School Board to begin appointment process for new member | School briefs
Published 11:22 am Tuesday, March 31, 2015
School Board to begin appointment process for new member
School Board president Janet Frohnmayer presented the board with her resignation letter March 26, announcing her final meeting will be May 14.
Frohnmayer and her family are moving off the Island.
The district will make application materials available April 1 through the Mercer Island schools website at www.mercerislandschools.org. The deadline to submit applications will be April 24.
At a public meeting, the board will interview applicants and may nominate, and then vote by roll call for any nominated candidate. Once a candidate is chosen, the new board member will be sworn in at the next board meeting.
*UPDATE: The district has posted application materials on its website.
The board has set the interview dates for Friday, May 1 from 6-9 p.m.; Saturday, May 2 from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.; and Monday, May 4 from 9 a.m. – noon for special meeting times to interview candidates.
For those interested in ballot considerations for the fall elections, the filing deadline runs the week of May 11-15.
Construction begins for IMS expansion
On Friday, March 27, the Mercer Island School District (MISD) celebrated the ground breaking of the Islander Middle School expansion project. Mercer Island School Board members were joined by members of the Mercer Island City Council, leaders from the campaign for the Feb. 2014 bond proposition, and student musicians in the IMS sixth-grade band.
The Islander Middle School expansion project will include 14 new classrooms and lab spaces, and reconfigured commons and cafeteria, gymnasiums, music rooms, and administrative space. The school currently uses nine portable classrooms to handle current enrollment levels and is more than 200 students over design capacity.
Nearly three-quarters of Island voters approved the project as part of a $98.8 million bond proposition in Feb. 2014. It will fund the new elementary school, the expansion of Islander Middle School, and the addition at Mercer Island High School.
The district also recently held a ground breaking ceremony for the new elementary school. Regular updates can be found at www.mercerislandschools.org/construction.
21 DECA students to compete at international competition
The Mercer Island High School (MIHS) DECA program sent 57 students to compete in the recent state DECA competition in Bellevue. Of those students, 21 qualified for the international competition, to be held in Orlando, Fla., during the last week of April.
“This is a wonderful accomplishment for these entrepreneurial students. In the future they will be well served by their passions when they step up as community and business leaders,” said Mercer Island School District Superintendent Dr. Gary Plano.
MIHS international DECA qualifiers are: Grace Wall; Alison Rosenman; Brett Bottomley; Chloe Keller; Annie Langston; Sarah Walters; Ben Simontov; Adrian Galer; George Pallis; Peter Williams; Meredith Thieme; Julia Cartwright; Adrienne Suhm; Marcus Schiller; Meredith Wootton; Edward Hunt; Kelsey Yin; Jasmine Louie; Jacque Li; Riley Fang; and Dana He.
Lakeridge wins Regional Global Reading Challenge
The Rockin’ Readers from Lakeridge Elementary School on Mercer Island won the King County Library System’s East Regional Global Reading Challenge against the Clyde Hill Phoenixbirds of the Bellevue School District and the Sunset Purple and Gold Pandas of the Issaquah School District. The Challenge was held on Tuesday, March 17 at the Bellevue Library. Gary Wasdin, KCLS’s new director, was on hand.
The scores were close with only one question separating the finalists. The Rockin’ Readers from Lakeridge Elementary School on Mercer Island came out on top. All three participating teams received certificates and medals. The Rockin’ Readers will also receive the East Regional GRC trophy that will remain at their school till next year’s challenge.
Final School bond sale scheduled
The board scheduled to confirm its final bond sale for June 3, 2015. At the board’s next meeting April 14, chief financial officer Dean Mack will discuss conditions regarding the sale.
