Issaquah School District

☀ Join Superintendent Heather Tow-Yick at Clark Elementary’s Shark Club as she celebrates a year of achievements and looks ahead to an exciting future. In our June Community Update video, Superintendent Tow-Yick expresses deep gratitude for the unwavering support of the school community, from dedicated board members to hardworking staff and families. She honors our graduating seniors and their journey ahead. 💭 Learn about the newly approved bond initiative set for the November ballot, designed to bring energy-efficient, safe, and career-focused facilities to our district. #EveryISDstudentEveryDay

Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses in the ISD align education to labor market demand and provide students with the technical, academic and vocational knowledge and skills they need to succeed. 🎉 Each year we celebrate student learning and successes in CTE at the Annual CTE Student Showcase. This open house features middle and high school students in grades 7-12 who excel in their CTE courses. From projects on game design and fashion design to psychology research, photography and more, this event highlights our students' diverse interests, skills and accomplishments. In addition to showcasing about 50 students this year, we also recognized the outstanding teachers, support staff and community supporters at the event. Congratulations to the students selected to participate this year – we are proud of your growth, creativity, leadership and outstanding demonstration of 21st-century skills. Thank you and congratulations to the following award-winners who make CTE programming possible! ✨ CTSO Advisor of the Year: Sarah Orton, FCCLA advisor at Issaquah HS ✨CTE Teacher of the Year: Ellen Jarvinen, Visual Communication teacher at Issaquah HS ✨CTE Classified Staff Member of the Year: Cynthia Lorrain, Assistant to the CTE Director ✨CTE VIP (PAC/Community Member): Dave Beecher, Member of our STEM Pathway Advisory Committee who also volunteers in our Mechatronics Classroom Special recognition for students in the L Café program at Liberty High School for the beautiful and delicious refreshments created for this event! Learn more about CTE in the ISD: https://lnkd.in/gHgDaYjw

🎥 In our May community update video, Superintendent Heather Tow-Yick and Liberty High School Principal Andrew Brownson talk about what a potential bond package might offer #IssaquahSchoolDistrict students, families, staff and community members. Brownson was one of the volunteers on the Bond Advisory Committee, which wrapped up its work at the end of April. Tow-Yick recently presented her recommended bond proposal to our School Board Directors, who will continue their discussion of a potential November bond measure at their May 23 meeting. #EveryISDstudentEveryDay

🎉 We've had a month full of celebrations, and we would be remiss if we didn't share our appreciation for our Food Service and Health Room teams! Here are just a few of the pictures of these critical members of our staff, in recognition of School Lunch Hero Day, which was May 3, and National School Nurse Day on May 8. Thank you, Food Service teams, for preparing delicious, nutritious meals for our students each day! And thank you, nurses and health room specialists, for your expert care for our students, many of whom would not be able to safely attend school without your presence! Check out more photos celebrating these great teams: https://lnkd.in/gTk8w53g https://lnkd.in/g5t9sM-r

Thank you to Luke and all of our other teen mentors in the VOICE (Volunteers of Issaquah Changing Education) Mentor Program!

Thank you, Issaquah Schools Foundation, and our community members, for your ongoing support of our students, staff and families!

As we close out #TeacherAppreciationWeek, we wanted to share some of the words of thanks offered in celebration of the incredible impact our #IssaquahSchoolDistrict teachers make each day. Teachers are champions – inspiring, encouraging and guiding students to learn, grow and thrive. But, who could better describe how amazing our teachers are than our students? Take a listen: 🍎✨ Thank you, Teachers! Middle School: https://lnkd.in/gk7Vmz5z 🥳⭐️ Teacher Appreciation: Elementary: https://lnkd.in/g7vp2Z5E 🏫🎓 High School Students Thank Teachers: https://lnkd.in/gVajDiT6

👏 Congratulations to Issaquah High School, which was recently ranked in the top 10 high schools in Washington state by U.S. News and World Report. Way to go, Eagles!! 🦅 This ranking is based on college readiness, state assessment proficiency, state assessment performance, under-served student performance on state assessments, college curriculum breadth and graduation rate. Using those criteria, Liberty and Skyline were ranked at 22 and 25, respectively. Gibson Ek was not ranked in this report. Read more: https://lnkd.in/g5AQVRD2

✨ Issaquah School District is built on a foundation of innovation going back to our humble beginnings, and that same spirit is found in our ongoing exploration and development of secondary programming. Over the past few months, students, staff and community members have embarked on an ambitious project exploring the future of work and the appropriate learning and opportunities our students need to thrive in that world. 🎬 In this community update, Superintendent Tow-Yick is joined by Julia Bamba, Principal on Special Assignment for Secondary Innovation, to review our progress as we delve into this exciting topic.

💛 Elsa Crane says she has never been part of a staff as positive and supportive as the one at Gibson Ek High School. “Being a teacher here makes me feel welcomed,” she says. An advisor at Gibson Ek, Crane has worked at the school for a few years, but this is her first time having her own advisory. At Gibson Ek, students are assigned advisories at the beginning of the year that they stay with throughout their entire high school journey, and it’s Crane’s favorite part of the school. “The fact that we can build a little family that stays together the entire course of your high school career is like, what a powerful thing!” Crane cares deeply about many things, she says. “Politics, I’m really, really passionate about political theory but also political action and the concept of utilizing power structures to benefit other people. I think it’s one of the greater things we do as humans, is to organize ourselves in a way to support and help each other, and I think that’s so cool.” She also values philosophy, ethics, fantasy literature and music. “I love fantasy in all of its forms. I think that literature is a term that we tend to only associate with books, but I think it also can apply to anything that is a cultural artifact that provides value,” Crane says. “Music is another one; I love music. I love playing music.” She primarily plays the bass clarinet, but she also plays baritone saxophone and a few other instruments. “I don’t do it as much as I used to, but that may change. ... It’s something that has always brought me joy.” Her favorite subjects to teach are philosophy, music and civics. “I'm a weirdly patriotic person, which is maybe not (common among) my cohort, but I love this country. I really love celebrating what we do right, and I love calling attention to what we do wrong. I think the most patriotic thing you can do is try to make your country better.” Crane chose to teach at Gibson Ek because she was frustrated by a lot of education philosophies she had learned early in her teaching career. “There were things that I did not agree with as far as the way that students were treated and viewed, and just the entire system seemed wrong. Looking at the way that students are uplifted and respected and valued here, and the relationships that we’re able to build with students here was so important to me,” she says. “I don’t think I could teach anywhere else. I just love it. You can’t put the genie back in the bottle.” 📰 Hear what Gibson Ek students and staff appreciate about Crane in the full article, written by Communications Intern Nica Rondinelli: bit.ly/ISDgehsAdvisor2024 Nica Rondinelli is an intern working with the district Communications Department this year. Rondinelli is a 101 at Gibson Ek High School, which includes internships as a key component of student learning.  This article was originally published in the district's eNewsletter, Horizons. If you missed the March issue, catch up here: https://lnkd.in/ghvgjwHi