Pioneer Elementary Enrollment

PIONEER ENROLLMENT LOTTERY FOR 2023-2024 HAS CONCLUDED. 

April 2023

A Message to Potential Pioneer Families-

We appreciate your interest in Pioneer Elementary and your submission for consideration through our lottery process. In an effort to be transparent and keep you updated on current enrollment, we would like to share the number of spaces determined to be open in next week's lottery:

Kindergarten: 43 open spots
2nd Grade: 12 open spots
3rd Grade: 4 open spots

Due to current enrollment and some grades being at capacity, we will not be accepting any 1st, 4th, or 5th grade students at this time. Students in those grades will be automatically placed on the waitlist for possible future consideration.

We do understand this can cause a hardship for families with multiple students and possibly juggling two schools, should one sibling be placed and not another. With this information, if your family chooses to withdraw your enrollment interest, please let us know via email to martina@psd401.net, allowing space and opportunity to those who could take advantage of those open spots.

We appreciate your understanding and partnership as we work to place as many families as possible through this process. Please let us know if you have questions.


HOW TO APPLY FOR ENROLLMENT LOTTERY AT PIONEER: 

  • Go to PSD401.net
  • Select "ENROLLMENT"
  • Log in if you are a current or previous PSD student, or create an account if you are new
  • Select "PIONEER INTEREST ENROLLMENT FORM" 
  • Complete the form with your child's information, legal residential address, and a date of birth that is at least age 5 by August 31, 2023. 

If you need any support, please call our front office at 253.530.3500. 


If you missed our information session on March 2nd, and want to learn more about our school and learning community check out our video recording HERE


Enrollment for Pioneer Elementary STEAM School -ENROLLMENT INTEREST WILL ONLY BE OPEN FOR TWO WEEKS THIS YEAR. The enrollment interest process will close on Friday, March 31st at 9PM.

WHY A NEW PLATFORM? 

We want to work smarter, not harder! We learned that Powerschool, our district enrollment data system, has a platform that allows school districts to run a lottery. Using this platform would keep all student data centralized and allow us to more easily align and vet the data being presented for the lottery. Due to its automation, it leaves less room for error and supports our front office with the clerical work to ensure we get students properly enrolled in a timely manner. 

HOW IS THIS PLATFORM DIFFERENT THAN IN THE PAST?

There are only three changes noticeable to families, but significant improvements to the staff behind the scenes:

  1. The program will run automatically, there will be no “live” viewing of the lottery balls being drawn at Pioneer. 

  2. There is no public facing call order until after the process is complete; which is much quicker than drawing lottery balls one by one. 

  3. Each STUDENT will receive a lottery number, opposed to one per family; however, the system links students in the same family together. For example, a family has a 2nd grader and a 4th grader. The 2nd grader is assigned #7 and the 4th grader is assigned #89. The lottery process pulls #89. It will automatically attached the sibling, #7.  If space allows at those grades, both children will be accepted into enrollment. If there is no space at either grade, both siblings will be waitlisted. If there is space at one grade, but not the other, the family will have to choose if they wish to accept or decline enrollment for one child. 

WHAT WILL BE THE SAME AS THE PREVIOUS PROCESS?

  • Families will express interest in Pioneer using a modified enrollment form, this year through PowerSchool

  • Interest will be open for two weeks

  • After closing, families will be notified via email regarding their lottery numbers and details of the upcoming lottery

  • The lottery will occur (hopefully between mid-march and mid-April)

  • After the lottery, families will receive communication of acceptance or waitlist status and directions for acceptance 

  • Families will then have 2 business days to accept or decline enrollment into Pioneer via electronic acceptance 

  • Our community events! See below. 

HOW WILL THE NEW UPDATES BE COMMUNICATED?

Pioneer and PSD will communicate updates regarding Pioneer Enrollment process through multiple avenues, to include Social Media, Pioneer’s Website, and ParentSquare messages to elementary families. Do you know families interested in attending Pioneer that are not yet connected to PSD? Please encourage them to follow our social media accounts and our website for most update to date information on enrollment. 

OTHER CHANGES TO PIONEER ENROLLMENT PROCESS

  • Moving forward, we will be accepting enrollment based on proportional rates from each of Peninsula School District’s residential schools. For example, a PSD neighborhood elementary school with 220 students would have a cap for Pioneer enrollment that would be half the cap number of a school with 440 students.  The purpose of this is to avoid impacting some neighborhood schools disproportionately by students moving to Pioneer.   

  • We will be monitoring student program placement following Board Policy 3130: In-District Student Transfers. For example, we will be monitoring capacity in our special education and related services during the enrollment lottery, ensuring adequate space, staffing, and support for students in those special programs.

Questions about Pioneer or the enrollment process?

Phone:
253-530-3500

Email: 
Pioneer@psd401.net