Back to School Routines

Arrival Routines – Help Keep Traffic Moving 

Supervision begins on the playground at 7:35 p.m. Students should be lined up with their teachers by 7:50 p.m. and are in classrooms doing morning routines by 7:55 p.m. If you are dropping your student off by vehicle, please drop off on Fremont Avenue on the west side of the building and have your students walk up the stairs. Do not use Linden. Vehicles on Linden can cause congestion, block buses, and otherwise make things challenging for our neighbors. Parking lots are reserved for staff only.

Late Arrivals

• Arriving at school any time after 7:55 a.m. is considered a late arrival. 
• All students will need to get a late slip from either the cart outside the office with Mr. D, or from the front office. 
• Once they have their late slip, students will head directly to their classrooms. Pre-K students will go directly to the playground in the mornings. 
• Some examples of excused late arrivals are: having an appointment of some sort, a family emergency, or needing extra sleep due to recovering from an illness.

Dismissal and Student Pick-Up Routines 

Thank you for using Fremont Ave. to park for pick-up. Our buses uses Linden and the street is very narrow. Reducing traffic to just buses keeps us safe and traffic moving, allowing our buses to get started on their routes on time. Picking up your student? Thank you for meeting your child on the playground at their classroom spot.

Early Pick-Ups

For early pickups, please come directly to the office and let us know who your child is and why you are picking them up early. We will then call them down from their classroom. This helps us accurately mark attendance.

Absences

If your child will be absent for any reason, please email bfday.attendance@seattleschools.org or call the school to let us know. If we don’t hear from you, expect to hear from us to double-check that everything is okay.

Transportation

Bus services are available to elementary students who live within the school’s boundary but more than one mile away from campus. If your family qualifies and you would like your student to ride the bus, please request transportation by emailing transdept@seattleschools.org or calling 206-252-0900. When emailing, please be sure to include your student’s first and last name, as well as their student ID number if possible. Because the transportation department processes thousands of requests at the start of the school year, email is highly recommended to avoid the long phone wait times typical of this peak season.

Important Traffic and Safety

At our school, student safety is our number one priority. To ensure our children are protected and traffic flows smoothly, we will be more strictly enforcing parking and traffic rules during morning drop-off and afternoon pick-up.

Please be mindful of all posted signage, particularly Bus Zones and No Parking areas.

To keep our campus safe, we ask that you:

• Respect the Bus Zone: Linden Ave (the front of the school) is for buses only. Our school was not built for heavy car traffic, particularly on Linden, so curb drop-offs are not permitted in the bus zone.
• Use the Back Gate: We strongly encourage parents to park on Fremont Ave (the back of the school) and use the back playground gates.
• Keep Distance: Maintain at least 30 feet of space between your vehicle and all stop signs or crosswalks.
• Yield to Buses: Always give school buses the right of way and never drive up the street while they are loading or unloading.
• Plan Ahead: If you are parking, please leave extra time to find a spot. The best place to park will be north of the upper-uppers, or on Fremont Ave. Everything else is simply too congested.

If a staff member asks you to move your vehicle, please remember they are simply doing their job to keep our students out of harm’s way. These measures are essential for maintaining a clear line of sight for our many walkers; please do not take these reminders personally.

We encourage walking and biking whenever possible to help reduce congestion. We truly appreciate your cooperation and your commitment to the well-being of every child in our community.

SPS asks Four Legged Friends to Stay on the Sidewalks

For safety reasons, Seattle Public Schools does ask that pups and pets remain off campus. Campus is anything on the school side of the sidewalk, but not the sidewalk itself. We appreciate your support.

Student Safety at Pick-Up

As we know, our school was not built for car traffic. All our Drop Off and Pick-Up occurs on our playgrounds. Our playground spaces are very busy during the school day! Shortly after 8:00 a.m., our preschool classrooms have the first recess of the day. At that time, they lock the Fremont Ave. gates for the duration of the school day. The final recess of the day concludes just before our dismissal bell. On Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays our preschoolers have the last recess of the day and will unlock the Fremont Ave gates for parent pickup at the conclusion of their recess.

On Wednesdays, our kindergarteners and second graders are at afternoon recess until 1:05 p.m. This recess concludes five minutes before our dismissal bell. On Wednesdays, a school staff member will unlock the gates for parent pickup when the kindergarteners and second graders are in line at the conclusion of their recess.

Our number one priority is always student safety. The Fremont Ave and Linden Ave N (steps) gates are locked during the school day. These are the gates with direct street access. There are two other gates kept open for fire exits and coming in/out of the playground.

It takes all of us working together to ensure that our students remain safe. We kindly ask parents to:

1. Wrap up playground drop off by 8:00 a.m. so that our gates can be locked for the school day. If your child arrives late to campus, please ring the buzzer at the north doors and check them in at the front office.

2. Remain outside of the playground gates until 5 minutes before dismissal. On Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday parents may enter for pickup at 2:20 p.m. On Wednesday, parents may enter for pickup at 1:05 p.m. after our students have lined up at the conclusion of recess.

3. Kindergarten and first grade parents, please wait on the sports courts by the lower playground to pick up your child. Please don’t wait in the walkway space near the railings. Our goal is to move all classroom lines to the sports courts before teachers begin the individual checkout process.

Drop Off & Pick-Up Reminders

Our school was not built for excessive car traffic. We encourage walking and biking to school. Linden Ave. (front of school) is the bus zone. Parents are not permitted to curb drop off in the bus zone. We encourage parents to park on Fremont Ave. (back of school) and walk in through playground gates. We value safety. Lots of students walk to school and come in through Fremont Ave. If you are parking, please leave extra time to find a spot. Rushed parents make poor traffic decisions.

All Pick-UP and Drop Off occurs on the playground areas. Please be on time. Wednesday is 1:10 p.m. early dismissal. M, T, Th, F school ends at 2:25 p.m. Gates will be unlocked at about 2:20 p.m.

Playground Hours & Perimeter Gates

Students are permitted to play on the playgrounds from 7:35 a.m. – 7:50 a.m. Kindergarten and first graders are permitted to play on the lower playground. Grades 2-5 are permitted to play on the upper playground. During morning drop off, students may not play outside of their grade level assigned playground. The reason for this is student safety. Thank you for your help in reminding your child where they may play in the morning. They may play on the playground, line up in their classroom area, or get breakfast in the cafeteria. Instruction begins at 7:55. Please support your child’s classroom and limit interruptions by arriving at campus on time. Thank you.

Perimeter Gates

The first bell rings at 7:50 a.m. This is when classrooms will begin moving inside for instruction. Instruction begins at 7:55 a.m. The tardy bell rings at 7:55 a.m. At about 8:00 a.m., we will lock the perimeter gates with street access (Linden Ave N. and Fremont Ave.)