Big things are happening at the site of our 16th elementary school! Tera Coyle, who will be the school’s first principal when it opens in the fall of 2021, visited the site recently to see how the construction is going and share an update. Elementary 16 is near the intersection of Issaquah-Pine Lake Road and Klahanie Boulevard. It will have 26 classrooms and be the home school for up to 650 ISD students. Opening this new school (as well as our new middle school now also under construction) will help the us keep up with growth and provide more space for students at our other schools. This new school is possible because of a voter-approved bond that was passed in 2016. Thank you, voters!
Opening new schools means we need to create new school boundaries to ensure each school has the right number of students. Each school’s boundaries determine which students attend that school, based on their home address. A committee made up of administrators and parents from each of our elementary and middle schools is hard at work creating a plan to determine what each school’s new boundaries will be. Visit the Boundary Review Committee page to learn more about their work.
A group of ISD students and their families didn’t let a pandemic stop them from participating in an annual tradition of helping others this year. They took part in Sewa Diwali, a national food drive that takes place around the time of Diwali, the festival of lights celebrated each year by Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and some Buddhists. The Hindi word “Sewa” means “service.”
The students helped gather 750 pounds of donated non-perishable food and other household supplies from November 1-20. It was then delivered to an organization that serves people experiencing homelessness on the Eastside, and a final batch of donations will go this week to the Issaquah Food and Clothing Bank. The ISD students who took part this year are:
Sunny Hills Elementary:
Beaver Lake Middle School:
Pine Lake Middle School:
Skyline High School:
Our Academy for Community Transition (ACT) program has a longstanding tradition of getting students into the Issaquah-area community for seasonal activities, including an annual fall visit to a pumpkin patch. This year, pandemic-related restrictions meant leaving campus wasn’t an option, so ACT staff decided to bring a pumpkin patch to campus instead! On October 29, they set up a socially distanced pumpkin patch in the field outside ACT’s buildings. It had a pumpkin for each student, hay bales and cornstalks (generously donated by The Grange), and other autumnal decorations. After choosing and “picking” their pumpkins, posing for pictures, and spending some pleasant time in the crisp fall air, the students went back inside to paint their pumpkins.
ACT is one of the ISD special programs that has resumed in-person learning in a hybrid model. ACT serves young adult students and focuses on the development of independent living skills, social skills, vocational skills and other important life skills to increase self-reliance and confidence.
See more photos from the event at the ISD Facebook Page.