Trace Elementary School

Spanish Immersion program and a truly unique arts program — at a public school! What more could you ask for? I don’t understand neighbors choosing to pay for private school when an option like this is so accessible.
Our son is in 2^nd grade in the TWBI (two way Spanish immersion) program. I’m thrilled he is learning to read and write in Spanish as well as in English. And he gets to benefit from full time teacher staffed drama, music and visual arts programs which is rare breadth for an elementary school. Every class gets to put on a drama performance once a year — and there is a choir, strings orchestra etc. Note, the TWBI program is now so popular, kinder intake in 2014 – 15 was by lottery. The campus is new and beautiful and there is a core group of very active parents who do a lot to enrich the student experience. I help in class and I noticed some discipline issues in first grade but even those «trouble» students seemed to have matured a lot over the summer — and perhaps this year’s excellent teacher has managed to help them blossom also.
In an ideal world the classes would be smaller. I think that is the reality of public school funding nowadays and class size is probably the same across the district. The only other knock on the school would be that there is a large portion of the parent population that contributes very little to the school and that the administration seems hesitant to actively encourage greater parent participation within classrooms. It seems some teachers prefer not to have parent volunteers. I think the kids always benefit from additional resources and one-​on-​one time with academic helpers: this volunteerism issue could be improved by incentives from administration/​district and sharing of best practices by the teachers who have mastered getting and using extra help.

Well last year Trace had a lot of negative bad press & they survived. This is hopefully gonna be their turn around year. It’s a great school with a very attentive staff. My son enjoys attending the school and the teacher’s are very attentive to any issues that occur. I am thinking and hoping that this will be a great year for Trace.

Active arts program lead by wonderful teachers. Parent Involment Program (PIE) is a great parent participation program.
School had some recent setbacks: budget cuts, main building burned down last Summer, PTA folks stole funds and an extended care person got busted for inappropriate behavior, but I’m confident the school and community will bounce back,