Sunset Primary School

Excellent principal, very conscientious teachers. Usual tendency of teachers (my bias) at times to be overly controlling and fussy, but I suppose some of that is needed in the early elementary grades. I am around quite a bit and it seems to me the students are happy, get along well, like going to school, and get lots of personal encouragement. Enrichment IS available after school (chess, art, theater, languages, science, math, etc). I went to private schools all my life but would never send mine to one if I could help it; local private schools are not worth the cost and bother in my opinion. If you measure academic success by this sort of thing, I can add that my oldest just graduated high school having gone though the University Place School District since second grade; she was a National Merit Finalist and is now at a top-tier school.
--Submitted by a parent

The teachers were all nice, the food was better than San Francisco schools, and the staff were always caring. The library had a wide selection of books.
--Submitted by a student

My child does nothing but worksheets all day at Sunset. We moved to UP from far away specifically because of the raves this school district gets, but we are highly disappointed. Creativity is NOT encouraged, classroom feels very negative, facility is old and outdated, and the only focus of the whole school is how many AR (reading) points you can get. No enrichment available, no themed curriculum, just lots of workbooks and worksheets. We are now going to be sending my kids to a pricey private school becuase of our disappointments w/Sunset.
--Submitted by a parent

We moved to UP from Kent as we had much misgivings about placing our son in the overall poorly-ranked Kent schools. Sunset is a great school! My kindergartener has Mrs Nielson and I absolutely adore her! She keeps in close contact with me through replying to my email promptly (she checks three times a . I volunteer in her class and marvel at the amount of love and patience she has for her charges! The kids are always learning new, interesting things and she always keeps motivation high by continually introducing various activities. I'm glad I was so fussy about which school I finally selected! The wait was worth it! I have heard great things about the principal too from other parents though I haven't interacted much with him to-date. I substitute teach at other UP schools too, and I must say, overall, it's one dynamic school district!
--Submitted by a parent