About

West Seattle Elementary (WSE) serves the community of High Point. In Seattle Public Schools (SPS), WSE holds one of the highest rates of BIPOC students(91.5%), free and reduced lunch rates (83.6%), and the highest Black student population (73.1%). Most of our students are first generation immigrants from East Africa, many of whom arrived as refugees from war-torn countries.Additionally, our student population come from multilingual homes and represents more than ten languages. Considering these unique attributes, WSE embraces the diversity and strengths of our community while staying committed to dismantling the racist systems that block young people from experiencing high-quality expanded learning. WSE is a community school in the truest sense. Over 80% of our students live in Seattle Housing Authority supported housing within a half mile of the school.Many of our families are former refugees and have experienced generational trauma and hardships that have created barriers to equitable access of services.As a mostly immigrant population, academic success is highly valued. Access to educational enrichment have proven to be difficult to attain for families of poverty. In addition, most parents work outside the home with atypical hours,language barriers and the lack of understanding of the American educational systems have also proven to be a barrier for our families. Lastly, most families live in one income households and have financial hardships to afford tutoring or additional programming for their children. Because of these barriers, it is paramount that WSE provide equitable access to opportunities, power, and resources. This year (2022) is the first year that WSE has been faced with expansive classrooms,some over 26 students due to a decline in student enrollment and being cut teachers (3). We don’t have funds from a parent group currently to cover the costof adding another teacher position, as other schools are able to do. The purpose of this fundraiser is to raise $150,000.00 in order to add another much neededteacher position.