St. John Catholic School is a Greenwood / Phinney Ridge parish school operating under the Archdiocese of Seattle, opened on September 5, 1923 by the Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The centennial in 2023 included alumni tours, a student-curated Walk Through Time museum, and a visit from Mayor Bruce Harrell. Enrollment runs around 530 students in PreK through 8 — the largest Catholic K-8 in north Seattle.
Among Seattle Catholic elementary schools, the comparable parish-school peer set includes Assumption-St. Bridget in the View Ridge / Wedgwood corridor (~550 students, 18:1 ratio), Saint Joseph School on Capitol Hill, and Holy Family in West Seattle. Villa Academy in Laurelhurst — which has Catholic roots but operates as an independent school — sits adjacent to this set but at much smaller scale (~175 students, 10:1 ratio) with higher tuition. St. John's distinguishing feature is the Fair Share tuition program, which uses parish and donor support to keep Catholic education accessible and to sustain socioeconomic diversity at a north Seattle private-school scale.
The curriculum includes physical education, music, library, art, and Spanish across all grades, plus middle-school robotics, chess, drama, and athletics. The school is WCEA accredited and shares its 79th Street campus with St. John the Evangelist Parish; graduates feed into Seattle's Catholic high schools at high acceptance rates.
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