Westside School celebrates milestone year at ‘Rocketing’ auction

(Photos by John McLellan for WSB)
The theme for last night’s annual Westside School (WSB sponsor) dinner and auction was “Rocketing to a Brilliant Future” – with a school year that’s already seen milestones achieved.

The brick walls inside Showbox SODO could have been seen as an echo of the year’s biggest milestone – Westside moved into its own building, the former E.C. Hughes Elementary in Sunrise Heights.

Under head of school Jo Ann Yockey, Westside also is expanding into middle school; she is at left in the photo above as Westside’s board president Mollie Jensen. More photos ahead:

The silent and live auctions at the Westside event were not the only fundraising auctions that were part of “Rocketing to a Brilliant Future” – another auction was conducted entirely online. In person at the event venue, the traditional Dessert Dash returned – highest-bidding table getting first choice:

Unique auction items included the “handy console table” made by Sarah‘s kindergarten class:

The live auction was emceed by Westside parent Scott Schaefer:

And the paddles were raised:

We’ll be checking on the tally. Meantime, as Westside rockets into the future, their Middle School begins with sixth grade in the fall – more information here.

(required) April 3, 2011 (3:23 pm)

Nice to see a quality school in West Seattle, but too bad the prices are so steep. It does not seem fair to me that those of us who cannot afford to send kids to these “best” schools must be relegated to the whimsical, struggling, Seattle public schools. I guess one business destined to always do well is the business of education — the promise of hope for a buck. Selling parents with some cash to spare an alternative to Seattle public schools. That’s America, I guess. Divisive, classist, but America.

WSB April 3, 2011 (3:49 pm)

(req) – It is a challenging education “system” we have, no question. (Our child has been through three flavors of education – private, public, and online public. And we have found excellence and difficulty in all three.) I do want to note, though, to your first sentence, that Westside’s website indicates they have a tuition-assistance program:
http://www.westsideschool.org/admissions/aid.htm
.
TR

jbar April 3, 2011 (5:58 pm)

I’d also like to add that Westside’s tuition, compared to other local PNAIS (Pacific NW Association of Independent Schools) accredited schools, is significantly lower. In addition, the administration and board of the school work hard to keep tuition reasonable and as affordable as possible — which, I realize, is still out of reach for many families. A % of tuition incomes supports tuition assistance, and last night, our community raised an additional $44K for the tuition assistance fund.

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