King County honors 11 Issaquah district ‘green’ schools
June 28, 2011
Thanks to the “green” conservation work of staff members and students, the King County Green Schools Program is honoring 11 schools in the Issaquah School District.
In total, King County will honor 77 schools across the country, including the 11 schools in Issaquah.
The three-level Green Schools Program provides hands-on assistance, recycling containers and signs, and website tools to schools. In addition to the Green Schools Program, King County provides an elementary school assembly program, classroom workshops and support for student green teams.
The program has saved schools and the district money from successful waste reduction and recycling programs, and reducing energy and water use.
Seven schools in the district have achieved Level One status, including Apollo, Cougar Ridge, Issaquah Valley, Sunny Hills and Sunset elementary schools; Pacific Cascade Middle School; and Issaquah High School. Level One schools focus on waste reduction and recycling.
Two schools in the district achieved Level Two, including Creekside and Newcastle elementary schools, after students and teachers targeted energy conservation.
The other two schools — Issaquah Middle School and Liberty High School — completed Level Three after students and teachers worked on water conservation.
“Thanks to support from King County Green Schools and city of Issaquah, the students and staff at these 11 schools understand why conservation is important and are doing a great job conserving natural resources and dollars,” John Macartney, the district’s resource conservation manager, said in a news release.
King County honors 11 ‘green’ Issaquah district schools
June 16, 2011
NEW — 3 p.m. June 16, 2011
Thanks to the “green” conservation work of staff and students, King County Green Schools Program is honoring 11 schools in the Issaquah School District.
In total, the county will honor 77 schools across the country, including the 11 schools in Issaquah.
The three-level Green Schools Program provides hands-on assistance, recycling containers and signs and website tools to schools. In addition to the Green Schools Program, King County provides an elementary school assembly program, classroom workshops and support for student “green” teams.
The program has saved schools and the district money from successful waste reduction and recycling programs and reducing energy and water use.
Who’s News
June 14, 2011
Fundraiser nets $220,000 for Kindering Center
The Kindering Center, a Bellevue-based birth-to-3 neurodevelopmental center for children with special needs, held its sixth annual Salute to Courage Luncheon benefit May 6 at the Bellevue Westin Hotel.
The center serves Issaquah students and has an Issaquah board member, Dr. Rosita Van Coevorden. The organization raised more than $220,000 for crucial early-intervention services provided to children with special needs at the center.
Maple Hills Elementary School principal goes to PCMS
June 7, 2011
Maple Hills Elementary School Principal Monique Beane has nurtured her school’s community since 2007, but this fall she has decided to move up to the middle school level.
In an email to parents June 6, Beane announced her move to Pacific Cascade Middle School, where she will work as assistant principal.
The current assistant principal, Condee Wood, has accepted a position with Washington Middle School in the Olympia School District.
When Issaquah School District Superintendent Steve Rasmussen learned of Wood’s move, he asked Beane if she would consider taking the Pacific Cascade position, she wrote in the email. Just as she taught her students at Maple Hills, Beane said she decided to take on a new challenge.
Maple Hills Elementary principal takes middle school post
June 6, 2011
NEW — 5:45 p.m. June 6, 2011
Maple Hills Elementary School Principal Monique Beane has nurtured her school’s community since 2007, but this fall she has decided to move up to the middle school level.
In an email to parents Monday, Beane announced her move to Pacific Cascade Middle School, where she will work as assistant principal.
The current assistant principal, Condee Wood, has accepted a position with Washington Middle School in the Olympia School District.
When Issaquah School District Superintendent Steve Rasmussen learned of Wood’s move, he asked Beane if she would consider taking the Pacific Cascade position, she wrote in the email. Just as she taught her students at Maple Hills, Beane decided to take on a new challenge, she wrote.
Issaquah ballet studio presents ‘Don Quixote’
May 31, 2011
The Spanish lovers danced a pas de deux — a dance for two — enamored with each other even though the girl’s father forbade their union.
La Yin (left) plays Basil in the ballet ‘Don Quixote’ as he woes the heroine Kitri, played by Sabrina Schulbach. Photo By Laura Geggel
The father believed the young man, a barber, was too poor to marry his daughter. Luckily – or unluckily for them — the fate of the paramours rested on the actions of the ballet’s hero, Don Quixote.
The Issaquah Highlands dance studio MK Ballet is performing “Don Quixote” at the Meydenbauer Center Theater June 10 and 11.
Michiko Black, the studio’s founder, has spent the past year teaching her students the ballet choreography and sewing costumes for their big performance.
Issaquah School District considers $228 million bond
May 24, 2011
Though far from complete, the 2012 Issaquah School District bond has something for all of the district’s 24 schools, making the work-in-process price $228.6 million.
The proposal also includes remodeled or expanded schools for Apollo, Clark, Issaquah Valley and Sunny Hills elementary schools, Issaquah Middle School, and Liberty and Tiger Mountain Community high schools.
The bond proposal suggests the district tear down Tiger Mountain and Clark, and move the students to a remodeled building where Issaquah Middle School is now. The two schools would be close, but not connected, Associate Superintendent Ron Thiele said, with the Tiger move costing about $3.9 million and the Clark move costing about $19.5 million.
In the meantime, the district would build a new, two-story Issaquah Middle School where Clark and Tiger are now; that would cost about $62.5 million.
“This is the biggest project on the bond,” Thiele said.
The proposed bond also shows several trends — switches from carpet to rubber flooring, three new artificial-turf fields and two rain shields for outdoor play areas.
Excessive fundraising efforts could lead to ‘compassion fatigue’
May 24, 2011
Every week it feels like there is a new disaster, a new cause or a new something for which someone is fundraising.
By Iman Baghai
It doesn’t take much to see how active our communities are in supporting various causes. Last year in one month at the Pacific Cascade Freshman Campus (now Pacific Cascade Middle School), there were more than five different fundraisers vying for my pocket. At Issaquah High School, there are some weeks during lunch when at least two people are coming to my table asking for money for various causes.
Has all of this fundraising made people immune to bad news and bypass causes that normally would grasp our hearts? Or is it a matter of timing? For example, the Japan earthquake grasped the world’s attention and triggered fundraising campaigns left and right. However, the deadliest tornadoes in U.S. history were overlooked in favor of the royal wedding, Osama bin Laden’s death and Donald Trump’s formerly ambitious presidential campaign.
Is it disturbing that our hearts seem to follow the media, though the media does sometime support catastrophes. Because of the Internet, we are becoming more aware of the devastation and needs of the world around us. Granted, as we talk with one another, each issue garners less of our attention as we become immune to new issues and disasters; what was once eye-opening and shocking has become ordinary and dismissive.
Pacific Cascade performers evoke ancient China in ‘Mulan Jr.’
May 12, 2011
Pacific Cascade Middle School performers rehearse for 'Mulan Jr.' Contributed
NEW — 8 a.m. May 12, 2011
Issaquah students are featuring the popular Disney animated movie “Mulan” on stage Friday for the Pacific Cascade Middle School theater production, “Mulan Jr.”
The play takes the audience to ancient China with the action-packed story of a Chinese girl and her sidekick dragon, Mushu, who both work to save the emperor from the invading Huns.
Adventures await at school district’s summer camp
May 3, 2011
From archeological digs to building a garden, rope courses to hiking, adventure awaits Issaquah campers this summer.
Club Connection, for kindergarten through fifth grades, is held at four locations, including Apollo, Discovery, Endeavour and Sunset elementary schools. !MPACT, for grades six through eight, is held at Beaver Lake and Pacific Cascade middle schools.
Issaquah School District Day Camps are from June 20 to Aug. 19. The camps cost $40 per day, with a three-day minimum per week. All camps provide multiple field trips, on-site learning activities, simple and extensive crafts, cooperative games, physical challenges, team-building exercises and access to enrichment specialists from various fields.
Registration ends May 6. Download a form at http://connect.issaquah.wednet.edu. Go to “District,” at the top menu and click on “Before and After School Enrichment.”
