For families · Grades 1–3 primary talent pool
The ALPS Program — Advanced Learning Program for Students — is enrichment, not extra school. Your child picks courses that sound interesting — cooking, filmmaking, forensics, roller coasters — and spends three November mornings actually doing them, with a teacher who volunteered to be there.
How it works
Every student takes two different courses each Saturday — one before snack, one after. Because popular courses fill, the registration form asks for four choices, and we place your child in two of them.
Sit down with your child and read through the twelve courses below. Open the details on anything that catches their eye.
Use the checkboxes as you go. Your list builds at the bottom of this page, and you can put it in the order you want.
Enter those four choices on the registration form and submit tuition by the deadline. Placement follows payment.
You'll hear which two courses your child got, along with anything to send that day, before the first Saturday.
One Saturday morning, to scale
Snack is provided — a bag of Goldfish crackers and a bottle of water. Class sizes are capped at 15, and student volunteers from our middle and high schools help in every classroom. Every student gets an ALPS t-shirt.
The course catalog
Tap Details on any course to see what happens each week, what comes home, and whether food or mess is involved.
Your list
Anything you checked above shows up here. Use the arrows to rank them — the first four are what we'll try to place, in that order. Then copy the list and take it to the registration form.
This list lives in this browser tab only — it is not sent to the school, and closing the tab clears it. Copy or print it before you go to the registration form.
Registration form: [ paste form link ] · Deadline: [ date ] · Questions: [ contact name and email ]
Questions families ask
Students in first, second, and third grade who are identified in the primary talent pool, from any school in the district. Everyone comes to the WV Intermediate campus for the three Saturdays.
All three Saturdays, both courses each morning, all materials, snack, and an ALPS t-shirt. There is nothing else to buy and nothing to send in, unless a specific course asks for something — and we'll tell you before the first Saturday if it does.
That happens, which is why the form asks for four. Cooking in particular fills almost immediately every year. Placement is by payment order, so registering early genuinely helps. We tell you which two courses your child received before the first Saturday.
Yes. Several courses involve food, and each of those is flagged in the catalog above with what's used. Snack is Goldfish crackers and water. List every allergy on the registration form — teachers receive that information before the first Saturday, and we will work with you on substitutions or steer placement away from a course that isn't a good fit.
Please plan on it. Courses build week to week — the forensics course runs one case across all three mornings, and the gift-making course finishes projects in the last session. Tuition isn't prorated for missed dates.
Doors open shortly before 9:00 and the morning ends at 12:00. Staff meet students at the door, so you don't need to park and walk in. Pickup is at the same door. If someone other than you is picking up, note it on the registration form.
District teachers who volunteered and chose their own course. Classes are capped at 15 students, and student volunteers from our middle and high schools are assigned to every classroom to help with materials and work alongside the younger students.
Comfortable clothes that can get messy. A few courses are hands-on with paint, clay, slime, or food. One course goes outside if the weather allows, so send a coat for that one. Sneakers are a good idea for the movement course.