In 1996, Knute "Skip" Berger introduced PSCS co-founder, Andy Smallman, to Mike Apgar, one of the founders of the Speakeasy Café in Seattle, which was also one of the first internet cafe's in the world. Mike and Andy got along famously and immediately forged what he describes as "perhaps the most significant partnership in the school's early history."

Late in August of 1996, just before the start of the school's third year, the Democratic National Convention was to take place at the United Center in Chicago, IL. This convention was particularly exciting to Andy and Mike, as it was going to include live-streaming in those early days of the Internet. Mike offered to let PSCS students use Speakeasy's fast T-1 line to participate in the convention.

Given Chicago is two hours ahead of Seattle and the convention was going to go into the evening, they decided to let students spend the night in the café, and thus the concept of "Speakeasy Overnights" was born (these went on monthly for a couple of years).

In August of 1996, at the Speakeasy, PSCS connected & chatted with Washington State Senator Patty Murray, then in her first term, and members of her staff. PSCS received a couple of notes from Ms. Murray:

PSCS Timeline

• December, 1993 – First Organizational Meeting of PSCS
• February, 1994 – First Families Committed
• April, 1994 – PSCS Incorporated
• September, 1994 – School Opened
• October, 1994 – Granted 501(c)(3) Status by IRS
• October, 1994 – Featured in Newsweek Magazine
• September, 2001 – Became “Site-based”
  
• January, 2003 – Became a Washington State Approved Private School
• September, 2003 – Moved in to University Heights Center for the Community
• May, 2004 – Celebrated 10th Anniversary
• September, 2008 – Moved Into Current site in the C-ID
• December, 2009 – PSCS featured in Daniel Pink's book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.
• October, 2017 – Featured in the New York Times
• April, 2021 – PSCS Entered into Collaborative Leadership
• 2023-2024 – Celebrates 30 years!

Founding Families

The concept that was to become Puget Sound Community School was initially proposed in 1993 by founder and director Andrew Smallman as a middle school extension program of The Little School, a private elementary school in Bellevue, WA where Smallman was then teaching.  Responsible for many of the oldest students each year, parents regularly asked him for recommendations of where to send their children who were outgrowing the school.  Not having been comfortable with the choices available, he proposed a trial middle school program at The Little School in which a small number (less than 12) of students would have access to the library and grounds of the school but spend the bulk of their time out in the community in parks, libraries, museums, senior centers, churches, places of businesses, etc.  The learning involved would not only emerge from the students’ interests, per school philosophy, but from the locations in which the students met.  Smallman proposed that he would facilitate all aspects of the educational program.

For a number of reasons, among them a change in leadership at The Little School, the proposal was not met with enthusiasm.  Still excited by the concept himself, Smallman and his wife, Melinda Shaw, then working as the Administrative Assistant at Pacific Oaks College Northwest’s Teacher Training Program, invited parents to their home whom they thought might be interested in pursuing the idea independently.  This first organizational meeting took place in December, 1993.  At that meeting, Smallman outlined the initial weekly structure of the school – 3 days of “tutorials,” or classes, each day in a different location and using public spaces for the classrooms, one day for a whole group field trip or service project, and one day of independent study, mostly in the form of apprenticeships.  Smallman offered books on education supporting his presentation of a student-centered, non-coercive school philosophy, most prominent being those describing the Sudbury Valley School in Massachusetts.  There would be no required subjects, no tests, and no grades.  Motivation would come from inside the students instead of being forced in from the outside.  Of those parents in attendance, most enrolled their children, the first committing their intentions in February, 1994.

Over the next several months the founders group met regularly to hammer out the legal and logistic details of starting a school.  Incorporated in April, 1994 as Puget Sound Community School, a name coined by Shaw, the decision was to make use of Washington State’s liberal homeschooling laws.  Each enrolled student would be registered by her/his parents as a homeschooler and Smallman, as a certified teacher, would be responsible for their education.  In May of that year, Smallman and Shaw gave notice at their respective places of employment.

The school opened in September, 1994 with ten students, quickly adding an eleventh.  There were seven boys and four girls ranging in age from 12-14, and all but two had attended The Little School.  One of the many notable aspects of the school was Smallman’s push for each student to have a personal email address and a computer at home connected to the Internet.  Partnering first with the Washington Education Network and then with the Seattle Community Network, each student had dial-up Internet connection from home.  They regularly connected with each other and Smallman to expand what was happening when they met in person.  Online learning abounded and, in many ways, was being pioneered by PSCS.  As a result, a reporter from Newsweek magazine was dispatched to Seattle to study the school and in October, 1994 a full page article about PSCS appeared in the magazine.  Such notoriety brought international attention to the school.  Within the span of a few months PSCS was featured on a TV special in England, in an educational journal in Australia, and Smallman was a radio talk-show guest on programs in Chicago and New York.  He was commissioned to write an article for a new book on education and later asked to serve on the Advisory Board of the Alternative Education Resource Organization, a position he holds still.  The local media also took notice and PSCS was featured in the newspaper and TV news.

One result of this publicity was an outpouring of interest in enrollment.  The school hired a second teacher and expanded to 28 students for the 1995/96 school year.  By 1996/97 interest continued to grow and the school expanded to 38 students and added a second administrator to assist Shaw.  Over the next couple of years the school worked to establish a good balance of enrollment, staffing and locations.  38 students had proven to be too many for the school’s nomadic approach and staffing.  Goals defined by certain founding concepts, most notably matching interested students in apprenticeships, were not being met.  Two other major challenges continued to surface.  While the school intended to expand in age as the students got older, incorporating high schoolers, many families chose to move their children to schools in which students could earn a high school diploma (as homeschoolers, PSCS students could not).  Also, the lack of a home base was causing some projects in which students had interest, most notable art and science, to receive short shake.

The obvious solution to these problems was to become a site-based school, but such a change in practice was met with concern.  What positive things would PSCS be surrendering if it became site-based?  Did these positives outweigh the challenges of not having a site?  How would the school even afford a site?  Despite its early success, Smallman and the PSCS board were committed to keeping tuition and other costs low.  One result of this was the school not developing a reserve or “rainy day” fund.  The school, despite being recognized by the IRS as a charity, had not established an endowment or any other major giving funds.  In the midst of this, however, and in a magical way that had helped bring the school into being, a donor appeared, offering unrestricted funds that would cover the costs of rented a space.

Smallman contacted founding and current (to this day) PSCS parent David Spangler, a person known internationally for his work on awareness, mindfulness and what he calls manifestation.  Clearly, PSCS was manifesting a site but what else came with this manifestation?  Spangler facilitated a series of workshops for students, staff, board members and parents in which he helped the group conceptualize what a PSCS site might entail.  In September, 2001 the school began a year for the first time with a home base, having moved in to the old Wallingford Boys & Girls Club.  As anticipated, in manifesting a site the school manifested a number of other things, among these a leaky roof, few windows, and a girls bathroom that in January was somehow colder than the temperature outside.  Still, as was also anticipated, the positives of being site-based outweighed the negatives.  Wall space was the school’s to use, art projects abounded, the administrative staff worked at the same site as the students, among many other things.  What was clear, though, was that a different space was needed.

Over the summer of 2002 PSCS worked to personalize a small space in a newly constructed building on Capitol Hill.  Being able to design a space for specific school use was a luxury previously wished for but unrecognized.  The greatest result of the design was being able to meet the fire and health codes required for the school to become a state approved private school, a formality that took place in January, 2003.  The greatest result of this accomplishment was the school now being able to officially award high school credits and, for those students who meet the state credit minimums, a state-approved high school diploma.  But a major downside to that school year was the site just being too small for the school to comfortably exist.  Buoyed by its successes, though, PSCS looked to move into a new spot for its historic tenth year of operation.

2004

Finding a suitable space proved more difficult than first anticipated.  Ultimately, though, PSCS contracted with the University Heights Community Center Association and for the first three months of the 2003/04 school year rented space on an hourly basis, before becoming a permanent tenant in January, 2004, of the historic University Heights building in Seattle’s University District.  Celebrating its 100th year then, the building is recognized as a local landmark.  For most of its life it was a public school but was re-made into a community center, a hub of activity on the city’s famous University Way or “Ave.”  The 2003/04 school year marked more than the school’s ten year anniversary and move to University Heights, though.  Equally important, PSCS awarded diplomas to its first ever graduating class.

The 2004/05 and 2005/06 school years marked additional important growth in the school’s history.  So approved by the state, PSCS has continued its pioneering ways in how it awards high school credit.  As schools, districts and boards around the country look to move toward competence-based credit, PSCS is doing it now.  Students are able to pursue those things that interest them, both inside and outside of school, and earn high school credit for doing so.  At the start of the 2006/07 school year, 25 students are enrolled and are served by a staff of six.  The most recent teaching staff opening drew 150 applicants from all over the world.  And as ever, the school looks to move forward while continuing to honor its core principles.

Coming soon

Coming soon.