Nuoyan Zhang, 6, plays the Chinese instrument known in English as the koto during the Festival of Cultures held recently at Challenger Elementary School Photo by Tom Corrigan

The American table had a bag of food from McDonald’s and a Dorothy doll straight out of the movie version of “The Wizard of Oz.”

A Mexican table featured ethnic toys, including a Spanish Monopoly game. The Japanese table had a lot of visitors, perhaps all wanting to try what turned out to be some surprisingly tasty Spam sushi.

“It just opens everybody’s eyes,” Challenger Elementary Principal Sue McPeak said.

She was referring not only to her school’s sixth annual Festival of Cultures, but the diversity that inspired that event.

The festival was held at Challenger Jan. 27. The school cafeteria was packed with tables celebrating 23 countries, many of which are represented by students at Challenger and other Issaquah School District buildings, said Anny Figueroa, one of two co-chairwomen of the Challenger event.

Each festival table featured items from a different country, along with important facts about that country. Most also had food from the country. Figueroa noted some parent volunteers had planned and manned a table at the event for five or six years.

Usually, but not always, the tables reflected the ethnic background of the person manning the table. Parent Erin Turtell said she had put together a table for four years. This year, she did both Switzerland and Ireland.

“I have to have at least one country that has chocolate,” Turtell said.

In addition to the various tables and booths, there was plenty of culturally themed entertainment at the front of the cafeteria, including choirs and various performers. New this year was a costume fashion show, the event’s other co-chairwoman, Bev Sakamoto, said.

The festival is really the culminating event of a series of happenings celebrating the diversity at Challenger and the school district in general, said McPeak, who added that diversity is a good thing in her mind.

“I think it just adds a richness to everything,” she said.

Prior to the festival, students were invited to come to school in costumes representing their national heritage. Children greeted classmates in their country’s language during morning announcements and told a little bit about those countries. Hand-drawn paper flags were hung in the hallways of the school.

“It’s fun,” said fourth-grader Vincent Bennett, who was dressed in an outfit representing his mother’s native country of Belarus, once part of the former Soviet Union.

“It’s interesting,” he added, “to learn about different cultures.”

The presence of large, international firms, such as Microsoft and The Boeing Co., draw people from around the world to this area, McPeak said. The cultural festival is one way of making such people feel they are part of the community while at the same time keeping ethnic traditions alive.

“We are always looking for community-building events,” McPeak said.

Tom Corrigan: 392-6434, ext. 241, or tcorrigan@isspress.com. Comment at www.issaquahpress.com.

And if it weren’t for a staff member’s vision and nearly $30,000 from the PTA, the school might not even have that book series by Louis Sachar in its selection. Discovery opened its new literacy room this fall. It’s a “re-purposed” former art room and storage space that now offers nearly 1,000 different book sets at varying reading levels for the entire school population. The point is to expand options for teachers as they work with students, each of whom has a different focus or need in their reading development, teachers and staff members said. The school is on the leading edge of the Issaquah School District’s efforts to overhaul its reading curriculum.

“Now it’s become more purposeful,” said Chelsea Dziedzic, literacy support coach for Discovery and Challenger elementary schools. “Discovery and district teachers realized one-size-fits-all does not work and doesn’t foster a love of reading.”

The “Marvin Redpost” books were such a big deal to the boys because they previously read from a limited selection of kids’ books at their level, and many of those catered to girls’ interest, said Vickie Pruger and Dziedzic, who staff the new literacy room. “Marvin Redpost” sparked their interest last spring as third-graders and as fourth-graders, and they seem to be more engaged in reading than ever before.

“They were really interested in reading,” said Pruger, a Discovery reading specialist and kindergarten teacher.

The room is a little smaller than a standard elementary school classroom but is organized to provide quick, easy access for teachers as they determine a suitable book to study with small groups of students. Labeled file boxes filled with sets of six books each line shelves and cupboards. They range from reading level “A” — kindergarten — to “Z” — eighth grade.

“This is a fabulous use of resources for teachers,” longtime first-grade teacher Patty Britt said. “It’s so well organized. This helps us to do a better job.”

Dziedzic and Pruger, who developed the literacy room plan for a year, said the selection is a huge expansion from the ad-hoc collections most teachers maintained in their own classrooms. It helps teachers target more specific concepts, and at more varied difficulties, while teaching literacy.

Dziedzic and Pruger knew the program — it’s entirely supplemental to the district’s reading curriculum — would cost a lot. But when the PTA forecast a $15,000 budget surplus in the spring, members and teachers got together to raise another roughly $13,000 from the community to order the plethora of new reading materials, PTA president Debbie Evdemon said. As a whole, the Discovery staff signed on to use all of the PTA funds for that cause, rather than apply for individual classroom grants.

“We have a very generous community of parents,” Evdemon said. “If children can’t read, they can’t understand science, math…”

Dziedzic and Britt seemed excited about the implications for Discovery students now and for future programs districtwide. They are already seeing a positive change in students’ interest in reading, they said — something they hope students around the district will experience soon, too.

“Discovery saw a need before the district did,” Dziedzic said. “When they find a high interest at their level, there’s nowhere they can go but up.”

Christopher Huber: 392-6434, ext. 242, or chuber@isspress.com. Comment at www.issaquahpress.com.

The state also put out final numbers on which schools were able, or not able, to meet annual improvement goals set out by the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Last spring, Washington students in algebra and geometry classes took a state test immediately at the end of their course work. The system is known as “end of course,” or “EOC” testing. It replaced the standardized math test students formerly took near the end of the school year.

According to results released by the state, 86 percent of district students taking the EOC test met state algebra standards. The figure was 90.9 percent for the geometry test.

In contrast, the state average was 62 percent on the algebra test and 72 percent on the geometry exam.

“This feels like a big success,” Leslie Nielsen, Issaquah math curriculum specialist, said in a press release. “The EOCs test algebra and geometry at a deep and rigorous level, so our outstanding first-year results indicate a strong alignment between our instruction and the standards.”

Though it still has its critics, Sara Niegowski, district executive director of communications, said the EOC tests are more popular with instructors than the previously used standardized exams. There are a couple of reasons for that popularity, according to Debra Hawkins, the school district’s director of assessment.

Speaking in a release, Hawkins said EOC tests are given closer to the time of instruction. She also noted the tests are very specific in regard to subject matter and can dig deeper into the specific subject matter.

“We see that as a positive step forward,” Niegowski said.

In 2012, the state will replace its broad 10th-grade science exam with an EOC biology assessment, Niegowski added. The state had proposed passage of the biology test be mandatory for high school graduation, but has put off that requirement. Locally, some Issaquah school board members are pushing for the district to come up with science and/or technology assessments of its own and make passage required.

Regarding the controversial No Child Left Behind requirements, 11 district schools failed to meet what the standards call adequate yearly progress.

According to the state, Issaquah district elementary schools failing to meet AYP were Briarwood, Challenger, Clark and Sunset. Middle schools in the same category were Beaver Lake, Issaquah, Maywood and Pacific Cascade. Issaquah, Liberty and Skyline high schools all failed to meet AYP.

Niegowski said tentative results on the AYP measurements were first released earlier this year.

AYP measures a school’s progress in several areas of standardized testing. If a certain level of improvement is not reached in specific areas, a school can be said not to have attained AYP. Niegowski said many educators are critical of AYP because not meeting even one standard can cause a school to be labeled a failure.

For example, Briarwood did not make AYP this year and fell subject to certain federal sanctions. According to Niegowski, the only area the school failed to meet AYP was in reading for special-education students.

Because they failed to meet AYP either this year or last year, both Briarwood and Issaquah Valley Elementary were required to offer parents the option of sending students to other schools. Niegowski said final enrollment numbers for this year aren’t in yet, but no parents had removed children from Issaquah Valley, while perhaps one or two students had been taken out of Briarwood.

Niegowski noted that Issaquah Valley actually met AYP this year, but was required to offer parents a choice for two consecutive school years. While other Issaquah schools did not make AYP, they were not required to offer another school choice largely because they are not federal Title I schools, according to Niegowski. A school is considered a Title I school, if, among other factors, at least 40 percent of the student population is from low-income families.

In terms of sports accomplishments, Spartans of that vintage helped win the girls state softball championship in 1999. The football team took the state title in 2000 and just missed doing it again the following year.

Still, probably most importantly, the graduates represented the first class to attend Skyline for all four of their years in high school.

“I think it’s worth remembering, worth commemorating,” said Kim Best, a member of the class of ’01 and one of the principal organizers of the school’s first 10-year reunion.

The event is at 7 p.m. Sept. 23 at the Issaquah Brewhouse, 35 W. Sunset Way.

Best has been joined in the reunion planning by Catie Beck, who handles advertising sales for KISW 99.9-FM. They said it’s odd they have taken the lead in organizing the reunion as neither were all that involved in high school activities.

Still, Best, now the recreation supervisor for the city of Cheney, said the idea of a 10-year reunion intrigues her.

“I always wanted to go to a 10-year reunion even though I wasn’t a big fan of high school,” Best said. “I just thought it would be cool to see what people’s lives are like, how they’ve changed.”

“I just think it’s going to be fun,” Beck said, adding that there are members of the class of ’01 who started in school together at Challenger Elementary School and stayed together all the way through high school.

Beck said she got involved because a roommate was helping plan her own class reunion and she contacted Best with a few ideas and tips. Her involvement just grew from there.

To help get things rolling, the pair and one other planner, Robbie Sawyers, brought in a professional reunion planning company. The company located 336 of the class of ‘01’s 367 members. In terms of actually making contact with former classmates, Beck said Facebook has proven an extremely effective tool.

Planners put together a Facebook page for the reunion and with a few weeks left before the event, about 50 people have confirmed attendance.

“They’re sort of trickling in,” Beck said of reunion reservations. Both she and Best said the goal always has been to attract about 100 attendees.

While Beck said Facebook has been a big help in contacting alumni, she also thinks the social Internet site actually may have cut down on the interest in the reunion. Classmates have stayed in contact through Facebook and other online methods. As a result, the class of ’01 isn’t as curious about their classmates.

“They already know what they’ve been doing, where they are living,” Beck said.

Sunny Hills Elementary School first-grader Digant Dash (left) plants flower bulbs in the school’s first-grade garden with fourth-graders Derek Chao and Spencer Bernsten. By Jane Ulrich

Inch by inch, row by row, students are planting lettuce, herbs and broccoli in their school gardens.

This fall, teachers are transforming gardens into outdoor classrooms as students pick up trowels and learn about drip irrigation systems.

Dozens of schools incorporate gardening into their curriculum or have gardening clubs, including Apollo, Cascade Ridge, Challenger, Clark, Creekside, Discovery, Endeavour, Grand Ridge, Issaquah Valley, Maple Hills and Sunny Hills elementary schools; Issaquah and Pine Lake middle schools; and Liberty and Tiger Mountain Community high schools.

“I think the outdoors is just a natural place that kids want to be,” Sunny Hills fourth-grade teacher Jane Ulrich said.

Preschoolers watch seeds grow

“Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater,” goes the nursery rhyme chanted by many a preschool student.

Apollo 3- to 5 year-old preschool students get hands-on experience when it comes to planting seeds. In April, early childhood education teacher Janie Cantwell installed two raised garden beds, one full of flower bulbs and the other polka-dotted with vegetables.

The garden teaches students about “taking care of the environment and learning that what we put in the environment also comes out of the environment,” Cantwell said.

She wanted her preschoolers to see the growing process, so they planted seeds in a Ziploc bag filled with a wet paper towel, “so they could watch the seeds sprout and grow and watch the roots grow,” she said.

When the sprouts matured, she told her students about the importance of the sun, explaining why they needed to plant them outside in the garden.

For the culminating project, students decorated flowerpots and birdhouses — they had learned that birds enjoy worms and bugs living in the garden — and sold them to parents.

The project gave the children a tactile learning experience about how plants grow.

“They really enjoy the actual activity of digging in the dirt and finding worms and bugs,” Cantwell said.

Students eat their greens

Elementary school teachers are taking inside lessons outside into the garden.

At Grand Ridge, teachers connect math and science lessons to nature. After Cedar Grove Composting donated gardening materials to the learning garden, students planted corn, beans and squash.

“They learn that food comes from the ground, not from a box,” parent volunteer Julie Hart said.

Many elementary school students don’t like eating vegetables, but school gardens are changing greens from something gross into something cool.

In June, Issaquah Valley first-grade students ate salads made with vegetables they grew in their school garden.

At Sunny Hills, students not only eat produce — they have entire lessons outside.

Ulrich’s fourth-grade class partners with first-graders and together they explore their respective gardens, measuring plants and entering information into a national data base about ecology and climate change.

Every year, Ulrich’s students adopt a plant and care for it the entire year.

“The ultimate goal is to help them become stewards of natural places,” she said.

When she wasn’t satisfied with her student’s drawings of their plants, she introduced a photography unit. Now, students take black-and-white photos in the garden, and many pay more attention to detail in order to get that winning shot.

Students, especially boys, race through their environments, she said. When they’re carrying cameras, they slow down and look for good photos.

Ulrich said she lives for moments such as “having boys coming to school in the morning and say, ‘Mrs. Ulrich, did you see the sunrise? I took my camera,’ or ‘Mrs. Ulrich, can I go to the garden? I saw a spider web on the shore pine and I want to photograph it.’”

Sunny Hills’ third-grade students learn about geology in the garden. Marenakos Rock Center in Preston donated a pile of rocks to the school’s millennium garden, and students can tour the area, scribbling down notes about rocks and minerals along the way.

The gardens are so popular, Ulrich encourages teachers to post successful lesson plans on a bulletin board so the entire school can excel in the gardens.

Middle school students learn how to irrigate, harvest

Since last year, the Issaquah Middle School Garden Club has focused its efforts on a sustainable school garden.

“We started out by pulling out all of the weeds and by putting in compost,” seventh-grader Julia Cochran said.

“After the planting, we made signs for the different vegetables and we put in worms,” seventh-grader Gaby Creaver said.

They installed three planters and an irrigation drip system connected to rain barrels. In the future, science teacher and club adviser Olga Haider hopes students can use solar panels to power the water pump from the barrels to the drip irrigation.

“They learned a little hard work and working with the land and tools,” Haider said.

Before long, the Issaquah Middle students had planted seeds for radishes, kale, pumpkins, strawberries, peas and onions.

Cascade Water Alliance supplied the club with aerators to lessen the water flow for sinks and water-efficient showerheads.

“The whole idea is if we teach our young people now — because they will be the consumers, the decision-makers of the future — if you have this quiet cultural revolution within the school system, then when these young people grow up, at least they’ll have that knowledge,” Haider said.

Education is key, Cascade Water Alliance Water Resources Manager Michael Brent said.

“Even a small-scale project like ours introduces important concepts that can be applied on a larger scale,” he said. “As the IMS students grow up and become decision-makers, I hope this experience will help guide them in making wise, sustainable choices for their communities and the planet.”

The garden would not have bloomed were it not for a generous community. Triangle Associates, a company working with the King County Solid Waste Division, awarded the school a $500 grant for supplies; Cedar Grove Composting donated the soil; and the Issaquah Home Depot donated bark, tools and strawberries.

High school students gain skills

Tiger Mountain Community High school students are learning how to raise geraniums from cuttings and how to get rid of aphids using soapy water.

The school already has a flourishing greenhouse, and this fall students will install an outdoor, raised-bed garden, thanks to a $500 grant from the Lake Washington Garden Club.

Students at Tiger Mountain tend to favor hands-on activities, and gardening allows them to design, cultivate and harvest, according to science and botany teacher Sanghamitra “Mitra” Kundu.

During one science experiment, she had students care for tulips using hydroponics. Students compared the growth of the soil-less plants to the potted ones. They found that the hydroponics didn’t have pests, like aphids.

The tulips in the dirt pots were not as lucky.

“We don’t use any spray or pesticides in the greenhouse, so we got some ladybugs,” Kundu said. “One of the plants, it was heavily affected by aphids, so they got some soapy water.”

Diluted soapy water kills aphids.

In early summer, after much of their crop had matured, students threw a barbecue for their school, sharing their lettuce, basil and cilantro with their classmates.

The garden helps students learn about the food chain, photosynthesis and the environment, in addition to teaching them about empathy for living things.

“They get a greater concern and willingness to care for living things,” Kundu said. “I can see an improvement of their attitude toward the school and improvement of interpersonal relationships.”

Across the district, at Liberty, special-needs students are growing potatoes, squash, cucumbers and peas in the student greenhouse.

Teacher Denise Vogel said students learn a variety of skills, including following directions, weeding and how to use garden tools, such as a wheelbarrow.

“This also teaches them work skills,” Vogel said. “It can start with the kids taking a handful of weeds to the compost, or it can move up to kids using Weed Eaters, shovels and rakes, so they can be a landscape assistant.”

One student who has cerebral palsy can’t talk but lets out a delighted holler every time she pulls a weed.

At the end of the school year, students take home their crop.

“I said, ‘You can take it home and plant it or take it home and eat it.’” Vogel said.

Maywood Middle School is being expanded and modernized. sky-pix aerial photography

The schools are following the plan laid out to voters with one exception, according to information on the district website.

In early 2007, the district acted to redirect construction dollars originally earmarked to fund construction of a new middle school, the district’s fifth. Because of changed enrollment and other factors, officials decided, rather than build a new school, they would convert the Pacific Cascade Freshman Campus into a full-blown middle school beginning in fall 2010. As a result, the Issaquah and Skyline high school campuses were revamped to include space for new freshmen.

Funded by that 2006 bond issue, here are some of the projects still under way in the district.

“The biggies are all down on the south end this year,” said Sara Niegowski, district executive director of communications.

• Planners slated Maywood Middle School in Renton for a modernization and expansion project. According to the latest construction update from the district this month, Maywood’s old administration/commons area and counseling offices are gone, with construction of replacement facilities under way. Demolition of the parking lots and sidewalks are nearing completion with rebuilding scheduled to have already started. Grading of new parking areas has begun.

• Also in Renton, Briarwood Elementary School was slated for a complete replacement. A new building is to rise right next to the existing structure, Niegowski said. The Briarwood project still is in its beginning stages, though the school’s former parking lot is now part of the construction zone. A new, temporary lot for staff and parents was built on the east side of the school.

Also affecting how students will come and go from the school, the driveway in front of Briarwood was renovated and now is intended for drop off and pick up of students only.

On another front, the construction has taken over the school’s former baseball field and what was known as the “Big Toy” area. Some of the play equipment was moved and will be available to students this year. Briarwood’s new building is slated to open in fall 2012.

• Liberty High School is set to receive a $19 million addition and modernization. The schedule had new science labs built first in summer of last year. Site preparation and some demolition was to last through early this year, when construction was launched on a new performing arts center. Overall work is thought to continue through summer 2012.

• Work also continues on a modernization project at Challenger Elementary in Issaquah. The former library and staff lounge is gone with construction of the renovated facilities under way. The school’s parking lot and pick-up/drop-off area is about to be realigned.

• Issaquah High School was slated to receive a complete rebuilding at a cost of $94.9 million. Classroom and core areas were ready by fall 2010, with completion of the remaining work done by this fall.

Contractors presently are finishing up cleaning and working on final punch lists on the high school project. The school’s new performing arts center largely should be up and running in time for the start of school, though officials warn installation of a few items may have to await delivery of those items.

Outside the building, grinding and repaving was slated to begin on a widened Second Avenue the week of Aug. 15. Work is also proceeding on the school’s new athletic stadium. Turf is in place and workers are installing end zone letters and logos.

• Odds and ends: Portable classrooms are in place at Liberty, Apollo Elementary in Renton and Issaquah Valley Elementary in Issaquah. Portables also are on their way to Newcastle Elementary in Newcastle. In Issaquah, at Endeavour Elementary, workers are proceeding with replacing the roof and skylights.

Outside of schools, installation is set to begin shortly on new bus lifts for the district transportation center.

Challenger Elementary School students

Challenger Elementary School students leant a hand and raised some dough for the earthquake and tsunami victims in Japan.

The Student Council collected $1,309 for UNICEF, while hundreds of students wrote encouraging notes on paper hands during school April 22. The notes will be sent to children in Japan as part of the school’s Give a Helping Hand campaign for Japan.

The Issaquah PTSA Council awarded 73 volunteers from 23 schools with Golden Acorn Awards at the 2011 Recognizing Our All-Stars reception March 29.

Boy Scout Troop Pack 636 started the function with a flag salute, and Issaquah PTSA Council President Janine Kotan welcomed the crowd.

The ceremony had a sports theme, with presenters dressed in their favorite sports garb and giving speeches about how volunteers had wowed their fans and hit home runs for their schools.

Jennifer Good, a parent volunteer at Challenger Elementary School, said she began volunteering to meet people and promote education. She organized an ice cream social at the beginning of the year, while Ruth Steck, another parent volunteer, regularly snaps photos of students for the Challenger yearbook.

Both women said they appreciated the Golden Acorn Awards, though, “You don’t do it to be recognized,” Good said.

Third-grade Discovery Elementary School teacher Tasha Kirby received an award for her work advocating that students get civically involved in their community. She encourages her students to attend public meetings. Her third-graders entered the Disney’s Planet Challenge and are creating action plans about how to save the environment.

“I’ve had students present to the City Council,” Kirby said. “They get so excited and I think it shows them they can have an impact.”

Pine Lake Middle School parent Diane Laucius, another Golden Acorn recipient, said her proudest moment happened at Discovery. When she learned that the fifth-grade camp program would be discontinued, she joined other parents and rallied for the cause.

Though the camp is not being held this year, she still felt empowered by her advocacy, she said.

The Golden Acorn Award is given to PTA and PTSA members who excel in their duties, such as organizing or helping with student activities.

The winners are honored in two ways. First, a $65 contribution to the Washington State PTA Financial Grant Program fund for higher education is made in the recipient’s name. Second, the recipients receive a Golden Acorn Award pin.

More than 44,000 Golden Acorn Awards have been awarded statewide since the program’s inception.

Golden Acorn Awards honorees

Outstanding Advocates: Alison Merywether, Leigh Stokes, Leslie Warrick

Issaquah Council PTSA Outstanding Service Award: Janine Kotan

PTSA Council Golden Acorn: Rajeev Goel

High schools

• Issaquah – Karin Allen, Dianne Bugge, Lisa Gaan, Mark Vahn,
• Skyline – Sara Blessington, Caroline Brown

Middle schools

• Beaver Lake – Judy Babb, Kim Fancher, Deb Smith
• Issaquah – Camille Vaska
• Maywood – Diane Bliesner, Robbi Hollister, Carolyn LaValley, Kim Sherman
• Pacific Cascade – Stacy Heller, Donna McLeod, Audrey Winslow
• Pine Lake – Stephanie Benz, Diane Laucius, Karin Plastina, Katie Reeves

Elementary schools

• Apollo – Tammy Filer, Carrie Koperski
• Briarwood – Leslie Kahler, Barbara Potts
• Cascade Ridge – Jaycee Cooper, Monica Futty, Rajeev Goel, Chrisann Penz, Diana Verrue
• Challenger – Elizabeth Bania, Jennifer Good, Ruth Steck
• Clark – Kassandra Mitchell, Tracy Silva
• Cougar Ridge – Mary Adkins, Blyth Claeys, Sally Feldman, Jennifer Goldberg
• Creekside – Jackie Firth, Ina Ghangurde, Kavitha Kumar
• Discovery – Chelsea Dziedzic, Lynn Hickman, Tasha Kirby, Shannon Ptacek
• Endeavour – Sarah Fulford, Dawn Heiberg, Stacy O’Daffer, Julie Spieker
• Grand Ridge – Nancy Castonguay, Theora Dalupan, Leslie Warrick, Kristen Wisdom
• Issaquah Valley – Dan Chernin, Colleen Gurkin, Ana Inman, Kerri Jensen
• Maple Hills – Molly Caskey, Kim George
• Newcastle – Staci Schnell, Kim Sherman, Lisa Vold
• Sunny Hills – Dia Biswas, Connie Fortier, Jennifer Murai, Martha Swallow
• Sunset – Barb Dolliver, Deena Eastern, Wendy Redding, Heidi Stenzel, Patti Thieme

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

King County is honoring Grand Ridge Elementary School — plus teachers, a student, and a staff member from across the Issaquah School District — as Earth Heroes at School.

The annual honor highlights schools and people for contributions to environmental protection and student environmental education. The county Department of Natural Resources and Parks’ Solid Waste Division announced the 2011 honorees Wednesday.

“Winners of the Earth Heroes at School awards are a diverse group who share the common goal of making our world a better place,” County Executive Dow Constantine said in a statement. “It is an honor to recognize their achievements in environmental education, waste reduction, energy conservation and other positive efforts.”

Grand Ridge Elementary recorded a 35-percent recycling rate last year.

Eager to do more, students, teachers and staff members improved recycling in classrooms and offices, and started a food scrap-recycling program. The schoolwide Media Club created a video to demonstrate proper recycling and composting. Moreover, the Issaquah Highlands school promoted recycling at all school events.

The result: The recycling rate increased to 62 percent.

The county spotlighted Issaquah Middle School teachers Olga Haider and Michelle Pickard for spearheading a successful and sustainable resource conservation program at the school.

Pickard laid the framework for recycling and waste reduction — and helped the school reach Level 1 Green School status. Then, Haider helped the school reach the tougher-to-achieve Level 2 status through water conservation and by installing a school organic garden.

The recycling rate at Issaquah High School concerned student Kate Brunette, another Earth Heroes honoree.

So, Brunette gathered support from the city and the county Green Schools Program, and reached out to students, custodial staff members, teachers and administrators to implement strategies to increase recycling. The efforts included adding food waste collection to the program.

David Holbrook started the recycling program on the first day of school at the just-opened Creekside Elementary School. In the first month, the recycling rate at the school reached 55 percent.

In addition, Holbrook supports all conservation efforts at Creekside, and uses eco-friendly cleaning products to maintain the campus’ sustainable features.

Constantine plans to honor the local honorees and others from across the county at a ceremony April 14.

Issaquah district schools often clean up in the Earth Heroes competition.

Cascade Ridge Elementary School, Maywood Middle School and Pine Lake Middle School received schoolwide awards last year.

The county honored Issaquah Middle and Challenger Elementary School in 2009.

Carpenter Alfredo Arreola vacuums dust as he grinds and finishes concrete steps in the seating area of Issaquah High School’s new Performing Arts Center. By Greg Farrar

The voter-approved $241.8 million construction bond from 2006 is in full swing, sending two-story buildings high into the sky and installing sewer systems deep into the ground.

Several schools across the Issaquah School District are receiving money for construction updates or remodels. Four projects are slated to begin construction June 20, after school gets out:

• Briarwood Elementary School will get a new building, slated for completion in fall 2012.

• Liberty High School will undergo a partial modernization and expansion, with most areas complete by August 2012, and final completion by spring 2013.

• Maywood Middle School will be modernized and expanded with new classrooms and science labs with completion in August 2012.

• Challenger Elementary School will be modernized with a relocated central office, improved heating and air controls and separate bus and car traffic areas.

Issaquah High School’s new building is almost complete. As of Jan. 31, the district had spent $80.6 million on the project, which has a budget of $94.9 million.

The main building, complete with classrooms, commons and science labs, opened this past fall, but the Performing Arts Center, the wing housing the music, photography, theater, art and woodshop rooms, is still under construction.

Until the new center opens, the fine arts community is using the old building for classroom space.

“It’s thrilling to watch it go up,” Issaquah High School drama director Holly Whiting said. “The fine arts people are still in the old section of the building. It’s been nicknamed ‘District 9,’” after the slums where aliens were forced to live in a science fiction movie.

Once the center is complete, the Issaquah High drama program can return home; for the past three years its students have used the stage at Skyline for their plays and musicals. Liberty will face the same challenge next year when its stage is torn down for the remodel. Liberty drama teacher Katherine Klekas said she is trying to book her students’ shows at other theaters in the meantime.

“We’re going to be in a difficult transition and then we’ll be in a beautiful new theater,” she said.

Southside sewer system

Three schools in the southern part of the district will get two new sewer systems.

Maywood Middle School will get an upgrade from its septic system. With septic systems, the effluent — the liquid wastewater — flows out of the septic tank and is absorbed into the ground, while the solids are digested within the septic tank.

Maywood’s septic tank is at capacity, and since the school is expanding, district administrators decided to give it a new sewer system instead of a larger septic tank.

“We’re going to connect it to the sewer, which is a better long-term solution and a better environmental solution,” district Director of Capital Projects Steve Crawford said. Then, “it goes into the municipal sewer system and gets treated.”

Briarwood Elementary School’s sewer system will connect to Liberty. Previously, Liberty had a holding tank that needed to be pumped out daily, or as needed.

“The district has to have one of our maintenance people pump it out, drive the truck down to the disposal system and empty the truck out,” Crawford said.

After the sewage system update, Liberty will also be on the municipal system. The $1.2 million sewer system project, paid for by the 2006 bond, is slated to begin in May and end in early 2012.

Issaquah High School nearly complete

Issaquah High School students can still hear the roar of construction as workers finish the Performing Arts Center next door, but soon their patience will be rewarded with a spacious new facility.

After construction workers finished the main building this summer, they installed a temporary wall between it and the center. Once the center is complete, the wall will be removed, connecting the two and nearly doubling the length of the commons.

The center has abundant space for theater storage, music practice rooms and a green room where actors can change. The theater has an orchestra pit, a three-fourths fly zone for props kept above the stage space, a movie screen, sound system, catwalks and seats 600 people.

Workers are at the sheetrock stage of finishing the theater. Eventually, it will have wood paneling.

“It’s set up as a theater instead of a cafeteria that happens to have a stage,” district Construction Coordinator Royce Nourigat said.

Students can also perform in the new black box theater, a room large enough to seat 100 people.

“The excitement is palpable,” Whiting said. “We’re giddy with the prospect of getting in there.”

The parking lot will grow from the 416 spaces required during construction to 499 spaces, Nourigat said. This spring, workers expect to finish the new bus loop. This summer, construction crews will install a stoplight at the entrance to the parking lot near Clark Elementary School.

The center also allows more space for its classes. Before, the wood shop and material science rooms shared space, but now they each have their own rooms and outdoor patios for large, noxious smelling projects. Large windows adorn each room in the center, allowing natural light to filter in even on a cloudy day.

During the design process, teachers worked with the architect, sharing their ideas for the new building. Over-the-top ideas were politely reframed into practical ones — after all, the district has to keep consistency among its three main high schools.

The new Issaquah High is also environmentally friendlier than its predecessor. It has more insulation, gas boilers instead of electric heaters and double-paned instead of single-paned windows.

“I’ve worked on elementary and middle schools and the ninth-grade campus and this is by far the most complicated thing I’ve worked on so far,” Nourigat said.

Tiger Mountain Community High School

Though not part of the 2006 bond, the kitchen and commons at Tiger Mountain Community High School are also under construction.

In fall 2009, a leaking water heater caused black mold growth in the kitchen’s floors and walls. Insurance paid for most of the repairs, and district administrators agreed to remodel the kitchen and commons to accommodate Tiger Mountain’s culinary arts class.

That remodel is ongoing, but Crawford said he planned to have it done when students return from spring break in April.

The construction went on hiatus when a plumbing inspector from the city of Issaquah asked the district to buy a building permit.

Because the building had already existed before the remodel, district administrators did not initially apply for a permit, but they did at the request of the city, paying $2,460, Crawford said.

The district needed the permit because workers had redone some wall finishes, meaning they needed to be inspected for proper fire code, according to Lisa Laine, senior permit technician at the Issaquah Permit Center.

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