Lake Washington bond likely to fail
February 17, 2010
Although winning a solid majority, the Lake Washington School District’s proposed $234 million bond issue seems headed for failure.
As of Feb. 12, the bond had received 55.6 percent of the vote. As a bond measure, it needs to win 60 percent to pass.
Across King County there were 31 school levy votes and three bond measures proposed. Lake Washington’s bond is the only one that seems poised to fail. Some mail-in ballots are still being counted. Results will not be final and official until Feb. 24. Read more
Library vote ahead barely, school levies look to pass, Lake Washington bond in trouble
February 9, 2010
New: Feb. 9, 9:32 p.m.
A vote to increase the tax levy for libraries is tightly contested after the first round of ballots were released by King County Elections.
After the first round of ballots were released Feb. 9, the vote is 50.5 percent – 49.5 percent in favor on raising the tax. Read more
Sammamish Forum February 10
February 9, 2010
Why the wetlands closed
Room 5 fourth-graders at Discovery Elementary are working on a project to help a bird called the killdeer nest successfully in the Discovery wetland. We have done some important things to help the killdeer.
One big thing we did is talk to Keith Simmonds, the head of the Issaquah School District maintenance department. Our class made a list of questions to ask him. Some of the questions included locking the public gate and getting informational signs and garbage cans.
As a result of this meeting we have now locked the public gate and posted “No Dogs” signs. We locked the public gate because when people come into the wetland, they bring their dogs.
The reason dogs are a problem is because killdeer nest on the ground where dogs run. We got “No Dogs” signs because dogs are destroying the Killdeer nests.
This does not mean that you cannot visit the wetland. It just means you cannot bring your dogs. You can still access the wetland through the school gate.
We hope the community understands why we did this. We want to help the killdeer that are an important part of the ecosystem.
Discovery Elementary Room 5 Fourth Graders
Patriotism does not require belief in a god
Marvin Taylor wrote in his letter in the Feb. 3 issue of the Review “To the few that hold to the religion of atheism, … they show a marked level of rudeness, ignorance and insensitive behavior attacking our founders and forefathers for allowing us to live such a wonderful free existence to become all that we can.”
Marvin, you and I appear to have something in common. I am a patriotic citizen of America. I served in the U.S. Military and show the American flag in front of my house. I always vote and am an active participant in local and national politics. I feel the patriotic sentiments that you mention well up inside when I recite the Pledge of Allegiance or stand with my hand over my heart when the American flag is paraded by.
A difference between us, reading between the lines of your article is that I believe in one less god than you do. In other words, I have no belief in a god, while you happen to believe in one out of the tens of thousands of available gods.
Atheism is nothing more than a lack of belief in a god. It is not a religion — it has no membership rules, meetings or ritual.
By my own example, a citizen can be very patriotic without believing in a god. Our founding fathers knew this and provided for a separation of the two realms within our constitution.
The Pledge of Allegiance is not based upon our constitution, but is rather an oath of loyalty composed in 1892. The words ‘under God’ were added much later, in 1954.
So, I encourage you to respect the freedoms granted to us by the constitution and to recognize that patriotism and atheism are not mutually exclusive.
Michael J. O’Connell
Sammamish
Math curriculum should go
Dear school board,
I am a parent to two children in Discovery Elementary. I have had the misfortune of being the victim of the Everyday Math adoption, which I can personally testify was extremely confusing for both of my children.
I have had to do an astonishing amount of remedial tutoring at home, an experience that seems to be widely shared by parents across the district. The areas which I have had to do the least tutoring have been the ones where teachers seems to have bravely bypassed
Now we are likely to experience the same in middle & high school based on the district’s plan to adopt “Discovering Math”. As you know this program has been rejected by Washington State Board of Education as “mathematically unsound.” It has now been questioned by the King County Superior Court.
Curricula should not be adopted based on the opinions of self-appointed “experts,” but instead on hard evidence, plenty of which is now available, and which clearly indicates that this discovery-based style of math education simply does not work and, in fact, leads to significant declines in math ability and test scores.
It is worth mentioning that the Issaquah School District adoption committee consists entirely of district teachers, with no parent representation and no independent outside voice at all.
For instance, professors at the University of Washington are finding their incoming students stunningly deficient in math. An adoption committee that included a UW science or math professor would be less insular and more open to criticism.
After all the quality of a curriculum cannot be measured by introspection, but only by the final product, namely what are the math abilities of the Issaquah district high school graduate.
This is something that can (and has been) measured, but plays no role in the adoption committee’s thinking.
The job of the school board is to represent the students, parents and taxpayers of the district, not entrenched vested interests pushing a discredited dogma. Please do your job and put a stop to this runaway train.
Arul Menezes
Sammamish
Third Issaquah School District levy would fund critical repairs and technology
January 26, 2010
The Issaquah School District is seeking voter approval of three levies, including a capital levy for critical repairs and technology.
If approved, the levies would supplement the district’s budget with more than $214 million by 2014.
The four-year $38.4 million capital levy would make repairs to school buildings and maintain and purchase technological equipment. Read more
Issaquah’s transportation levy would buy school buses
January 19, 2010
One of the three levies on the Feb. 9 ballot is a request from the Issaquah School District to replace school buses.
The one-year $1.7 million transportation levy would be used to purchase 41 school buses by 2014. If approved, property owners would pay 9 cents per $1,000 assessed valuation. The last transportation levy, passed in 2006, provided the district with $2.8 million to purchase 36 large and 12 small buses. Read more
Issaquah School District asks for $172.5 million for mainteinance and operations levy
January 13, 2010
Issaquah School District has three levy requests before voters Feb. 9, each a replacement levy that would supplement the schools’ budget with more than $214 million by 2014 if voters approve it.
A $172.5 million maintenance and operations levy is the largest.
The others are a $1.7 million transportation levy and a $40.4 million technology and critical repairs levy.
For taxpayers, the total estimated tax for all three levies and the remainder of the 2006 construction bond next year would be $4.81 per $1,000 of assessed valuation beginning in 2011.
The maintenance and operations levy covers the state’s shortfall for special education, teacher salaries, highly capable learners, English language learners, Advanced Placement and honors courses, extracurricular activities and fuel for buses.
“The maintenance and operations levy is the only way the state allows the local community to directly contribute to the operating budget of the school district,” said Sara Niegowski, district communications director. “Without the M&O levy, we would see a 20 percent decrease in our operating budget. That means everything that goes into the classroom, that means salary, that means everything that goes directly into the day-to-day operations budget.”
Broken down, the money taxpayers give the district through the levy equals 360 teachers or 425 positions for custodians, bus drivers and educational assistants.
The $172.5 million maintenance and operations levy request is an increase from the district’s original proposal of $155.5 million.
School board members approved the increase Dec. 9 in anticipation of the Legislature’s possible approval of an increase in the school levy lid, the amount allowed by law.
If the Legislature doesn’t approve a levy lid lift, district officials will only collect the original $155.5 million requested.
Reach reporter Chantelle Lusebrink at 392-6434, ext. 241, or clusebrink@isspress.com.
Issaquah School District has three levy requests before voters Feb. 9, each a replacement levy that would supplement the schools’ budget with more than $214 million by 2014 if voters approve it.
A $172.5 million maintenance and operations levy is the largest. Read more
Teachers across Sammamish earn national certification
January 5, 2010
By Chantelle Lusebrink and Christopher Huber
If you thought cramming for your ACTs and advanced physics courses was tough, try spending more than 400 hours preparing videos, lesson plans and presentations before placing it before a panel of national experts.
Twenty-one Issaquah School District teachers and 40 Lake Washington School District teachers took that challenge and passed.
The 61 teachers recently received the nation’s highest certificate in teaching achievements — National Board Certification. Twenty of them teach Sammamish students.
“It feels a little bit powerful; I guess because I’m being recognized for my expertise in the teaching profession,” said Monica Greenberg, Smith Elementary first- and second-grade Quest teacher. She’s taught for about 25 years. “That fulfills me, and knowing that what I’m doing with children is important. It’s nice to have that outside recognition.”
The National Board Certification process is the only certification that compares a teacher’s knowledge and skills with a national set of professional standards, developed by the academic and teaching communities.
The process asks teachers to compile a portfolio including individual lesson plans, a video of classroom teaching and student work samples.
Each had to demonstrate how the teacher impacted their student’s learning.
Each teacher also had to take a written assessment that demonstrated their mastery of a subject area, classroom skills, knowledge base, curriculum design and student learning.
Many have already begun to incorporate the valuable lessons they learned from the National Board Certification process into their classrooms.
“It doesn’t really change the way you teach. It causes you to be a better reflector,” Greenberg said. “You think about what you’re doing in the classroom and how is that impacting the kids sitting right in front of you.”
Teachers found the process supportive of their own educational advancement, as well.
For Kimberly Ralph, a fifth-grade teacher at Endeavour Elementary School, the certification gave her a new personal challenge.
“I wanted to earn my National Board Certification to purposefully challenge myself to meet national teaching standards,” she wrote in an e-mail. “This certification program provided an intense and rigorous learning opportunity for me as a teacher.”
Working toward certification, however, was difficult, and time was a luxury not many of the teachers had.
“I was pregnant with my first child for most of the process, and trying to stay motivated to write on the weekends — while feeling nauseous and generally crummy — was definitely a challenge,” Shannon Henderson, a Pacific Cascade Freshman Campus teacher, wrote in an e-mail.
Greenberg, who already has a master’s, said her children are grown, but she still relied on consistent family support to push through the process.
“It’s very intense. Nobody saw me for a very long time. I was (up) many nights typing and retyping,” Greenberg said. “My family at home really wanted me to do it.”
Teachers choose one of 24 certificates spanning 15 subjects in various age levels of education.
In addition to the long hours, each Issaquah teacher also paid more than $3,000 to enter the yearlong process.
Many took advantage of $500-$1,000 grants from the Issaquah Schools Foundation, the school district and the state to aid them.
The Lake Washington School District pays the certification fee up front for any first-time, retake or renewal candidate, according to Dan Phelan, chief academic officer.
The teachers join more than 1,248 of their colleagues from throughout the state, in earning the certificates this year. Washington ranked fifth in the nation for teachers earning the certification this year, according to a press release from National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Nationwide, 8,900 teachers earned the certification this year.
After receiving their certificate, each Issaquah district teacher will receive a $3,500 yearly stipend from the state. Lake Washington teachers will receive a stipend of approximately $5,791.00, according to the district.
But it’s the accomplishment that drives teachers to complete it.
“I’m just proud and relieved to have it done,” Eric Ensey, a Pine Lake Middle School teacher, wrote in an e-mail. “In the midst of it, I thought it would never end. I still get goose bumps when I think about the fact that I’m done!”
Reporter Christopher Huber can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 242, or chuber@isspress.com. Chantelle Lusebrink: 392-6434, ext. 241, or clusebrink@isspress.com. Comment at www.SammamishReview.com.
If you thought cramming for your ACTs and advanced physics courses was tough, try spending more than 400 hours preparing videos, lesson plans and presentations before placing it before a panel of national experts.
Twenty-one Issaquah School District teachers and 40 Lake Washington School District teachers took that challenge and passed.
The 61 teachers recently received the nation’s highest certificate in teaching achievements — National Board Certification. Twenty of them teach Sammamish students. Read more
Issaquah District names new school Creekside
December 22, 2009
By Chantelle Lusebrink
The Issaquah School District’s 15th elementary school finally has a name.
Creekside Elementary School, 20777 S.E. 16th St., Sammamish, will open in fall 2010 for students on the Sammamish Plateau near Pine Lake.
The school board unanimously voted on the name at its Dec. 9 meeting.
The Chang family, of Sammamish, couldn’t be more thrilled with the choice, since it was their submission, Melody Chang said.
Jesse and Melody Chang’s two daughters, Emma, 7, and Erin, 4, will attend the school.
“When the community was asked to submit names, we came up with the name Creekside because it was simple, yet true to the area,” Melody Chang said. “We think it is indicative of the surrounding area and the nurturing environment that the elementary school has such an important role in playing.”
Community members submitted more than 130 submissions based on a set of rules, which included the school’s name be derived from the area, geographic landmarks, housing developments, voting precincts, directional names or from names of people that have contributed greatly to education in the district.
That list was narrowed to five — Creekside, Ebright Creek, Lake Vista, Opportunity and Samena — and the school board made their choice form that list.
“My personal favorite going into it was not Creekside, but I’m warming to it,” board member Chad Magendanz said. “I really think the community has spoken here and I want to honor that.”
“I was really surprised,” Melody Chang said. “We thought there would be other families with the same name suggestion, but we were the only ones.
“We are honored that we helped come up with a name that will stick with the elementary, even 30 years down the road.”
The $22.8 million school is under construction. When it is finished, the two-story building will have 28 classrooms, a computer lab, music room, multipurpose room, gym and resource room for occupational and physical therapies. It will also have two covered play areas in addition to a sand playfield.
The school’s layout is very similar to Grand Ridge and Newcastle elementary schools.
Reach reporter Chantelle Lusebrink at 392-6434, ext. 241, or clusebrink@isspress.com. To comment on this story, visit www.SammamishReview.com.
The Issaquah School District’s 15th elementary school finally has a name.
Creekside Elementary School, 20777 S.E. 16th St., Sammamish, will open in fall 2010 for students on the Sammamish Plateau near Pine Lake.
The school board unanimously voted on the name at its Dec. 9 meeting. Read more
Schools may delay standards
December 2, 2009
By Chantelle Lusebrink
The debate about math and science graduation requirements is heating up again.
As this year’s ninth-grade students gear up to pass the new High School Proficiency Exams as part of their graduation requirements in 2013, state Superintendent Randy Dorn is asking the state Legislature to postpone math and science requirements again.
Gov. Chris Gregoire delayed the mathematics graduation requirement in the face of low student scores on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning exams in December 2006. The science graduation requirement was delayed in May 2007.
Dorn’s recommendation moves requiring students to pass the mathematics and science exams from 2013 until 2015 and 2017, respectively.
In his release, he said he made the recommendation Nov. 19 after seeing students’ final achievement rates on last spring’s final WASL exams.
“It doesn’t take a mathematician to see that we have a big problem in our state. Less than 50 percent of our 10th graders are passing the math and science exams,” Dorn said in a press release, noting 10th graders’ passing rates on the reading and writing exams is more than 80 percent. “We need to be fair to our students and give them time to learn the new standards. It’s simply a matter of doing what’s right.”
Additionally, Dorn said the new math and science standards for the High School Proficiency Exams are only now being implemented and won’t be assessed until 2011. Because of this, Dorn said it doesn’t provide enough time for the class of 2013 to learn the standards or for teachers and schools to align the curriculum and materials to them.
“That’s really high stakes,” said Sara Niegowski, Issaquah School District communications director. “So it makes sense for the state to take the necessary time to be certain that high school students are not being held accountable for some flaw in the new assessment system or in schools’ ability to align themselves with new standards on a tight timeline.”
Lake Washington School District officials were unavailable for comment.
In the proposal for the math graduation requirement, Dorn said he will ask the 2010 Legislature to continue the current requirement of either passing the state math exam or earning two additional credits of math after 10th grade for students up to the class of 2014.
He will also ask the Legislature to establish a two-tier bar for the math graduation requirement beginning with the class of 2015, according to Dorn’s Web site.
The first of the two bars is “Proficient,” which means they passed the state exam. The second tier is “Basic,” which means students passed the basic levels of the exam but would still need to earn a fourth credit in math to graduate with a diploma. Requiring the fourth credit in math means that students will continue to build on their math skills.
Dorn’s idea stems from the two-tier Massachusetts system, which he said, would maintain the state’s high standards but helps set a realistic bar for passing the students.
However, the recommendation was not met with resounding support from educational groups or the governor.
“I oppose the proposal,” Gregoire said in a press release. “As our state and global economies become more technically driven, we need to ensure that our students leave high school highly-trained in math and science so they can qualify for Washington state jobs or entry into training and higher education programs of their choosing.
“Our students are capable of mastering our state’s standards in math and science,” she added. “They have shown us their capacity to meet our expectations in the past.”
Similarly, education advocates at the Washington State Board of Education also said a delay only postpones students’ ability to become proficient in math and science and could prohibit them from obtaining the state’s best jobs in those fields.
“This call for delay is not the right direction for our state,” said Mary Jean Ryan, chairwoman of the Washington State Board of Education, in a press release. “State leaders must commit – once and for all – to doing the hard work needed to help kids master math and science. Delays just create distractions. If history is a guide, more delay will only serve to distract. Three years ago the state punted on math and since then achievement levels have dropped. Delay is not a winning game plan. There is much work to do but this is not the way to begin.”
The League of Education Voters also opposes the new recommendation.
Despite acknowledging the need for students and teachers to have ample time to prepare for the new requirements, Niegowski said the state Superintendent’s office shouldn’t back off implementing and providing support so students can meet the requirements.
“The state can’t use that as a crutch—at some point, it needs to implement the graduation requirements,” she said. “We hope the Governor and Superintendent of Public Instruction can work together to negotiate that balance to do what’s best for students.”
Reach reporter Chantelle Lusebrink at 392-6434, ext. 241, or clusebrink@isspress.com.
The debate about math and science graduation requirements is heating up again.
As this year’s ninth-grade students gear up to pass the new High School Proficiency Exams as part of their graduation requirements in 2013, state Superintendent Randy Dorn is asking the state Legislature to postpone math and science requirements again. Read more
Issaquah Schools study potential high school changes
December 2, 2009
By Chantelle Lusebrink
Issaquah School District officials and high school principals are investigating a flexible high school schedule option this year as part of their Optimal High School Experience project.
“It is a very broad topic, but something we believe may help our students,” said Patrick Murphy, the district’s executive director of secondary education. “It has to do with looking at our class offerings in schools and online, the time of day they’re offered, like zero-hour or after school, having educational experiences on and off campus, the flexibility to share staff across the district and in different buildings. Basically, things that will help students balance their schedules.”
Flexible scheduling options will give students greater access and control of their academic career, according to the group made up of Murphy and the district’s high school principals — Dana Bailey, Mike Deletis, Lisa Hechtman, Ed Marcoe and Paula Phelps.
The group was formed in summer 2008 to discover what types of experiences students are having in the high schools, what is missing and what can be added to make their experiences better.
Our mission talks about “how students live in a dynamic global community,” Murphy said of the project’s importance. “Our principals believe they have the ethical responsibility to prepare students for that dynamic global world they will be going into.”
The project grew out of a suggestion in spring 2008 to create a uniform high school scheduling system, since Liberty High School had a different schedule than both Issaquah and Skyline high schools.
However, the move to a uniform schedule was delayed after community concerns surfaced.
It also grew from changes to the minimum number of credits high school students need to graduate, from 19 credits to 24.
The group evaluates the high school experience using five guiding beliefs:
u Access: Students must have maximum academic access to courses, programs and instruction that best meet the needs of those students.
u Connectivity: Students must feel connected to their school through relationships with faculty and peers.
u Citizenship: Students must have learning opportunities for service that allows them to think beyond themselves and builds compassion and respect for others.
u Resiliency: Students need a safe environment that allows them to move out of their comfort zones and take informed risks that allow them to grow while experiencing success and failure.
u Expression: Students must have multiple opportunities for self-expression in the classroom and during extracurricular activities.
Last year, the group gathered community, student and employee information about the experiences offered at Pacific Cascade Freshman Campus; Issaquah, Liberty and Skyline high schools; and the district’s alternative high school, Tiger Mountain Community High School.
Nearly 200 parents, students and school employees commented, offered suggestions and their experiences from which the idea of investigating flexible scheduling came.
“We plan to use this school year to do our investigative work,” Murphy said, adding the group will study other creative options used throughout the state and nation.
After the investigation and review “We’ll look to see how we can adapt what we find out and create something that will help our students reach the goals set out in our guiding beliefs.
“Our one fear, though, is that people hear the word flexible schedule and they think we’re just talking about bell schedule,” he added. “This is not solely about bell schedules.”
“Flexible scheduling touches on so many aspects of the educational experience. This could involve, as an example — daily schedules, online learning, seat time, use of facilities,” Phelps, Issaquah High School principal, wrote in an e-mail. “In the past, we would have viewed each of these issues individually. Now, we will look at them as a whole through the lens of the Optimal Experience. The work this year around flexible scheduling will be exciting and, ultimately, has the potential to be very rewarding for our students.”
During the coming year, Murphy and the principals will look more closely to develop working solutions for students, which could include before and after school courses and online course work similar to the district’s new online health course. Something else they are looking at is offering districtwide high school courses.
For example, Liberty has a culinary program, unlike the other two schools; principals may look into offering those classes so students across the district may be able to take them.
During their investigation, they’ll design a model for how it may be done in Issaquah and how to appropriately fund it.
Reporter Chantelle Lusebrink can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 241 or clusebrink@isspress.com. To comment on this story, visit www.SammamishReview.com.
Issaquah School District officials and high school principals are investigating a flexible high school schedule option this year as part of their Optimal High School Experience project. “It is a very broad topic, but something we believe may help our students,” said Patrick Murphy, the district’s executive director of secondary education. “It has to do with looking at our class offerings in schools and online, the time of day they’re offered, like zero-hour or after school, having educational experiences on and off campus, the flexibility to share staff across the district and in different buildings. Basically, things that will help students balance their schedules.” Read more
