Key Facts
Black Pine Circle School
Lower School
125
students
6:1
student-faculty ratio
Upper School
199
students
7:1
student-faculty ratio
Whole School
21
typical class size
324
students
100%
students learn Spanish in grades K-5
(grades 6-8 choose Spanish or Mandarin)
Full-Time Teaching Assistants
in EVERY classroom, grades K-5
Whole Child Approach
social and emotional learning curriculum, including Responsive Classroom, Kimochis, Second Step, advisories, and buddies
Student Support Services
learning specialists and school counselors
Outstanding Campus Facilities
music, art, and drama, new science and maker space, climbing wall, and athletic field
Where do our graduates go to high school?
About half of each graduating class goes on to public high school. Others choose independent or parochial schools. All have excellent choices!
Three-year average 2020-2022 graduating classes
Diversity by the Numbers
who identify as people of color
who identify as people of color
who identify as people of color
born outside the US
in the student body
percent of families
* self-identified; most facts as of Sept 2022
Every day, Black Pine Circle School’s teachers put the nurturing of young minds at the center of their personal mission. Our talented faculty bring a wealth of personal interests and skills to their classrooms: they are poets and songwriters, makers and artists, ultramarathoners and Olympic swimmers.
46
faculty
1850
aggregate hours of
professional development
How Our Faculty Hone Their Craft
Black Pine Circle School is as committed to encouraging lifelong learning in its faculty and administration as it is to encouraging its students to be lifelong learners.
Each year, we invest over $100,000 in workshops and training, both on site and by sending faculty and staff to important local and national conferences. Providing teachers and administrators with the opportunity for professional growth and personal development is key to their retention and job satisfaction. It is also an important component of what drives BPC to improve its program year after year.
- Art and Curriculum Design at SFSU
- Autism, Asperger’s, Sensory Processing Disorder, and ADHD
- Bay Area Teachers Development Collaborative Training
- Bridges in Mathematics
- Computer Using Educators
- Contexts for Learning Mathematics
- Council in Schools | The Ojai Foundation
- Differentiated Instruction Training
- Exploratorium: Summer Institute for Teachers
- FabLearn Conferences
- Gender Spectrum Train the Trainers
- Gettysburg College (NEAH workshop)
- Gilder-Lehrman Institute of American History
- Learning and the Brain Conference
- Lucy Calkins: The Reading and Writing Project
- Maker Ed Convening
- National Council for Teachers of Mathematics Conference
- Orff-Schulwerk Association
- Origins: Developmental Designs
- People of Color Conference
- reMAKE Education
- Responsive Classroom
- Socratic Seminars International
- SXSW Edu
- Teach21
- Teaching for Social Justice
- Women Rising, Honing Leadership
- Art and Curriculum Design at SFSU
- Autism, Asperger’s, Sensory Processing Disorder, and ADHD
- Bay Area Teachers Development Collaborative Training
- Bridges in Mathematics
- Computer Using Educators
- Contexts for Learning Mathematics
- Council in Schools | The Ojai Foundation
- Differentiated Instruction Training
- Exploratorium: Summer Institute for Teachers
- FabLearn Conferences
- Gender Spectrum Train the Trainers
- Learning and the Brain Conference
- Lucy Calkins: The Reading and Writing Project
- Maker Ed Convening
- National Council for Teachers of Mathematics Conference
- Orff-Schulwerk Association
- Origins: Developmental Designs
- People of Color Conference
- reMAKE Education
- Responsive Classroom
- Socratic Seminars International
- SXSW Edu
- Teach21
- Teaching for Social Justice
- Women Rising, Honing Leadership
50%
faculty with advanced degrees
10.5
average years
teaching at our school
19.5
average years
teaching experience
Paths of Belonging
74
upper schoolers in sports teams playing co-ed basketball, volleyball, and soccer
15
consecutive years
All-Star Mathletes
73
students
played violin & cello
59
students in our
band program
62+
students who joined the Maker Club and ran booths at the East Bay Mini-Maker Faire & Bay Area Maker Faire
4
chickens hatched on campus and living
in coop built by students, parents and faculty
600,000
words collectively written by 67 students during National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)
