and neighbors.
Hi, I am a little surprised you left out Lincton spring k-8 out of the comparison. Sure it is moving North in two years, but so is Hazel wolf! I have booth of my children enrolled and I am really happy with the school. I have a kindergartner and a 2nd grader who has been in this program since kindergarten (school name Pinehurst k-8 then). You say it’s a small program, yes! Here is the opportunity to have your child in a small class ratio. Kindergarten 14 kids, 2 grade 16 kids. I love it that the kids know and play with each other during recess and lunch all grades mixed. They have 3-4 grade and 5/6 grades mixed up. To me it’s importance to see a school as a community and seeing that my child is known, not only by its teacher, but all school staffs makes a difference.
The school has a morning tour on March 5th, come and visit with the teachers. It’s a great school with amazing teachers!
Thanks for reading.
Hi Anne, thanks for providing details on Licton springs in the comments section, hopefully the tour today is well attended. I agree I should have included it, my only excuse is I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by the number of choices.
It was great to see the positive and constructive comments here in general, much thanks for the contributions.