Tours

School Tours • Excursiónes de Escuela

Welcome, and thank you for considering Alvarado Elementary School! Alvarado is a dual-immersion, TK-5th grade school offering a wide variety of academic and special enrichments enhanced by a strong PTA and tremendous support from our parents, teachers, and administrators. 

Families can choose from four student programs at Alvarado: Spanish Immersion (K-5), General Education (K-5), Transitional Kindergarten (students who turn age 5 between September 2, 2024-June 2, 2025 are eligible) and our Special Day Classes (K-5). 

Please click here to learn more about our beloved school and enjoy the following videos illustrating our love and appreciation for our Alvarado community. 

 

We are thrilled to offer in-person school tours for prospective families. Tours will be held on most Wednesday mornings from 8:30-9:30 a.m. PST October 2023 – January 2024. No tours will be offered during and immediately following the Thanksgiving and Winter holiday weeks. Tour dates are as follows: October 4, October 18, November 1, November 15, December 6, December 20, January 17, and January 31.

SFUSD centralizes tour registration and expects to open the signup form on October 1, 2023.  Please check this website for more details: 

Sign Up for a School Tour! | SFUSD

Once registration opens, select Alvarado Elementary and your specific tour date can be selected from the dropdown menu.  Tours tend to fill quickly, so please be flexible about your preferred date.

Please note that once a tour is full, that date will no longer be offered in the dropdown menu.  We look forward to introducing you to our school where our long tradition of celebrating diversity and creative arts provides a vibrant and inclusive learning environment for our students and families

 

During a tour, you will learn about academics and social emotional learning at Alvarado, receive an inside look at several grade-level classrooms (with an emphasis on TK and Kindergarten), hear directly from student ambassadors, and learn about before and after school care options. 

We are also excited to share with you our unique enrichment programs including year-round science lab, instrumental learning in music, computer lab, a bilingual school library, take-home book bags, ceramics, hand-painted murals, year-round multicultural celebrations, family social events, and much, much more!

 

 

We hope these wonderful offerings, in addition to our friendly and supportive community, will keep Alvarado as a top choice during your enrollment process.

We hope to see you on a tour this Fall/Winter!

~Alvarado PTA

Please do not call the school, as tour reservations and inquiries are handled online via SFUSD. If you have any questions about tours at Alvarado, please feel free to contact our school PTA, president@alvaradoschool.net.

 

Additional Information

Enrollment

Enrollment at all San Francisco public schools, including Alvarado, is handled by San Francisco Unified School District’s Educational Placement Center (EPC). Online and paper applications for the 2024-2025 school year will be available starting on October 20, 2023. Please note that admission to Alvarado’s General Education and Spanish Immersion programs is handled as two separate programs by the EPC.  Please also note that while the longstanding lottery tiebreakers and other criteria for admission to grades K-5 are unchanged from previous years, criteria for TK admission were changed this year.  See this website for more details:

 Changes to Transitional Kindergarten assignment policy | SFUSD

Applications for the 2024-2025 school year will be due on February 2, 2024 and placement decisions will be announced the week of March 18, 2024. Alvarado will host tours for admitted students in late March/early April 2024 as well as playdates for incoming students in Summer 2024.

Please check the SFUSD website for the latest and most accurate information about enrollment and the admissions process for the 2024-2025 school year, https://www.sfusd.edu/schools/enroll.  

 

After School Programs

Mission Graduates provides onsite aftercare at Alvarado, however, many of our students also attend offisite programs offered through SF Parks & Recreation and other nonprofit/private providers, including Boys & Girls’ Club, Eureka Valley Arts, Aventuras, and more. Enrollment deadlines for after school care will vary based on the organization but typically takes place during the summer. Contact each program directly for more information and to confirm their deadlines for 2023-24 enrollment. Please note that space is limited in these programs, including in Mission Graduates, and parents are advised to explore multiple aftercare options. 

Extracurricular Programs

Many of our students participate in after school sports and other extracurricular programs with their Alvarado friends. These activities, such as soccer and baseball teams, Girl/Boy Scouts, choir, Rock Band Land and art clubs, are typically organized and shared by Alvarado families via ParentSquare, our Alvarado school communications platform (mobile/desktop application). Families that register to attend Alvarado will receive information to join the Alvarado ParentSquare group so they can receive these updates and connect with our school community. 

There are opportunities to enroll in activities throughout the year, however, please note that the deadlines to register sports teams with San Francisco-based clubs usually occur 6+ months (e.g. the deadline to register for Fall soccer teams takes place the Spring prior). Our community is as inclusive as possible but students that enroll late or transfer in early in the fall may miss some deadlines. 

Resources

The non-profit group Parents for Public Schools is a network of public school parents (not funded by the school district), which hosts enrollment workshops throughout the city. The organization is a great resource for navigating the enrollment process.