Dr. Duane Baker presents to about 900 Issaquah School District teachers at Skyline High School, telling the teachers about improving instruction through observing other teachers’ classrooms. By Laura Geggel

Teachers are a valuable resource, especially for one another.

The Issaquah School District drilled home that point, telling teachers about the STAR Protocol, a program inviting teachers to observe other teachers in action.

The district introduced the protocol to administrators and teacher leadership teams last year, and a Skyline High School workshop Aug. 25 allowed every teacher to learn about it, giving them tools to learn how to properly assess other teachers.

The STAR Protocol reminds teachers to take four steps when observing their colleagues teach lessons:

-Skills/knowledge: Are students gaining skills and knowledge to develop rigorous conceptual understanding, not just recalling facts?

-Thinking: When teachers ask open-ended questions, are students explaining their thinking process and reflecting on it?

-Application: Are students applying skills, knowledge and thinking during lessons?

-Relationships: Does the teacher promote a positive relationship by creating optimal learning conditions, maintaining high expectations and providing social support and tailored instruction based on student needs?

STAR also stands for something else:

-See classroom instruction,

-Talk about your observations,

-Apply it to your lessons and

-Reflect on your instructional practices.

By using the STAR Protocol, teachers can observe other teachers, incorporate new ideas into their own instruction and increase student learning.

Dr. Duane Baker, who has worked as a teacher, vice principal and assistant superintendent, as well as for the Gates Foundation, led the workshop. His company, the BREC Group, developed the STAR Protocol and consults with school districts across the country.

The protocol allows teachers to make instructional changes they want, when they want.

“This is for personal reflection,” Baker said. “The only time people change is when they want to change.”

He stressed that observations were for instructional purposes only — they would not be used for performance reviews or salary indicators.

During the workshop, he asked teachers to talk in small groups and decide what constituted powerful teaching. He also showed teachers videos and asked them to assess the teacher for each bullet in the protocol.

The teachers needed no more prompting. Challenger Elementary School fourth-grade teacher Susan Kelly said the teacher needed to move more around the room, which would break the traditional model and hold the students’ attention. Beaver Lake Middle School humanities teacher Laura Gawler said the teacher gave good cues to students, helping them with definitions in the math textbook glossary.

A shift to instruction

Washington and the country have focused on several national education movements, including standardized testing and the No Child Left Behind Act. While many movements focus on student assessment and sometimes curriculum, they don’t necessarily change the way material is delivered — classroom instruction.

In 1993, state House Bill 1209 became law, requiring Washington teachers to focus on learning for every child. The previous mindset had expected half of all children to fail, Baker said. Teachers delivered education, and if some students didn’t get it, the teacher might still move forward.

Now, the focus is not just delivering education, it’s student learning for every child, Baker said.

Another change has transformed teaching. Instead of motivating students to learn by giving them treats, teachers are encouraged to become cognitive scientists — understanding how their students’ brains work and how best to teach them.

Studies show that good instruction leads to better student achievement. The students of teachers who use good instructional strategies perform better on standardized testing, regardless of poverty, Baker said.

Observing other teachers through the STAR Protocol is a good way to expose teachers to other instructional ideas, he said.

Maywood Middle School math and culinary arts teacher Camille Wright said if teachers were given time during the school day to observe other teachers, “we can see what works for some teachers and some students and reflect on that.”

She said the program could be especially beneficial for new teachers, who could learn from more experienced instructors.

Jo Porter (left), director of transportation, with supervisors and coordinators Connie McCoy, Lucy Anderson, Gayle Morgan and Laurie Mulvihill, stand beside the high-backed seats in one of the school district's new buses. By Greg Farrar

With school back in session, Issaquah’s drivers are once more sharing the road with buses carrying students to and from school.

Some drivers are more patient than others when driving behind buses. Understanding bus safety rules would help everyone on the road, Issaquah School District Transportation Director Jo Porter said.

First and foremost, drivers should slow when they see a bus’ flashing amber lights. When the red lights begin flashing, drivers must stop.

“When buses are stopped on a two-lane road, when the road paddle comes up and the flashing red lights come on the school bus, it is a law they have to stop,” Porter said.

Roads that are three lanes or more are another story.

If a bus stops on a road that is three lanes or more, state law permits cars traveling in the opposite direction to continue driving, unless they are in a turning lane. Vehicles traveling in the same direction of the bus must stop.

Children are only allowed to cross a road that is two lanes or less, meaning that if a road is three lanes or more, then the bus driver must drive the bus to the other side of the street so the child does not cross it.

If a driver runs a bus with red flashing lights, that driver is subject to a $394 fine.

Porter said drivers must give their full attention to children entering or exiting a bus. If they see a car is not stopping, the driver might shout at the student to stop.

“It has happened,” Porter said. “I don’t know if the kids were scared, but it startles the drivers when that happens.”

Some drivers feel frustrated with school buses stopping routinely to pick up or drop off children, Porter said. Although buses might make frequent stops, they help relieve congestion, she said.

Elementary school buses usually have about 75 children on a bus and high school buses can carry about 50 students. Overall, Issaquah buses transport about 9,000 students.

“Each of one these children represents a car,” Porter said. “It seems like we’re congesting the roadway. We are in fact helping the roadway.”

Buses typically have the same schedule every day, so leave earlier or later to avoid school traffic, Porter advised drivers.

Sometimes, school buses will pull off onto a shoulder to drop off students or to allow cars to pass. Porter said she has received calls from drivers asking why school buses can’t pull off on Issaquah-Hobart Road Southeast to let cars pass in the morning.

It’s not so simple, Porter said.

“School buses can’t just pull off,” she said, “It’s got to be a nice large, secure shoulder.”

Cars are not required by law to yield to school buses as they are to Metro Transit buses, meaning it can be hard for school buses to return into traffic.

She added that it is both dangerous and illegal to pass a bus by crossing on a shoulder of a road or by driving into oncoming traffic going the opposite way.

Drivers should also be aware of children waiting at bus stops, walking or riding their bicycles to school. Drivers should be careful in school zones and school parking lots, too.

Laurie Mulvihill, district safety training coordinator, said bus drivers train students about safety rules three times a year.

She added that the Washington State Patrol inspects Issaquah buses twice a year. Most recently, Issaquah’s buses received an outstanding on their review.

Soon, Issaquah will have more buses on the road. Thanks to the voter-approved transportation levy, the district is ordering five new small buses for January 2011 and nine new large buses for August 2011.

Issaquah Valley Elementary School fell just shy of meeting standards set by the No Child Left Behind Act and is being sanctioned for not meeting standards in low-income reading.

This is Issaquah Valley’s second year in a row of not meeting Adequate Yearly Progress standards in low-income reading.

If a subgroup of students fails in reading or math, then the school or district does not meet AYP. Schools that do not meet AYP in a subgroup for two consecutive years face sanctions if they receive federal Title I dollars.

In the sanctions leveled against Issaquah Valley, the school will have to notify parents, give families the opportunity to send their children to another elementary school and pay for that transportation.

This is the first sanction that any school in the Issaquah School District has received since No Child Left Behind went into effect in 2003.

Schools are graded based on standardized test scores.

The state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction will release each school district’s 2010 standardized testing scores Aug. 31, but district spokeswoman Sara Niegowski, who has already seen the scores, said Issaquah Valley met or far-exceeded its learning targets in all other subgroups.

Issaquah Valley is hardly the only school in the district not meeting AYP.

The other six Issaquah schools that did not meet AYP in 2010 are not being sanctioned, nor is the district, because they either do not receive federal Title I dollars or they did not miss AYP for the same subgroup two years in a row. Schools receive Title I money based on their percentages of low-income students.

The schools that did not meet AYP in 2010 include:

• Briarwood Elementary: low-income reading
• Grand Ridge Elementary: special-education reading and math
• Issaquah Valley: low-income reading
• Beaver Lake Middle: special-education math
• Issaquah Middle: low-income math
• Issaquah High: special-education math
• Liberty High: special-education and low-income math

The district also didn’t meet standards in elementary low-income reading and math.

Issaquah Valley will be affected by the sanctions in five areas. First, school administrators notified parents of the school’s status in letters mailed Aug. 25. Second, the school will receive technical assistance to improve performance from the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, and might be eligible to receive federal funds for school-improvement activities.

Third, the school must develop or revise its two-year school improvement plan within three months. Fourth, it must offer parents the opportunity to transfer their students to another designated school in the district. In this case, the district has identified Clark Elementary School, because of its location and capacity, as an alternate for Issaquah Valley.

Finally, the district must pay for student transportation to the alternate school.

Clark Principal May Pelto e-mailed parents Aug. 26, alerting them about the changes.

“While I cannot predict how many Issaquah Valley students — if any — will take the opportunity to switch schools, I do guarantee that the high-quality learning environment at Clark will be unchanged,” she wrote. “The district suspects that the migration will not be dramatic. As a reminder, we are staffed on a prescribed student-teacher ratio, which means class sizes here will remain steady regardless of any student population growth.”

Issaquah Valley Principal Diane Holt will talk about student test scores and AYP next week.

Issaquah Valley secretary Wendee Fowler said she had only received a few calls from parents asking about the issue.

“It seems like they’re staying put,” Fowler said. “Most seem to act like it’s no big deal and they’re going to wait until Monday” to hear more.

She added that since No Child Left Behind started in the 2002-03 school year, the only subcategory Issaquah Valley missed was low-income reading during the 2008-09 and 2009-10 school years.

“We’re extremely proud of our school and our scores and achievements,” Fowler said.

Testing and No Child Left Behind

Every year, Issaquah students take state standardized tests. This year, students in third through eighth grades took the Measurements of Student Progress, and sophomores took the High School Proficiency Exam.

Federal legislatures who passed No Child Left Behind set a high goal for students and school districts, asking more children in fourth, seventh and 10th grades to pass standardized testing in reading and math each year. By 2013-14, 100 percent of students are expected to pass the tests.

The standardized test scores are divided into 37 subgroups for schools and 111 subgroups for school districts. Subgroups include categories delineating race and ethnicity, students with disabilities, English language learners and low-income students.

To meet AYP, schools and districts must also meet a number of other factors, including a certain on-time graduation rate and unexcused absence rate.

Learn more

Issaquah Valley Principal Diane Holt will present about student Measurements of Student Progress scores and Adequate Yearly Progress, as well as answer questions at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. Monday in the school’s multipurpose room, 555 N.W. Holly St.

Cockerham began spending more time on homework and studying harder, transforming herself into an A student. Now, she works at The Boeing Co. as an environmental chemist.

“It just took having someone tell you, ‘You can do this’, and ‘I believe you can do this,’” she said.

In 2006, Cockerham decided to return the favor to Issaquah’s students. She registered with Volunteers Of Issaquah Changing Education — more commonly known as VOICE — and began mentoring high school students in physical science.

Cockerham is one of VOICE’s 155 mentors, and Director Susan Gierke said she hopes to raise membership to 200 volunteers this year.VOICE started during the 2004-05 school year at Issaquah Valley Elementary School and Issaquah Middle School, after the Issaquah Schools Foundation gave a needs-assessment survey and found that students needed more adult support.

The foundation continues to support VOICE, giving it $38,000 this year to continue training volunteers for Issaquah’s classrooms. VOICE’s steering committee also provides direction and support.

The program is stable and established at every school in the Issaquah School District, with the exceptions of Echo Glen Children’s Center and Tiger Mountain Community High School, which have only one volunteer each, Gierke said.

Briarwood Elementary School is still seeking volunteers, Principal Drew Terry said.

Anyone can apply to VOICE, including students in ninth grade or older, or adults who are working or retired. People interested in volunteering can download an application from the schools foundation website. All volunteers must pass a Washington state background check, submit two personal references and attend a training session with Gierke.

During the session, volunteers learn about confidentiality, teaching methods and expectations. Volunteers also meet with teachers or counselors to outline the students’ learning goals.

During the school year, Gierke organizes in-service programs for volunteers, so they can learn teaching techniques for specific subjects.

“The one about math was very helpful,” Cockerham said. “We learned some strategies and how to talk about negative numbers. We know how to do it, but it’s different to teach it.”

Kate Nuernberger, a retired horticulturalist in Redmond, started volunteering in 2007 after she learned about VOICE through Sammamish Presbyterian Church.

“I no longer have children of school age,” Nuernberger said. “We moved here a few years ago. Although there are children in the neighborhood, I hadn’t really thought about a way to step into schools.”

Nuernberger now mentors two boys at Challenger Elementary School in back-to-back sessions.

“This program gives as much back to me as I give to the boys that I mentor,” she said. “Sometimes, the most important part is not helping them with their school work, but it is being an adult presence in their life who is supportive, and who will listen and often just answer questions.”

When she learned one of her students was having trouble memorizing his multiplication tables, she introduced him to a multiplication box. Although his teacher had already showed the class a multiplication box, the student sometimes has trouble paying attention, Nuernberger said.

“When I first started working with him, he didn’t know he could use this box,” she said. “All it took was my sitting down with him, finding out he could not use this box, and showing him how he could use it. I know it sounds like such a simple thing, but for this child he knew he could use” it and it helped him.

With the help of teachers, counselors and administrators, Gierke matches volunteers with students, and helps them determine meeting times. Some volunteers meet during the school day; others meet after school ends in the afternoon.

“We have Skyline students working at Discovery and Sunny Hills because it’s right there, and Issaquah High School students at Clark,” Gierke said

Issaquah High School’s Harrison Cockerham plans to volunteer this year. Last year, he helped his mother Paula Cockerham tutor a girl in chemistry — one of the 188 students receiving help through VOICE.

“Helping somebody is fun,” he said. “Your assistance is really doing a good job. I’m really in it just to have fun, meet new people and help people.”

Issaquah students have been attending Bellevue’s St. Louise Parish School and Faith Formation Center for nearly 50 years. Contributed

Issaquah’s 7-year-old Amelia Aitken has finished her back-to-school shopping. She has a new uniform, new school supplies and a new school building, the St. Louise School and Faith Formation Center.

For nearly 50 years, the private Catholic school, near Crossroads in Bellevue, has provided a learning place for students in kindergarten through eighth grades from Seattle and the greater Eastside, including Issaquah. This year, 454 students will attend St. Louise — 46 of them from Issaquah.

“There is truly just a community feel that is unmatched there, and you can feel it when you first walk in the door,” said Amelia’s mother Erin Aitken, who used to teach fifth grade at St. Louise. “Although we have new doors, it’s the people, it’s the community. They have a wonderful focus on service and the academics there are very strong.”

Construction for the new St. Louise building began in June 2009, thanks to a three-year capital campaign that collected $8 million in donations and pledges from alumni, parishioners, school parents and friends. When school begins Sept. 7, students will find a new, two-story school with:

-a science lab

-an art room

-a library for school use during the day and parish meetings during evenings and weekends

-a computer lab and server room

-12 new classrooms

-lockers for junior high students

-a new administration section, which will hold the main school office, administrative offices and a faculty room.

Seattle Archdiocese Archbishop Alex Brunett will bless the school at its dedication Aug. 29.

St. Louise School principal, Dan Fitzpatrick said the improvements brought the school up to speed with the 21st century.

“We have installed interactive whiteboards and computer projectors in the classrooms,” he said. “Wireless access has been created throughout the building to benefit students in their research and collaborative work. And for the first time in our 50-year history, we have a dedicated science lab.”

The construction is part of a multiphased building plan, which includes additional school classrooms and an expanded church gathering space and outdoor courtyard.

Learn more about St. Louise School, including admissions openings for this upcoming school year, at www.stlouiseschool.org.

Get involved

St. Louise Parish School and Faith Formation Center

blessing and dedication

-3 p.m. Aug. 29

-133 156th Ave. S.E., Bellevue

Laura Geggel: 392-6434, ext. 241, or lgeggel@isspress.com. Comment at www.issaquahpress.com.

Robin Earl, Creekside Elementary School principal, stands in a balcony hallway overlooking the library core. Large windows bring the outdoor beauty inside. By Christopher Huber

To the tune of hammering and buzzing saws on a hot day at the end of July, Principal Robin Earl walked through the crowded hallways of her new school.

Without a student in sight, the hallways at Creekside Elementary School were still full.

“It’s like Christmas,” Earl said, smiling at the boxes of paper, computers, desks and chairs.

Outside looking in

The school has a nearly identical floor plan to Grand Ridge and Newcastle elementary schools, but the feel of it is markedly different from its predecessors, district Director of Capital Projects Steve Crawford said, walking through the school with Earl.

Tucked at the back of a neighborhood, the school sits apart — its own entity among a large backdrop of trees.

There’s warmth to the building with exposed steel beams giving way to green, taupe and yellow tones, accented by bold splashes of red on the walls. Large windows and skylights bring the beauty of the outdoors inside.

“You can stand in any classroom and you’re going to see gorgeous trees,” Earl said. “The way they brought it together, there is this energy and calmness from outside. To me, it is very inspiring.”

The building’s design was planned around important pieces of nature, like two large cedar trees at the school’s front and back entrances.

“The school was essentially built around the tree,” Earl said of the 50-foot one at the front.

That required extra planning for construction coordinator Mike Archer, but the argument for keeping the tree was simple.

“It was here first,” he said, “and we actually saved even more trees than required by the city.”

The school has plenty of wildlife to see, including deer and ravens, Earl said. Not too long ago, she rescued a curious turtle that wandered near the site.

Built for success

Everything on the inside has been built with student learning in mind, from the teacher platforms to student chairs.

Creekside is the first elementary school in the district built with wireless Internet technology in mind.

The school opted to purchase a combination of desktop and laptop computers and a few netbook computers, Crawford said. Those computers can be taken into outdoor areas to gather scientific data, Earl said.

To save energy, building designers also included light shades, which help capture and reflect light at various times of the day, to infuse the school with more natural light and use less electricity. It also has energy-efficient fans in the ceiling to help circulate air in classrooms, maximizing the amount of air conditioning in use, Crawford said.

Even student chairs are tech savvy. With a slightly space-age feel, they’re ergonomically correct and made from durable, flexible materials that “will let kids get the wiggles out, without disturbing anyone else or taking away from class time,” Earl said.

In little more than a year of construction, Creekside is ready to receive students. Good weather and relatively few bumps in the construction process helped make that possible, Crawford said.

It’s taken a lot of planning, good fortune and determination to get this far this fast, but Earl said she and her faculty has been doggedly working for one purpose — the students.

“We’ve been dreaming up our plans and all of them have been geared toward trying to make the best learning environment possible, so we’re very excited for the kids to be here,” she said.

• Basic statistics: The Issaquah School District serves more than 16,000 students in a 110-square mile area. It has 15 elementary schools, five middle schools, three comprehensive high schools, an alternative high school and oversees education at Echo Glen Children’s Center, the state juvenile detention center.

• Family Access is an online tool that allows students and parents to view their educational records, including test scores, attendance records and class schedules. Families with secondary school students also have access to grades. Login or get more information about obtaining your password at www.issaquah.wednet.edu/family. If you don’t already have a password, obtain it from your school secretary or registrar by showing photo identification.

• Verify your elementary school student’s enrollment by replying to the district’s lime-green postcard sent out in late July, call your student’s school or go here. This helps district officials know how many elementary school teachers are needed. High school students verify enrollment by obtaining their schedules through Family Access and going through the registration and student verification process.

• School supplies vary from school to school and grade to grade. For a complete list for your student, contact his or her school or find the school site here.

• Finding out what bus to catch is easy. Families can enter their address at the district’s E-LINK page to get their child’s route information.

• Lunch menus have gone high tech. See what’s on your child’s school lunch menu —along with nutritional information — days in advance here. Parents can also put money into students’ lunch accounts and monitor purchasing history at www.mylunchmoney.com.

• If your student is a middle or high school athlete, make sure you have obtained, filled out and had a physician sign off on the school athletic participation packet for the 2010-11 school year. Find the forms here.

• Construction: June-August 2010
• Approximate cost of conversion and construction: $310,000
• Square footage: 107,557
• Classrooms: 25 regular rooms and four specialized teaching spaces
• Science laboratories: six
• New features: Additional track and field structures, like a long-jump pit, shot put and discus area were added. Former elective classrooms and equipment for them, like the engineering class, were turned into regular classrooms and the equipment was divided between Issaquah and Skyline high schools. All high school textbooks were replaced. Administratively, the school will handle three grades instead of one and there are dozens of new faculty members.

Issaquah High School

• Construction: April 2009 – fall 2011
• Estimated budget: $99.7 million
• Actual budget to date: $68.78 million
• Starting square footage: 182,759
• New square footage: 285,000
• Classrooms: 58 regular rooms and 26 specialized teaching spaces
• Science laboratories: 12
• New technologies: rooftop rain gardens to help filter water on the site (which is located near wetlands and Issaquah Creek), wireless Internet, interactive monitor screens, ActivSlates, digital projectors, document cameras and digital security camera system
• Unique features: multilevel commons forms core of building; three three-story classroom wings with connecting bridges; plenty of large windows allow maximum daylight, link the interior to the natural surroundings and reduce energy use

Skyline High School

• Construction: July 2008 – August 2010
• Estimated budget: $44.9 million
• Actual budget to date: $36.5 million
• Starting square footage: 199,510
• New square footage: 266,196
• Classrooms: 56 regular rooms and 22 specialized teaching spaces
• Science laboratories: 12
• New technologies: light shades help catch natural light and push it into classrooms, reducing energy use; wireless Internet; ActivSlates; digital projectors; document cameras; new teaching stations; digital camera security system
• Unique features: new weight room, featuring floor-to-ceiling windows with views of the Cascades; wider staircases; bleachers that open fully without extending onto the basketball court; new art classroom with a fully opening industrial door to a courtyard outside

What else is going on?

• Briarwood Elementary School rebuild: Planning for the remodel will began in spring. Construction for the $25.1 million project is expected to start in 2011.
• Liberty High School: Schematics for the new building are complete and the architects are working with the school’s design team and theater consultant. The $15.4 million project is expected to start in summer 2011.
• May Valley Service Center addition: The $667,250 addition, replacing an existing building and a paint-shop exhaust system, is finished.
• Maywood Middle School: Initial design work for additions/remodels and completion of construction permits is needed. Construction on the $6.5 million project is expected to start in fall and be finished by September 2011.
• South end of the district: Planning and permitting to extend sewers to Liberty, Maywood and Briarwood is under way. Construction will likely take place in spring.

This fall, every student in the district will get usernames to Issaquah Connect, a secure social networking site run from the district’s server.

“This is a virtual extension of our classrooms,” Executive Director of Educational Technology Colleen Dixon said. “This is the world, this is how we interact, how we get information and how we talk to each other in many ways.”

Issaquah Connect, the Issaquah School District’s new social network, links students for sharing educational opportunities. Contributed

Issaquah Connect has been operational for about a half-year, but teachers have been using other online tools, like Blackboard and Google Groups, to connect with students for years.

The new site enables every school and teacher to have easily accessed and updatable information on one page. The pages are similar in nature to those you’d see on other social networking sites, like Facebook, but the information is relevant and educational.

The pages allow administrators to post a school profile, information about departments, classes, faculty, clubs and schedules. They also have blogs written by faculty, calendars and important documents, like school supply lists.

In the past six months, faculty members have been testing the site. Schools like the former Pacific Cascade Freshman Campus — now Pacific Cascade Middle School— and Apollo Elementary School participated, Dixon said.

Teachers at those schools have been using their profile pages to post syllabi, homework assignments, and related files and documents to support homework or research, she said.

The coolest part, she said, is that teachers and students can continue discussions, even when class is over.

Already, there have been instances of peers helping peers with impromptu online tutoring from the site on the forums, district Webmaster Robert Miller said.

The discussions give teachers a better understanding of how many students are unclear on a topic, what teachers might need to re-address and how they might explain it differently.

Students and teachers can also create and share information, like relevant research, media articles and files about educational topics.

Just like the classroom, “the teacher is seeing everything that is posted and the teacher is hosting the forum and conversation,” Dixon said.

“We’re trying to provide safe and secure options for our teachers and students,” she added. “The real benefit — we do have control over user content and something that has been posted. We don’t have control if they’re connecting on Google Groups.”

Dixon and Miller also said, the site isn’t intended to be one more thing teachers need to do. Instead, it is a meaningful tool that is easy to use and understand. It is up to teachers to individually set limits for how they and their students will use it, in and out of the classroom.

While students and teachers will be the only ones invited to participate in and access online forums, they won’t be the only ones with usernames for the site. It will also be open to parents and community members active in the school system, but those usernames are still being formulated, Miller said. Other areas are completely open to the public, like the school profile, but only to view them.

If you do use the site, all district rules that typically apply in the classroom — maintaining respect for others, keeping discussions intellectual and not posting inappropriate comments — or to using district Internet services, still apply.

People found violating those terms will be disciplined and inappropriate comments will be removed.

“In today’s world, parents are concerned with new technology and how it is being used,” Miller said. “This is an opportunity for teachers to be a part of that educational process, and help children use it responsibly and learn how to use it before they go out into the real world.”

When students graduate, or families no longer want to participate online, district officials have created a system that disables their participation, but keeps the profile they created and their documents in case they need them later.

Families that don’t wish to participate can opt out by not signing on.

From the clothes and appliances they buy to the way they conserve energy and recycle waste, green students are infusing their lives with an environmental perspective.

But even students with the greenest of intentions need guidance, and many got it from King County’s Green Schools program. Out of Issaquah’s 25 schools, 10 have participated in the program: Cascade Ridge, Challenger, Clark, Discovery, Endeavour and Newcastle elementary schools, Beaver Lake, Maywood and Pine Lake middle schools and Liberty High School.

Jack Sansing (left) and Katie and Noah Springborn directed their classmates to use the correct bins after lunch as members of Cascade Ridge Elementary's 2009 Green Team. By Christopher Huber

King County Green School began as a pilot program in 2002 and opened to K-12 public and private schools in 2003, Project Manager Dale Alekel said.

“Interest in the program has grown tremendously over the past few years,” he said. “I think that students and adults are becoming more and more aware of how we are impacting our environment and becoming more knowledgeable about how the steps they take, and the changes they make in their everyday lives can make a positive impact and make a real difference.”

Students can be the eyes and ears of the school, reporting leaky faucets, turning off lights and computers after school, and educating their classmates about recycling.

John Macartney, district resource conservation manager, said his “primary responsibility is to save the district money. We do that foremost through energy conservation, because about 75 percent of our budget goes to energy, like electricity and natural gas.”

As for who can get involved, every school is different, Macartney said. Some schools have classes that study the environment and as part of it, they participate on the school’s green teams. Others have students participate through their leadership classes. You just have to find out what kind of involvement your school has, he said.

Most students throughout the district participate by helping recycle, compost and reduce their consumption. Some students are taking it a step further and have added compost bins to their lunchrooms.

Adding food scrap recycling causes the district’s overall garbage output to go down and recycling to go up, Macartney said.

“As a result of that, there is also the good that comes from teaching kids about environmental responsibility,” he said. “But the district is also able to save some money, because we reduce our garbage costs by reducing the volume of garbage.

“Issaquah Middle School is a shining example of that,” he added. “They started off by having three pickups of garbage a week and now it is down to one.”

Last year, the school actually attempted a zero-waste lunch, he said. That day, because of the students’ efforts, they put out only 15 pounds of trash for 800 kids, when before, they would put out more than a few hundred pounds.

Younger students are also participating in the green movement. In 2008, Discovery Elementary School students received recognition from the Guinness Book of World Records for collecting the most plastic bottles in an eight-hour period. The students amassed 657 pounds of plastic bottles, and recycled all of them.

After learning about green practices at school, students often carry the green spirit wherever they go.

“The other thing that happens, especially what I’ve seen with elementary schoolers, is they take this message home, so they get their parents to focus on reusing and recycling and get them to compost, too, since most of our homes now come with yard waste that accept food scraps,” Macartney said.

The King County Green Schools program has honored Issaquah’s students for their hard work. Since beginning their efforts in the 2001-02 school year, Macartney said the district has won 18 King County Earth Hero Awards and was the recipient of the King County Green Globe award a few years ago.

Back-to-school shopping

As students head back to school, they and their parents can work together to buy more environmental products.

Alekel suggested using the Center for a New American Dream, a nonprofit organization that works to conserve natural resources. Instead of buying new supplies, the nonprofit advises people to reuse material from last year or to frequent thrift stores.

It also suggests alternatives to regular supplies, including soy-based crayons instead of paraffin wax crayons, and avoiding polyvinyl chloride, PVC — a plastic that contaminates the environment with cancer-causing chemicals when produced, according to the center. PVC can also leach out chemicals mixed with it, including lead.

To steer clear of PVC, the nonprofit advised avoiding products with the word “vinyl” on the packaging, such as vinyl three-ring binders, or the number three underneath the recycling symbol.

People can also help the environment by using durable water bottles and utensils, instead of disposable plastic ones, and plastic containers or reusable cloth bags instead of plastic sandwich bags.

“There are so many ways that a person can conserve natural resources,” Alekel said.

Laura Geggel: 392-6434, ext. 221, or lgeggel@isspress.com. Former reporter Chantelle Lusebrink contributed to this report. Comment at www.issaquahpress.com.

On the Web

• Get back-to-school shopping tips from the Center for a New American Dream at www.newdream.org.
• Learn what your school is doing at www.kingcounty.gov/GreenSchools.