New private preschool geared toward gifted children opening in downtown Tacoma
A private school in Browns Point is expanding its campus downtown, opening a new early-learning center.
Seabury School, 1801 53rd St. NE, is catered toward gifted kids and serves students from pre-K through eighth grade.
The new preschool is at 925 Court C, and faculty members hope to open the doors on Monday.
The school is enrolling for May and June, a sort of test run before the full school year starts later this year.
“It’s: Try Seabury, without the long-term commitment,” said Katy Moon, a Seabury teacher and the preschool’s site director.
For May and June, tuition is $2,000 a month for full-day school and $1,500 a month for half-day school. For a full year, tuition is $22,904 for full-day school and $18,584 for half-day.
The preschool will be in line with Seabury’s small class sizes at its main campus, enrolling a maximum of 20 children.
Seabury was founded in Tacoma in 1989 and credits itself as the only independent school in the south Puget Sound area with “programs specifically designed for gifted kids” in pre-K through eighth grade.
How does Seabury define gifted?
“It’s an unfortunate name … because it’s so misunderstood,” Moon said. “A gifted student is someone that can behave typically and learn typically in some areas, that often has an area that is extraordinary.”
Moon gave the example of a classroom of children learning the numbers 1 through 10, but one child can roll 12 dice and quickly add them in their head, or another child who can read a book about the periodic table and actually understand it.
No testing is required to enroll at Seabury — parents can usually pick up signs of giftedness in their children, according to Rob Scotlan, Seabury head of school.
“Families sort of know their kid, know that their kid has something going on beyond sort of the typical experience, and then they find us,” Scotlan said.
While Moon and Scotlan acknowledged that neurodivergent children can take on some of these traits, Moon said Seabury is more equipped for neurodivergent children who “can communicate in a way that this is a safe environment for them.”
Seabury has resources like headphones for children who are sensitive to noise, or speech-to-text tools for children who have trouble with fine motor skills.
The preschool in downtown Tacoma used to be a middle school campus for Seabury, before the school consolidated its campuses in 2024.
Moon and Scotlan said they were motivated to turn the space into a preschool so that younger kids could take advantage of what downtown Tacoma has to offer.
They plan to go to the Children’s Museum of Tacoma for “alternative recess,” visit a nearby indoor skate park, take field trips to the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium and partner with the nearby Tacoma School of the Arts, among other ideas.
Some students have enrolled for the May and June session, Scotlan said, and they plan to admit students on a first come, first served basis. Families are required to tour the space as part of admissions.
“I think our superpower is that we really meet the children where they are … Our goal is to take them as far as they can go,” Moon said.
