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Private Schools Prosper

Elite schools are booming as a result of new wealth in the region, but now they face new challenges

AT ONE PRIVATE school a wealthy girl's Indian Princess group leaves school early to take off on her father's private jet for a "camping trip" to Sun Valley. At another, a worried parent asks at a preschool orientation whether all the kids in his child's class will be invited to the birthday party of a classmate whose father is a well-known billionaire. And at yet another private school, students try to guess who among the school's janitorial staff is the bodyguard of a student from a particularly prominent family.

The Puget Sound region's most prominent families have always sent their children to a handful of elite private schools. Look at present or past rolls of Lakeside, Bertschi and University Child Development School (UCDS) and you will see familiar names like Nordstrom, Pigott and Gates - the region's aristocracy. But rising wealth in the Pacific Northwest, and an accompanying sense that attendance at a particular school is an important element of social status, has led to a boom in applications to these expensive schools.

UCDS, a Seattle elementary school, received 360 applications last year for just 50 openings. (The school has capped the applicant pool at 300 this year.) Clearly, the high quality of education these schools offer is paramount. But the very competitiveness of the schools has also made them more desirable - a must-have for parents who want to give their children a head start and expand their own connections to prominent members of the community.

The schools, drawing from that growing body of millionaires, have the best of all worlds: a wide population of bright students and a solid core of wealthy parents, who are likely to become generous contributors. But the schools also face the tough dilemma of serving the needs of the wealthy parents while fulfilling broader educational ideals of equal opportunity and diversity. And how does a broadening gap between rich and poor among the student body play out in the school's quest to build a strong social and educational community?

The signs of prosperity among private schools are ubiquitous, beginning with their buildings. Many schools have recently undertaken major renovations, collectively spending tens of millions of dollars to improve facilities. UCDS' new "Labyrinth" building, a network of crawl spaces (i.e., child-size hallways) and oddly shaped, brightly colored doors leading to activity spaces, would have dazzled Lewis Carroll. The Bertschi School has grown from a couple of converted Capitol Hill houses into an entire city block, complete with gym and music and art centers. Seattle Academy of Arts and Sciences (SAAS) has expanded from one building to five in about as many years. The Bush School, Seattle Country Day School and the Northwest School have also recently undergone major renovations, much to the consternation of parents whose children have had to suffer through disruptive construction projects.

A GROWING OBSESSION

The intense interest in private schools represents, in part, disappointment with the quality of public schools in the region. But the status conferred by a school that has brandname families and is successfully placing children in top colleges is also a factor. Washingtonians haven't traditionally dwelled on a person's educational pedigree. The more important question was whether you were a Husky or a Cougar. But today, it's not unusual for parents to name-drop their kids' grammar school with the alacrity of a Boston Brahmin. Like New York's notorious academic roulette, gaining admission into a prestigious Seattle school has become an obsession with many parents. "A woman called me who was two months pregnant," says Jim Rupp, director of admissions at SAAS, which had 250 applicants for 50 sixth-grade spots in 2007. "She wanted me to recommend a preschool that would get her kid into a 'feeder' elementary school to eventually gain admission into our middle school."

Rupp says his greatest fear is the westward migration of the attitude among many parents that "since we're paying so much for this education, you as teachers are beholden to us and must alter your approach (and pad our child's grades) as we see fit."

School administrators face other challenges as well. A few years ago, when the Gateses chose a progressive urban school over the more traditional school everyone had expected, that school saw a sharp rise in popularity. Educators say they make a great effort to weed out parents who seem to be choosing a school mostly because of the famous families connected to it rather than for the kind of education the school offers.

THE DIVERSITY CHALLENGE

"I tell parents the first time they visit that we are a lab school with an evolving curriculum," says UCDS Head of School Paula Smith. "I make sure they understand that UCDS isn't for everybody and that we're not going to change for anybody."

An important emerging challenge for many of the elite schools is their effort to satisfy the demand for a better educational experience, with quality overseas trips and state-of-the-art technology, and meet challenging goals of enrolling more low income and minority students. At Lakeside, students of color now make up 42 percent of the student body.

"You can't call yourself an academically excellent institution without a broad diversity within the school," explains Lakeside Head of School Bernie Noe. "We are fortunate that our donors applaud this direction, even though it may ultimately decrease the admissions opportunities for their own children and grandchildren." Lakeside has raised $91 million of its $105 million goal in its current fundraising campaign. Of the total, $45 million will be set aside for financial aid.

At Bertschi, 10 percent of tuition payments goes directly to financial aid, says Brigitte Bertschi, founding director of the Bertschi School. Bertschi says parents are very supportive of the policy. "We have set a definite mission to diversify, and we are fortunate to attract a community who embraces it," she says.

Money from wealthy parents is helping these schools get closer to the goal that many private schools have set for themselves: to accept students based on ability, regardless of their income or race.

Extracurricular activities (including trips abroad) and fees (both Lakeside and SAAS have mandatory laptop programs) are now covered as a part of financial aid, a significant change that makes life easier for children of lower income families.

In order to improve the quality of the experience for lower income students, SAAS gives more aid to each recipient. The result is that only 17 percent of its students now get financial aid, down from 20 percent. Says Rupp: "The fear is the high and low ends squeeze out the middle."

Middle-class families that do choose to send their children to these elite schools will sometimes face substantial sacrifices in other discretionary opportunities. Pressed even to make monthly tuition payments, they are often unable to afford the thousands of additional dollars required to send their children on overseas trips. Often parents don't have any time left to volunteer, an important facet of inclusion in the school's parent culture, because of their work demands.

"I actually see a decline in involvement for many of our parents," observes Leslie Redd, admissions director at The Evergreen School in Shoreline. "They want to participate, but they are both working so hard, in part to afford tuition, that they simply don't have as much time."

And some parents say the wide gap in wealth between the poorest and richest students can be difficult for some students.

"If parents want to take their students out of school early to fly off to Sun Valley, it's their business," says one teacher. "The problem I have is with the hurt feelings of the children who are still sitting in my classroom, painfully aware that they are not members of the club."

Crai Bower, a Seattle-based journalist, taught at a private school for ten years.

 

School	Annual Tuition	Acceptance Rate (%)	Minority Student Population (% of student body)	Financial Aid Recipients (% of student body)
Bertschi	$16,755	31	25	15
Bush (Upper School)	$22,000	40	24	15
Evergreen	$15,700	33	23	10
Lakeside (Upper School)	$22,160	22	42	25
Northwest	$20,880	38	32	15
SAAS	$21,054	20	25	17
UCDS	$16,888	17	20	20
Annie Wright	$17,955	82	39	22