Foothill Elementary

 

​​School Hours: 8:15 a.m. - 2:55 p.m.

Foothill Elementary is a successful neighborhood school with high achieving students, an involved parent community, and a committed faculty and staff. Located in northwest Boulder, Foothill has been educating children for more than half a century. Lifelong learning, academic achievement and world citizenship are integrated within the BVSD curriculum. Foothill is now able to meet the needs all students who live in our attendance area and embrace the growing cultural and linguistic diversity of our community.

Our students are supported by an array of services including Special Education, Literacy, Talente​d and Gifted, and an English ​Language Development (ELD) program as well as a great number of parent volunteers and a Community Liaison​. Our experienced staff includes six that are National Board Certified. Additionally, there are many extra-curricular and co-curricular options available to students including PE Field Fun Days, Chess Club, Trip Trac​ker (a car-free rewards program supporting our Green Star school), Student Government, Running Club, Student-Run Conflict Mediation and the Foothill Publishing Center.

Our school has been named a John Irwin School of Excellence for student achievement, a Green Star Environmental School for our waste-free recycling program and uses solar panels to generate a portion of our electricity. We are fortunate to be part of the Healthier US School Challenge program, offering a fresh salad bar every day to our students.

Foothill is proud of the partnership it has nurtured between the families it serves, the students who attend and the educators who work here. From school-wide picnics and gardening to parent/teacher committees such as SAC (School Accountability Committee) and PTO (Parent ​Teacher Organization)​, Foothill is a collaborative and vibrant learning environment. ​

Foothill Elementary offers a variety of learning environments for all students. We focus our Talented and​ Gifted (TAG) resources primarily in grades 3-5 to provide enrichment in all curricular areas. Literacy resources are available at all grade levels but heavily target students in grades K-3 to ensure that all Foothill students are literate.

Foothill has a well-equipped Library ​Media Center and a literacy resource room stocked with books to promote individualized progress in reading. Our Accelerated Reading program promotes increased student achievement opportunities. We continue to integrate technology as it becomes more readily available.

The Special Educat​ion team supports students with exceptional learning needs. The Resource and Intensive Learning Center (grades K – 5) special education teams work closely with families and other staff to ensure that the learning experience of all students is rich and meaningful.

The English Language Develpment (ELD) program and Community Liaison​ help meet the needs of students from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Foothill strives to provide equitable access to the curriculum for all learners. This is provided by an ELD teacher through small group instruction and support in the classroom. Classroom teachers utilize strategies to help make the content accessible to students learning English. The Community Liaison supports needs of the whole family and welcomes them into the Foothill community.

We offer art once per week for 50 minutes to all students. Students in grades 1-5 have 90 minutes of physical education and 90 minutes of music weekly. Kindergarten students have 45 minutes of physical education and music weekly. All students are involved in research units with our library media specialist. We offer a literacy block for students in reading and writing instruction. The Kindergarten E​​​​nric​hment program provides an alternative daycare for our kindergarten students that will enrich their kindergarten experience.

Foothill Elementary has a well-earned reputation of being a successful neighborhood school with high achieving students, an involved parent community, and a committed faculty and staff. We pride ourselves on developing both the social and academic needs of our students. Outside of teaching a comprehensive academic curriculum aligned to national standards, we develop life skills of empathy, emotion management, and problem solving on a regular basis through classroom community meetings using the social curriculum Second Step. Through our Foothill Values (Respect, Responsibility, Safety and Kindness) students are explicitly taught behavior expectations and positively rewarded with beads by all members of the school staff. Foothill believes that helping students build a strong character is just as important as developing strong literacy and math skills. The combination will produce productive world citizens.

Foothill is fortunate to have an active parent community that supports our school in many different ways. The Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) is extremely active and supports Foothill by raising money and sponsoring fun family events throughout the year such as the talent show, family game night, science fair, family heritage night and book publishing. Money that is raised goes toward operating costs, literacy tutors, extended hours for the health room para-educator, and classroom allocations for teachers. Our School Accountability Committee (SAC) is another group comprised of dedicated parents set with the charge of providing input into our unified school improvement plan and budget. This group of parents volunteers several hours a year to discuss and plan ways for improving the overall success of Foothill. Parents outside of these groups are often fou​nd in the classrooms supporting teachers and students. We have parents and family members each and every day giving back to the Foothill community by helping out the teachers and staff in whatever way is needed. It is a pleasure to be a part of such an involved community.

Our school has been named a John J. Irwin School of Excellence for student achievement and a Green Star Environmental School for our waste-free recycling program. Foothill is proud of the partnership it has nurtured between the families it serves, the students who attend, and the educators who work here. From the school-wide gardening program to parent/teacher committees such as SAC and PTO, Foothill is a collaborative and vibrant learning environment.​

​To promote, support and reinforce healthy development, quality education, social competence and responsible world citizenship in life-long-learners through a true partnership among students, parents, staff and community.