Mission

The mission of Thompson Elementary is to nurture the physical, creative, intellectual, and emotional growth of all who enter our doors. Independence, thinking, respect, and pride are developed in a child-centered environment. Thompson nurtures success!

Thompson is a place where:

• The atmosphere is safe for students, parents, teachers, and businesses to work together to produce healthy, productive members of society.
• Staff, parents, and community contribute to both social and academic learning to help students succeed in a changing world.
• Students use technology as a tool for learning and research.
• Students use a variety of methods to develop skills, problem solving strategies, and confidence in reading, writing, and math.

What Makes Us Special

Opportunity makes us special! Students have the opportunity for all-day kindergarten, Take Home Reading, Safety Patrol, Thompson Ambassadors, Cooking, battle of the Books, Math Olympiad and extra algebra classes. Sixth graders go to science camp; other classes go on field trips or have in-class visitors. We offer band, orchestra and choir.

Our new building is special. Opened in January 2006, it offers a state-of-the-art learning environment for our students to excel.

Our people make us special. We strive to help every student. We are compassionate and caring and work with our community to help our families.

Parent and Community Involvement in Learning

We have dedicated volunteers at Thompson. Each year we have more than 100 volunteers at Thompson working with students in the classroom, volunteering to work at special events, and chaperoning field trips. Our PTA has worked hard to improve our school.They provide support for field trips and assemblies. They offer eventing events and provide each teacher with classroom materials. The community actively uses our school. Groups include: Boys and Girls Club, Pierce College (GED courses), Bethel Rec and the scouts.

Raising Expectations and Standards

We have been very successful raising student achievement at Thompson. We analyze the data on Learning Improvement Days and make decisions by grade level about what to focus on or highlight. Our students are good at comprehending fictional texts. We continue to work on vocabulary and analyzing non-fiction text.

Teachers meet weekly to discuss strategies for student sucess. We have implemented the Houghton Mifflin Reading program and Everyday Math as well as Foss Science and Step Up to Writing to meet standards in the classroom.

Top-notch staff

Thompson has 31 classroom teachers. They average 12 years of teaching experience and 74 percent have a master's degree. They are joined by a wonderful support staff who have students' best interest in mind in all that they do.

Adequate Yearly Progress

Thompson did not meet adequate yearly progress (AYP), as defined by the No Child Left Behind Act. Of the 36 areas measured, the school met all but seven of the required benchmarks. AYP is determined primarily by year-to-year student achievement on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) in reading and mathematics.

Each year individual schools and the school district must "raise the bar" in gradual increments so that by 2014, 100 percent of students achieve proficiency in each subject area.

Thompson is implementing a wide variety of intervention strategies to help all students learn to their full potential.

Bethel School District

Bethel School District serves about 17,500 students in 17 elementary schools, five junior highs (with another opening its doors in 2010), three comprehensive high schools, one alternative junior high/high school, and an online academy. The district has won national awards in technology and communications, as well as state awards in professional development, energy conservation, and the arts. In addition, five district teachers have earned "Washington State teacher of the Year" in the last 25 years - more than any district in the state.

The Bethel School District covers 202-square miles in south Pierce County. The area is one of the fastest growing in the Puget Sound region. In 2006, district voters passed both a four-year levy for operations and a $175 million bond to build new schools. As part of the first phase of the bond, two elementary schools and one junior high (temporarily housing Spanaway Lake High School) were opened in September 2009.

In 2007-2008, the district's budget was $158 million, about 80 percent of which went to salaries and benefits. About 1,050 certificated staff and about 1,000 classified (support) staff work for the district. Tom Seigel joined the district in 2001 as superintendent. He previously worked in Boulder, CO as a superintendent. Prior to his work in public education, Seigel served in the U.S. Navy for 25 years, completing his military career as a Commander.