MISD Superintendent Plano's Message Addresses Construction Bonds

(Ed. Note: The following is from the Superintendent's Message for the month October.)

I'm happy to report that last month the five elected members of the Mercer Island School Board unanimously approved a $98.8 million bond resolution to help address overcrowding in our schools. Mercer Island voters will cast ballots on the bond in February 2014. The bond will provide three solutions to help manage overcrowding, including:

• building a new elementary school at the North Mercer campus,

• expanding IMS with 14 new classrooms and lab spaces, commons and cafeteria, gymnasium, music rooms, and administrative space, and

• building 10 additional classrooms at MIHS, including 4 science labs and 6 general education classrooms.

The focus and scale of these projects addresses current student needs, enrollment projections and concerns from people we spoke with at our numerous community input events and discussions.

There are currently more than 4,120 full-time equivalent students in the district's three elementary schools, middle school, high school and alternative program. According to figures from Triangle Associates two years ago and adjusting for enrollment increases, the district is now over design capacity by 746 students. The district currently uses 34 portable classrooms to help accommodate the current number of students.

This year the district has also made changes to the emergency update system as we prepare for winter weather. Even if you were previously registered, you must re-register with the Flash Action Network.

Finally, several of our MIHS students have attained some outstanding achievements. Read more about these points of pride at the links below:

• 11 Mercer Island High School students honored as National Merit semifinalists 
• Islander Mark Anderson honored as National Achievement Scholarship semifinalist 
• Nathan Cummings named a National Student Poet

Best,

Visit www.mercerislandschools.org for more information and district news.