The Northshore School District reopens for business Sept. 2. According to sources, with a few notable exceptions, students and parents probably won’t notice too many differences from the last school year as classes get underway.
Budget cuts
Pointing toward drops in state funding, local officials said they needed to slice some $6.4 million out of the district’s current budget.
Initially, as proposed by the district administration, the schools’ spending plan included the elimination of 18 elementary and 12 secondary teaching slots. Ultimately, those reductions were achieved through normal attrition and transfers with no layoffs needed.
On another front, as the budget process moved forward, administrators proposed eliminating all junior-high sports as a major cost-cutting measure. In the end, a task force appointed by the school board was able to come up with a plan to save all but a few sports from the budget chopping block.
At the time the board gave its preliminary approval to the new budget, a district spokesperson said only baseball and softball would be eliminated, the argument being students have plenty of chances to take part in those sports outside of a school setting.
In talking about junior-high sports, Superintendent Larry Francois said the ultimate goal is to make those sports cost neutral. According to Francois and the task force, the way to achieve that goal is to eliminate some further programs next year, as well as reduce the number of coaches and increase participation fees.
School renovations and construction projects
The largest scale project is wrapping up at Kenmore Junior High, according to district spokesperson Leanna Albrecht. By the time school opens, the district will have completed what officials have dubbed Phase 2 of the school building’s renovation.
Site work began in June 2008. The main focus is construction of a new two-story building to house six science classrooms, two computer labs, one audio visual lab, a Learning Resource Center and what’s billed as a “Contained Resource Center.” Total price tag: $14 million.
According to Albrecht the district has master planned future phases for the school, which will see renovations to classrooms, the addition of technical eduction rooms, music rooms and a commons area. Some work is contingent on future bond approval by voters.
At Canyon Creek and Fernwood elementary schools, the district has undertaken some lesser repairs, but plans call for the addition of four classrooms to each building. Each school already has or will receive a new commons and new flooring throughout. Cost was given as $6.2 million per building.
One other major project under way is an $18 million modernization of Woodinville High. Scheduled to be completed this month, the project includes replacement of the school’s library, kitchen and commons area. At Bothell High, the district more conservatively completed about $500,000 in seismic bracing, as well as replacing and renovating mechanical and ventilation systems in the school’s technology building.
One final project about to get under way will see the conversion of 41,000 square feet of commercial warehouse into classroom space for the Secondary Academy for Success. The district is moving the specialized high school from its current home in the W.A. Anderson building on Bothell Way Northeast. The Anderson building is part of the 18-acre package the district currently plans to sell to the city of Bothell.
Cost was estimated at $8.5 million for the planned move.
New math curriculum
Mostly in response to new standards set out by the state in July of last year, the district will have new methods for teaching math in place at many of its grade levels.
“Kids will learn much more at every grade level,” Gretchen Schaefer, director of K-12 education, said at the time the new program was announced. Assistant Superintendent for Elementary Education Kathleen Poole called the new system a “stair-step” approach.
Under the new guidelines, students in grades K-5 will learn a math concept — say, addition — and be expected to master that concept before moving on to a new idea — say, subtraction. The previous method had teachers introducing concepts, then moving on only to return to the early concepts at a later date. Poole said the new method seems more practical and saves time as teachers and students won’t be returning to ideas studied earlier.
While many of the changes affect lower grades, upper-level students may find their math instructors taking a different tact, as well. Schafer said that in the past the schools intermixed algebra and geometry. For the future, students will learn basic algebra, then move on to geometry before revisiting algebra and taking on more advanced concepts.
New traffic lights
Albrecht said the district applied for and received a $90,000 grant from the Washington State Traffic Safety Commission. The money will go toward school zone signs or traffic beacons at 12 schools. Ten schools sit in unincorporated King County and two are in Woodinville.
