Good News October 25, 2016

Lake Grove Leopards had perfect attendance

The student-scholars and staff at Lake Grove Elementary School recently celebrated an exciting achievement. For the first month of school, 148 Lake Grove Leopards had perfect attendance. In celebration of this feat, each scholar was awarded a t-shirt to commemorate the occasion.

We would like to recognize the following individuals for their efforts to increase attendance! 

• Principal Doug Rutherford
• Heather Washington
• Patty Samora
• Mo'Nae Haley 
• Brandon Gladstone
• Alecander Gladstone
• Sophia Tolber
• Isabel Tolber 
• Isaiah Phok-Abay 
• Dylan Lang
• Andrew Lang

The district's focus on attendance is directly tied to the strategic plan, and more specifically, the district-wide emphasis on Goal Two, Whole Child: thriving, confident, responsible individuals. One measure of success for this goal is student-scholars participating in at least 95 percent of instructional time.

Thank you to Lake Grove for making attendance and student success a priority! Keep up the great work.

Students named as National Scholarship semifinalists

We’d like to acknowledge two students who have been named as semifinalists in the 2017 National Merit Scholarship Program: 

• Cindy Imm of Todd Beamer High School
• Justin Kwon of Federal Way High School

To be considered a semifinalist, the student must have one of the highest PSAT scores in his or her respective state. In addition, the student must submit an application detailing why he or she should be chosen and identify leadership, employment, honors and awards.

Cindy met and surpassed these requirements with very high PSAT scores, taking the maximum amount of AP courses (seven AP classes out of an eight period day), volunteering, and being president of the Todd Beamer High School National Honors Society.

Justin also received very high PSAT scores. Justin is involved in clubs such as Robotics Club, Speech and Debate as well as Washington Aerospace Scholars. Additionally, he has won several awards in Speech and Debate.

Out of the 1.6 million juniors that apply, 16,000 semifinalists are chosen as semifilanists. About 90 percent of semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing, and about half of those finalists will win National Merit Scholarships, earn the national Merit Scholar title, and share in the $33 million worth of scholarships.

National Merit Scholars will be announced April through July.

This effort is in direct support of two goals of our strategic plan. Goal Four, content area competence and Goal Five, persistence to graduation.

Cindy and Justin, we are so proud of you and wish you the best of luck in this endeavor!

Student-led educational forum

On October 6th, Federal Way Public Schools student-scholars, families, and community attended a student-led educational forum with local political candidates at Todd Beamer High School.

We would like to acknowledge the students who helped lead this event:

• Dorian Donahue
• Austin Stafford
• Benjamin Park
• Jacob Rivera
• Caroline Isaac
• Megan Zandsoltani
• Ivan Vazquez
• Mario Mason

These students fulfilled a number of roles including helping organize the event, asking candidates questions, giving introduction, closing speeches, and keeping time.

One of the goals within our new strategic plan is Goal Three, which speaks to each of our scholars being “Active Learners: Engaged, Empowered Critical Thinkers.” Student voice and leadership at events like this forum are examples of how we ensure our scholars are engaged in the democratic process and are informed about and participating in the political arena that will shape their futures.

This year is an important year with the presidential election and the upcoming state legislation with McCleary being an important focus of adequately funding basic education in Washington state. We are so proud of our scholars for being engaged in the process!

Federal Way Open Doors graduation

Persistence to graduation is Goal Five of our Strategic Plan, and this graduate demonstrated this in spades.

Aaron Fallentine was one of our first students at Open Doors. He needed eight credits to graduate and accomplished this in a year and a half, mostly offsite. His responsibilities as a main caregiver for his grandmother necessitated the flexibility that Open Doors had to offer in pursuit of his high school diploma.

Because of his close connection with our case manager, Laurine Decker, and her attention to Aaron's story and individualized needs, he was able to achieve his goals. Despite several stops and starts in our program he persevered. Congratulations, Aaron, you have truly earned this accomplishment! We are excited to hear about the next steps towards your bright future!