User:Brmuchim/IssaquahMiddleSchool Sandbox

Issaquah Middle School is a middle school serving students in grades 6-8 in Issaquah, Washington and Bellevue, Washington as part of the Issaquah School District. Located in the vacinity of Issaquah Middle School is the Issaquah Community Center and Issaquah Creek, as well as the older portion of downtown Issaquah along Front Street. Students at Issaquah Middle School feed in from Cougar Ridge Elementary, Clark Elementary, Issaquah Valley Elementary, as well as some of the students that attend Sunset Elementary and Grand Ridge Elementary. The students continue to Pacific Cascade Freshman Campus for their freshman year (until fall of 2010) and Issaquah High School for the rest of their high school career. It is also part of the KING-5 TV weather network giving weather data of the city of Issaquah.

History
Issaquah Middle School was constructed as the first middle school of the Issaquah School District and opened with the name Issaquah Junior High School in 1955 ; following a magnitude 6.5 earthquake that struck the greater Puget Sound region on April 29th, 1965. About three decades later, the school was remodeled for two years of "live-in, learn-in" conditions with the remodel being completed in 1999.

Academics
The average class size of the school is 30 students based on the size of the average required eighth grade English class. Majority of the teachers at Issaquah Middle have 1 to 5 years of teaching experience with 71 percent of the teachers holding Master's and Ph.D degrees. The school offers a "highly capable" program called Humanities Plus which is a block class containing history and english cirriculum for which 174 students are enrolled (as of 2008); an ESL Program for which 23 students are enrolled (as of 2008); and a special education program for which 80 students are enorrled (as of 2008). Issaquah Middle also offers high school credit foreign language classes and high school credit] mathematics classes. Issaquah has also introduced ACTIVboards to a majority of the classrooms as well as LCD projectors and document cameras.

Student Life
As of 2008, Issaquah Middle School has a WEB "Where Everybody Belongs" program which assists incoming sixth graders adjust to the new enviroment of middle school life. Since 2005, the school is involved in the Green Schools Program of King County, Washington which was adopted by the Issaquah School District to reduce outgoing waste from the school by increasing recycling and decreasing the usage of the garbage dumpster. Specifically, Issaquah Middle decreased its collection frequency/size of garbage dumpster saving nearly $17000 when combined with the totals of four other Issaquah district schools.

Sports, Arts and Extracurricular Activities
Issaquah Middle School has several sports teams which include basketball, cross country, softball, track, wrestling for boys and basketball, cross country, gymnastics, track, volleyball for girls. The school also offers fine arts programs which include band, choir, orchestra, drama, photography, drawing-painting, ceramics. Mixed Media Art, and Graphic design. The members of the IMS band, chorus, and orchestra travel annually to Disneyland for a recording session as well as public performance. Extracurricular activites offered include Chess club, Honor Society, Math Olympiad, Robotics, Homework Club, Scrapbook/Sticker Club, Jazz Band, Crystal Voices, Art Club, Latino Club.

PTSA
Issaquah Middle School's PTSA has provided the school with more than $15000 in teacher grants, scholarships, and programs which include the introduction of ACTIVboards in classrooms and the annual eighth grade trip to the Junior Achievement Financial Park where the students learn real-world skills. The PTSA also provides the school with numerous hours of volunteering at school activites and services. Such an example of the volunteer work is the Walk About program. It is the first kind of program in the district containing nearly 120 parent volunteers who provide adult supervision on campus grounds before school, during lunches, and at the end of the school day.

WASL Test Results
Below is a link to view the latest WASL test information for Issaquah Middle School.

http://reportcard.ospi.k12.wa.us/summary.aspx?groupLevel=District&schoolId=1442&reportLevel=School&orgLinkId=1442&yrs=&year=2007-08