May 5, 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Redmond, Wash. – In 1944, voters passed a $200,000 general obligation bond to build and equip the new Lake Washington High School, which opened in 1949. At that time, the architects and school administrators had to imagine what education would be like far into the future.

In 2006, voters passed a $436 million bond measure to modernize Lake Washington High School and ten other district schools. Today, Lake Washington High School teachers and administrators, working with architects, are imagining what students now and well into the future will need to be successful. The research is also part of a district-wide initiative, Vision 2020, that is examining how to ensure that students are ready for their futures when they leave the school district. Last week, district administrators unveiled to junior high parents proposed changes in the way students are organized and taught at Lake Washington High School as well as the plans for a new high school building that reflects those changes.

“Our modernization team was able to visit and learn from high schools around the country that have been applying best practices, through small schools initiatives, magnet schools, and other programs,” noted Principal Brad Malloy. “We know from experience that kids can fall through the cracks at a large comprehensive high school. What we learned from our travels was that dividing a large school into three or four smaller schools had its own set of challenges.” Malloy noted that the small school model often meant students had a many fewer choices in elective classes even though electives often are the classes about which students are most passionate. Some teachers and students noted that dividing students into small schools could be divisive, creating rankings of the schools or stereotypes of the students in them.

The Lake Washington High School teachers, then, recommended the following components that had design implications for the new building:

1. Creation of four student houses that support the learning of approximately 300 students in each house.
2. Each individual house will contain both a Biology- and Chemistry-capable science classroom.
3. Each of the four houses will contain various school-wide elective programs with dedicated classrooms.
4. Each of the four houses will contain six core curriculum classrooms with individual staff offices.
5. Each of the four houses will have flexible common learning spaces that will be shared between assigned teaching staff within that house.

“This plan puts Lake Washington High School somewhere on the continuum between a large comprehensive high school and the small schools model,” noted Malloy. “We hope to gain the benefits of small schools, that teachers will get to know the students in their house over the three years that students spend there and that students will feel they have a place in school where they are valued. At the same time, it’s important that every student still have the choices of learning program available at a large comprehensive high school and we maintain the spirit of Lake Washington High School. We are all still Kangs. That is important to our community.”

The new school building will feature four “houses,” two groupings of classrooms and offices each on two stories of the main school building. A central commons area will bring together the four houses and provide a unifying place for students to gather. The library will be placed between houses on the second floor. At the front of the building area, both the new gym and the new theater will have their own separate entrances, allowing evening programs to take place without opening the main school building. Northstar Junior High, a small Choice school drawing students from around the district, will be housed in its own area on the first floor, with a separate entrance.

The houses themselves feature six core subject classrooms, two science rooms, and two electives classrooms. The electives classrooms are placed toward the center of the building so they are accessible for students from any of the four houses. Between the core classrooms, a shared instructional area will be available for teachers to use in interdisciplinary and collaborative instruction.

“Our committees are continuing to work as we continue to seek out relational and instructional best practices,” noted Malloy. “Next year, our staff will receive professional development training that will help them prepare for this model of collaborative instruction. The following year, the incoming sophomores will be grouped into one or two houses, within the old building. We will add the sophomores the following year (2010-11) so that by the time the new building opens, our teachers will have experienced leading and teaching smaller groups of students.”

Construction begins with demolition this summer of some buildings on the site. The new building will open in the fall of 2011. McGranahan Architects have designed the new building, which will incorporate environmentally friendly features such as ground source geothermal heating, rain gardens and natural lighting.

####

About Lake Washington: Lake Washington School District is the sixth largest public school district in the state of Washington. This high-performing district serves over 23,000 students in 49 schools located in Kirkland, Redmond, and Sammamish, Washington.