Kamiakin Junior High selected one of the top five schools of the year.

Kamiakin Junior High, Kirkland - Home of the Cougars!

Kamiakin Junior High was selected by the National Assoc. of Middle School Principals as one of the top five schools of the year.

The winner will be announced at an awards celebration in Colorado on February 17. This award is sponsored by Lifetouch Studios.

In addition to the hard work of staff within the educational program, the following reasons were cited as reasons why Kamiakin is one of the five schools eligible to receive this award:  Read More >>



The work of the leadership team and building with Success @ the Core, and their efforts to build leadership capacity and collaboration with all staff.

· The innovative efforts regarding work around success for all students. The efforts with Learning Plans, and specifically their new Achievement Guide.

· The school’s continued work with their community regarding CAPstone, as well as a focus on bringing parents of minority communities on board and getting them involved.

· The school’s co-curricular efforts to communicate opportunities and provide a well-rounded education for all students.

In addition:  Teacher sees ad, creates innovative program, nets free books

Teacher Cathy Redman saw an ad for Target that said if you read to a child for 30 minutes a week and tell Target about it, they will donate a book to charity. Her response? To create the “Hawks Can Read” program. Each Friday, 5/6 Quest and sixth grade students visit their kindergarten and first grade buddies. They go into the circular hallway in the school with a good book and read together for 15-20 minutes.

Cathy decided to write to Target’s program to get books donated on behalf of “Hawks Can Read.” However, the readers had to be at least 13 years of age, which most fifth and sixth grade students are not. Instead, Carol Matheson, the librarian at Redmond Elementary, encouraged Cathy to write to the CEO of Target in Minneapolis. About two weeks later, she received a call from Target saying that they wanted to recognize Redmond Elementary in a special way, because of the unique qualities of the program.

On Friday, December 10, Redmond Elementary was honored to have special guests from the Target Corporation in Minneapolis, Minn., who were there to recognize the “Hawks Can Read” program, along with representatives from local Target stores. They held a special celebration for the students: each student in the school received three books donated by the Pearson Foundation, as well as snacks, juice boxes, water and pencils, all donated by Target. “Spot,” the Target mascot, was on hand to say hello to all of the students. Students heard stories read by Joyce Teshima, principal, and special guest readers from Target.
Target will also donate 400 books to the school library. Carol is working with the teachers to determine which books will help support curriculum, but is also considering books on different countries and possibly even books in other languages for students that speak second languages.

In addition, Redmond Elementary decided to support another school in our district because of their good fortune. On Friday, they announced that they will donate $1,000 from the library budget at Redmond Elementary to the library budget at Einstein Elementary.

Source:  LWSD  "News on Schools"