Fife School District Calendar 2026-2027

A district art show and Culture Con can bring families from Fife, Milton and Edgewood into the same room. Those events express the central character of Fife Public Schools: roughly 3,900 students share a district small enough to describe itself as a place where “everybody knows your name,” yet large enough to support arts, athletics, academics and career education comparable to much bigger neighbors.

Students reach that shared identity through an unusual progression. One elementary route moves from Discovery Primary in Milton to Hedden Elementary in Edgewood; another remains at Fife Elementary through fifth grade. The routes meet at Surprise Lake Middle School for grades six and seven, continue to Columbia Junior High for grades eight and nine, and arrive at Fife High School in grade ten. The repeated movement between cities makes transportation and school transitions part of family life, while the later grades gather the district into a single cohort.

Fife High provides the comprehensive center for college preparation, music, theater, athletics, clubs and career and technical learning. Ninth-graders begin high-school credit at Columbia Junior High, so academic planning starts before students reach the high-school campus. The layered structure could feel fragmented, but community events and the common secondary pathway give it continuity. Fife balances the familiarity of a hometown school system with the opportunities and cultural range of a district positioned among several growing Puget Sound cities.