Congratulations to the teams from Green Gables and Adelaide Elementary Schools who competed against 16 other teams and won awards at the First Lego League regional qualifying competition!

During this event, teams presented an innovated solution to a current real-world problem.

They also competed in a challenge to program robots to complete specific tasks with code.

Congratulations to Team Green Gables who won the First Lego League Core Values Award for displaying, “extraordinary enthusiasm and spirit and showing each other and other teams respect at all times.”

Congratulations to Team Adelaide who:

• Received the Champion’s Award for achieving excellence and innovation in Robot Performance, Robot Design, and the Innovation Project.
• Received the Global Innovation Award celebrating the next generation of innovators who will change the future.
• Was named as state competition qualifiers.

We are proud of our scholars for being active, engaged, empowered, critical thinkers – keep up the great work!

Thanks to the volunteers and community partners who put on the annual Federal Way Cares for Kids Holiday Giving Event! Volunteers assisted over 206 families and 725 children with holiday shopping such as gift cards and toys.

This community support helps our students be thriving, confident, responsible individuals.

We would like to recognize the following Federal Way Cares for Kids individuals and organizations:

• Kevin Crossen, South King Fire & Rescue
• Misty Lara, Grace Church
• Gina Duckett, Qualstar Credit Union
• Shelley Pauls, We Love Our City
• Jennifer Rojas Youngblood, community member
• Communities in Schools
• Federal Way Police Department
• Curves
• Temple Fitness
• Billy McHale’s
• Legacy Church
• Bella Red Salon
• Columbia Bank
• ESM Consultants
• Family Life Church
• Soroptimist International of Federal Way
• South 288th Family Dentistry
• Journey Church
• Northwest Foursquare Church
• Northwest Payment Brokers
• St. Francis Hospital
• The Ridges & The Shores Apartments
• Pho Tasty
• Federal Way Church of Nazarene

We appreciate your support!

Thanks to Speech and Debate Coach Paul Sealey’s leadership, Federal Way High School earned the National Speech & Debate Leading Chapter Award for the Western Washington District.

This award, which is based on student participation, represents a tremendous dedication to speech and debate education.

Out of more than 3,000 schools nationwide, Federal Way High School is one of only 108 to receive this distinction.

Speech and debate advances communication skills, critical thinking, develops interpersonal skills, writing, speaking, and prepares students for college, careers, and beyond.

We are proud of your leadership, and the positive impact on our scholars!

Congratulations to Terry Jenks, Athletic Director at Decatur High School, for being named North Puget Sound League Athletic Director of the Year!

Terry was chosen for demonstrating leadership such as President of the West Central District Athletic Directors, North Puget Sound League Baseball Commissioner, and mentorship across the district, league, and region.

Terry, your dedication to the athletic director profession supports our scholar-athletes to be active learners, engaged, empowered critical thinkers - Goal 3 of our strategic plan.

Congratulations to this Green Gables scholar: Gold medal, green belt poomsae event, Washington State Governor's Cup – Taekwondo Championship

Congratulations to Green Gables Elementary scholar Oliwia Wojtowicz who received the gold medal in the green belt poomsae event for 6-7 years old at the Washington State Governor's Cup – Taekwondo Championship.

Efforts like these are in support of strategic plan Goal 3 active learners, engaged, empowered critical thinkers. Oliwia demonstrated her martial arts skills in a series of movements and patterns to show proficiency in taekwondo. She earned the highest total points in her division to earn the gold medal.

Thanks to South King Fire & Rescue for ensuring our Panther Lake scholars have coats to keep warm!

South King Fire & Rescue has been a pivotal partner in ensuring our scholars have coats to keep warm during the fall and winter.

As part of the Operation Warm event, over 225 coats were distributed to kindergartener through 5th grade scholars at Panther Lake Elementary School.
This effort was also made possible thanks to South King County Professional Firefighters IAFF Local 2024 and the South King Firefighters Foundation. The event was ran by 18 local Firefighters who respond to emergencies every day in our community.

We recognize schools can’t do it alone and we appreciate your support to keep our scholars warm and ready to learn this school year. This helps them thrive and be confident, responsible individuals, part of our strategic plan Goal 2 efforts.

Congratulations to our scholars who won the #IGNITEYourVoice video contest

We’re so proud of our scholars from TAF@Saghalie, Federal Way High School, and Decatur High School who won the Inspiring Girls Now In Technology Evolution IGNITE Your Voice video contest!

Our scholars created the winning video based off the prompt: “Why do you think it is important for more women and non-binary people to be in STEM?”

The video also got a "world premier" during the IGNITE Worldwide Gala and was shared with hundreds of educators, company partners, and community members, including executives at T-Mobile, Microsoft, and Amazon!

This is a great example of strategic plan Goal 3, engaged, empowered, critical thinkers.

Congratulations to the Thomas Jefferson High School math team who competed virtually at the 53rd Mu Alpha Theta National Math Contest.

This event brought together math teams from 19 high schools across the nation to compete in a series of individual and group tests.

This year marks the 26th year Thomas Jefferson has competed in this contest.

These Thomas Jefferson students placed in the top 10 for their topics and division-wide tests.

This legacy of excellence is in direct support of the district’s strategic plan Goal 4, Content Area Competence: Mastery of All Subjects.

We are proud of you!