Practice Integrity. Engage the Community. Act with Courage.

Where We Are

PSCS exists on unceded Duwamish and Coast Salish land. Most of our forebears violently displaced, terrorized, and lied to the Indigenous people who had prospered here for thousands of years. Indigenous American people’s survival today is the testament to their true power. The violent colonization and enslavement of Indigenous, Black, and Brown people continued over the next 400 years, and continues to this day.

PSCS also exists in Seattle’s third Chinatown-International District (C-ID), which allows us so many opportunities to learn and understand Seattle's deep history of Asian-American creativity, contribution, and expansion—as well as the one hundred and fifty years of violence against Asian-American families, and the forcible removal and incarceration of 125,000 people of Japanese descent under FDR’s Executive Order 9066.

Some of the most important work we can do together at PSCS is to appreciate and educate ourselves about the history that surrounds us and the land we thrive on. We can take action in many ways and it remains the intention of our staff to consistently contribute and seek opportunities to build partnerships in the neighborhood and in the region.

We continue to add to our list of local support and volunteer opportunities and appreciate when friends and families share new ideas and additions.

mission

Community-centered education for our collective liberation.

collaborative vision

Founded in 1994, Puget Sound Community School (PSCS) is a small, private, middle and high school located in the Chinatown-International District of Seattle. PSCS is committed to centering intentionally excluded perspectives in curriculum and programming. With Critical Race Theory, intersectionality, and collaboration framing our approach, community-centered education also prioritizes the lived experience of our global majority students and staff, while offering young people opportunities to take increasing responsibility for your own education.

At PSCS, we believe that by fostering curiosity, offering opportunities for young people to lead (and opportunities to understand there are many forms of leadership), while continuously addressing systemic racism and misogyny, we will all be more empowered to move bravely through an uncertain world and toward our shared liberation.

Collaborative Scheduling & Advising

PSCS students meet weekly with their Advisors (usually members of the Teaching Staff) to set individual academic and community goals, and check in on progress. Then, before the start of each term, we come together and collaborate as a community to co-create the term's course schedule (see Schedule Mapping).

Once the schedule has been created, all students must meet each facilitator’s engagement expectations and at least 70% attendance in order to have them transcripted for Credit/No Credit, which are included in term in a narrative report that documents a students trajectory through middle and high school (these also include staff reflections and student Self Reflections).

This cooperative process provides the arena in which students learn to plan and advocate for classes they want or need, to structure their schedules around their interests, goals, and priorities, and to be sensitive to the scheduling needs of others. We think this process sends young people out into the world who are more able to prioritize, self- and community-advocate, and with heightened Executive Function skills.

Collaborative Leadership

In an effort to build upon the equitable vision of the school, PSCS parents, staff, and the Board of Trustees agreed in 2021 to invest in a more intentionally hierarchical administration and leadership, rather than in a traditional Head of School or ED. PSCS is run by a collaborative staff with a collective 100+ years of experience in student support, identity development, intersectional and creative facilitation, non-profit and private school administration, which is underscored by a commitment to Abolitionist Teaching rooted in Critical Race Theory and a more complete historical framework.

Students who fully embrace the program offered at PSCS show consistent progress in self-expression, leadership, and skill-building in almost any endeavor, and start to recognize they are part of something bigger than themselves.

core commitments

evolving pedagogy

At PSCS we begin with Critical Race Theory as the foundation of our approach to teaching and learning. We strive to frame all curriculum and programs in abolitionist teaching, as defined by Dr. Bettina Love, and the Abolitionist Teaching Network “teaching with the goal of intersectional social justice for equitable classrooms that love and affirm Black and brown children.”

At this point, anyone in the world may claim their understanding of Dr. Love’s definition. Every one of us is adapting to a fast moving, post-pandemic reality that more fully destroyed the thin facade of equity in this country. Young people have more access than ever before to global insights, un-selfconscious verbiage, and both checked and unchecked data. PSCS staff do not pretend to have all the answers for reaching true equity and harnessing the power of such access. But we do commit to collaborating on behalf of all students, and to trusting deeply in the experience and expertise of the people in the building who are most qualified to frame our goals around what we know and understand of the students and staff in this community.

Academically, PSCS prioritizes offering students opportunities and guidance, responsibility and feedback. Opportunities arise as courses, activities, Schedule Mapping, conflict resolution, Seminars, Community Time, Advising, leadership, Intensives and Independent Study. Guidance from staff and Advisors is meant to help hold you accountable to your choices and to assume, regardless of skill and neurodivergence, we can all do hard things. Guidance and accountability are not one size fits all. They are collaboratively tailored to individual student needs, and the needs of the community, as we grow to understand them in our space.

In most schools, academic rigor is determined by the pace each student sets over time, in competition with their peers, often based on heavily biased standards. Because we intentionally work to explore bias, and to consider jobs and paths that haven’t even been imagined yet, traditional STEM academics are only part of the PSCS student experience.

At PSCS we hear, we respond, we offer, we have fun, we try everything. And we do it together. We are committed to challenging each other and our students to be collaborative and expansive in our pursuit of deeper learning, intersectional social justice, and ending systemic racial violence.

schedule mapping (pscs collaborative schedule process)

Three times per school year—Fall Term, Winter Term, and Spring Term—students and staff build and finalize the coming term’s course schedule (example).

Prior to each term, staff outline a Bell Schedule, gather interests and needs from students, through Advising and group process, then staff, volunteers, and even students pitch classes both in person and via the PSCS Current Course Blog. Students then prioritize and rank preferences through an online Stickering Process, and then the Conflict Resolution Team (made up of mostly students) works to eliminate as many schedule conflicts as possible. Schedule Mapping culminates in 2-3 sessions of a whole school process to move and shift class times and create a schedule that takes into consideration everyone's priorities and desires.

Various supports are available for all students through this process, which can be challenging, but which we believe sets young people. Advisors are present to support you through this core function at PSCS, and new students get extra support during this process from returning student buddies.

(The Current Course Blog is wiped after each term begins. If it's empty, please check out the PSCS Class Blog Archive.)

goals & strategies

In January of 2020, PSCS underwent a large community planning process and identified our major Goals & Strategies, 2020-2025. We continue to be guided by these intentions.

Goal 1 —The Student Experience

In 2025, PSCS will be at the forefront of progressive education and a home for passionate and collaborative learners and educators.

In order to achieve these goals, we will…

Build adaptive structures that support personal and academic growth for all students.
Foster a culture of immersive learning.
Develop and implement a compelling and well-balanced program that increases options and supports diverse graduation outcomes.
Inspire and guide students to pursue their own learning.
Invest in ongoing professional development and experiences for staff.

Goal 2 —The PSCS Community

In 2025, PSCS’s empathetic culture of diversity and belonging is reflected by the positive impact our students have on their present and future communities.

In order to achieve these goals, we will...

Expand student self-advocacy, collaboration, and engagement in all aspects of the PSCS community.
Strengthen systems to support the health and wellness of students and staff.
Increase the diversity of the Board of Trustees.
Foster an inclusive and relational culture where every student is actively engaged as a leader and a learner.
Clarify frameworks for equity, conflict resolution, and communication.

Goal 3—PSCS is the Preferred Choice for Progressive Education

In 2025, PSCS is the preferred choice for families seeking a self-driven education with structured community support.

In order to achieve these goals, we will...

Build external and internal awareness and appreciation of PSCS’ value in progressive education.
Cultivate thoughtful growth to a size that expands diversity while maintaining community.
Recruit, enroll, and retain a diverse student body using traditional and innovative methods.
Expand resources to allow people of diverse backgrounds to have equal voice, opportunities, and access to learning.

statement of non-discrimination

Puget Sound Community School (PSCS) invites the participation of all people, welcoming students, teachers, families, and volunteers of any racial, national, religious, or ethnic origin, from all backgrounds, belief systems, orientations, and expressions. PSCS is actively working to analyze and account for power, positionality, intersectionality, and oppression. Lived experience is prioritized in admissions, staffing, and community efforts.

private school approval

Featured Profile

Deb Schaack

PSCS friend, past staff-, board- member, and volunteer, Deb Schaack, first got involved with PSCS in 1997 after completing a year of service with AmeriCorps. Deb taught at the school for nine years before becoming an entrepreneur. She ran Central Physical Therapy & Fitness, with her partner, Jutta, for many years before they both retired and moved to Port Townsend.

Identifying the highlight of her time at PSCS is not easy.

“As anybody who’s been involved with PSCS for any stretch of time will tell you, it’s very difficult to pick out just one memorable moment. It’s more like a stream of moments. A few that come to mind: sitting motionless with a couple students on a backpacking trip as we watch an obviously just-born fawn try out her legs . . . walking through freezing rain on a peace walk chanting with monks . . . working with students to create an in-school snack store.”