Sunny Hills principal takes position with district
May 28, 2013
Sunny Hills Elementary School Principal Sarah White announced that she will leave the school to become the district’s director of instructional support.
“This was not an easy decision to make. I will miss everyone here tremendously,” she wrote in an email to Sunny Hills families. “However, I am following an important life lesson that we try to teach all of our students: Challenge and change are often necessary for growth and fresh perspectives.”
Sunny Hills Elementary School receives donation for books
January 29, 2013
The Issaquah School Board approved a $5,000 donation from the Sunny Hills Elementary PTA on Jan. 23.
The money is for “Just Right” books for classroom libraries. The books are part of a leveled reading method that determines how well individual students within the same classroom read and then matches them to books that are challenging enough for them to make progress.
Issaquah students cast ballots in mock elections
October 30, 2012
The minimum age to vote is 18, but the hurdle did not stop students throughout the Issaquah School District from casting ballots in the tight races for president and governor.
Educators on local campuses organized mock elections or joined the annual Student Mock Election overseen by the state elections office to educate students about the importance of participation in the political process.
Students at Issaquah and Tiger Mountain Community high schools, Issaquah Middle School, and Creekside, Endeavour and Sunny Hills elementary schools cast ballots in ersatz elections or plan to do so by the actual Election Day, Nov. 6.
Teachers involved in the mock elections said the exercise is about more than determining whether students support Jay Inslee or Rob McKenna for governor.
Student Mock Election asks for future voters’ opinions
October 25, 2012
NEW — 9 a.m. Oct. 25, 2012
The minimum age to vote is 18, but the hurdle did not stop students throughout the Issaquah School District from casting ballots in the tight races for president and governor.
Educators on local campuses organized mock elections or joined the annual Student Mock Election overseen by the state elections office to educate students about the importance of participation in the political process.
Students at Issaquah and Tiger Mountain Community high schools, Issaquah Middle School, and Creekside, Endeavour and Sunny Hills elementary schools cast ballots in ersatz elections or plan to do so by the actual Election Day, Nov. 6.
Teachers involved in the mock elections said the exercise is about more than determining whether students support Jay Inslee or Rob McKenna for governor.
Issaquah schools receive $150,085 in donations
October 16, 2012
Programs and classrooms in the Issaquah School District got a $150,000 boost last month in the form of donations.
The various gifts were approved by the school board during its regular meetings Sept. 12 and 26.
The first allotment, $90,750 was approved Sept. 12 and included a $56,250 check from the Issaquah Schools Foundation. The money is set to be divided among four district programs — $12,750 for financial literacy, $18,000 for high school robotics, $7,500 for middle school robotics and $18,000 for pre-K summer school.
Spurred by Skyline threat, absences jump 70 percent at other schools
September 25, 2012
Student attendance in the Issaquah School District tumbled Sept. 20, and absences spiked by 70 percent, as police investigated a shooting threat against Skyline High School.
District administrators decided late Sept. 19 to close Skyline the next day in response to the online threat and keep other campuses open. Staffers and students at other schools felt the ripples early.
Spurred by Skyline threat, absences jump 70 percent at Issaquah schools
September 20, 2012
NEW — 6:15 p.m. Sept. 20, 2012
Student attendance in the Issaquah School District tumbled Thursday, and absences spiked by 70 percent, as police investigated a shooting threat against Skyline High School.
District administrators decided late Wednesday to close Skyline on Thursday and keep other campuses open. Staffers and students at other schools felt the ripples early.
Districtwide, absences increased at 18 of 25 schools Thursday, although not every instance is attributable to the Skyline threat.
Officials counted 1,158 students absent Thursday, up from 680 a week earlier, Sept. 13, according to a comparison of attendance data. The district serves about 17,000 students from Preston to Newcastle, and from Sammamish to Renton.
Student writers shine at Sunny Hills Elementary’s Young Authors Night
May 15, 2012
Jenaya Ray, 7, flips through her book ‘The Unicorns’ Magical Powers,’ which she also illustrated. By Lillian Tucker
The outside campus of Sunny Hills Elementary School was crawling with smiling, chatty students, hopped up on ice cream, pizza and the pleasure of being at school with friends and not having to hurry to class.
Preliminary timeline is in place for school, fields construction
May 15, 2012
Issaquah School District officials are wasting no time when it comes to putting their recently approved $219 million bond into action.
The school board reviewed a preliminary schedule of projects and timeline for school construction and other district upgrades at its May 9 meeting. Some projects could begin as soon as July and other smaller projects extend through the end of 2019.
“Somebody has to be first and somebody has to be last,” said Jacob Kuper, chief operations officer for the district.
Phase 2 construction of Liberty High School and Phase 2 at Maywood Middle School are first in line with finishes projected by the end of 2013. At the caboose of the tentative timeline of the larger projects is the reconstruction of Sunny Hills Elementary School, which wouldn’t finish until December 2018.
Growth is focus as City Council, Issaquah School Board meet
May 1, 2012
City and Issaquah School District leaders pledged coordination and cooperation as the city outlines a bold plan to add thousands of residences in the decades ahead.
Chad Magendanz
Discussion about the Central Issaquah Plan — a proposal to transform more than 900 acres near Interstate 90 and state Route 900 — and possible changes to the school district, such as redrawing boundaries for schools to accommodate population shifts, dominated the annual joint meeting April 24.
City Council and Issaquah School Board members, plus Mayor Ava Frisinger and Superintendent Steve Rasmussen and other officials, gathered at Mandarin Garden a week after school district voters approved a $219 million bond to fuel a school construction boom. The planned projects include major changes for schools in downtown Issaquah.
The groups, seated beneath red lanterns and arranged around lazy Susans, sipped tea and nibbled on fried rice and roast pork as discussion unfolded about long-term development plans. (The city hosted the meal and spent $311.24 on food and beverages.)
“Both organizations have gone from fast-growing organizations to more stable, mature organizations with different sets of issues,” Council President Tola Marts said. “So, now the challenge is how do we manage the remaining growth that we have?”
