Another Issaquah School District Question (Seattle, Bellevue: new house, transfer, neighborhoods)

[AEJsMommy]

We are relocating to the Seattle Area and are focusing our efforts on Issaquah (mostly because of the school district). We have two young boys that will be in elementary school for at least 5 years. One of our sons has been identified as a gifted student in his current school.

What elementary schools do you recommend in the Issaquah School District?

Thanks!

[Ira500]

I am most familiar with Newcastle Elementary, which is not in Issaquah but in Newcastle, in the Issaquah district. It's considered to be an excellent elementary school, and I had a client specifically look for a house so their child could attend Newcastle. I've also heard very good things about Discovery and Endeavor elementary schools, and either Cascade Ridge or Cougar Ridge, but I can't remember which one..

[WaFamily]

Do you haave neighborhoods you are looking at? I just finished looking at 5 elementary schools in the Issaquah SD. I have 3 kids that will attend over the years.

What are you looking for in a school?

[texastrigirl]

They are almost all fantastic and the rest are great! You cannot go wrong IMO. Some of the schools in Issaquah proper have more diversity but the education is still terrific. All the way from the MS's to the HS's. You will be hard pressed to find a bad school in ISD. Our kids went to Sunny Hills and then switched to Creekside when it opened last year. I now have one at Pine Lake Middle School. Have many friends with kids at Cascade Ridge, Endeavor, Challenger, Grand Ridge, Discovery...all great. I went to the PTSA Legislative Assembly this year and ISD is so well represented and involved, it's almost scary. ISD schools have a high rate of parent volunteers and that's saying something when in many cases, both mom and dad work.

[AEJsMommy]

Originally Posted by WaFamily

Do you haave neighborhoods you are looking at? I just finished looking at 5 elementary schools in the Issaquah SD. I have 3 kids that will attend over the years.

Originally Posted by WaFamily

What are you looking for in a school?

We haven't looked at too many neighborhoods yet. I was more concerned with the schools. I didn't want to find a home that we like only to find out it's not in one of our preferred school boundaries.

Originally Posted by texastrigirl

They are almost all fantastic and the rest are great! You cannot go wrong IMO. Some of the schools in Issaquah proper have more diversity but the education is still terrific. All the way from the MS's to the HS's. You will be hard pressed to find a bad school in ISD. Our kids went to Sunny Hills and then switched to Creekside when it opened last year. I now have one at Pine Lake Middle School. Have many friends with kids at Cascade Ridge, Endeavor, Challenger, Grand Ridge, Discovery...all great. I went to the PTSA Legislative Assembly this year and ISD is so well represented and involved, it's almost scary. ISD schools have a high rate of parent volunteers and that's saying something when in many cases, both mom and dad work.

We are coming from a school district that has high parent volunteers, too. So it is very important to us to find a comparable “parent involved” school district. Also, I loved the Sammamish/Issaquah area. It still has all your amenities but seems small town. Actually, I had “narrowed” it down to Cascade Ridge, Endeavor, Challenger or Discovery. I will also look at Creekside. My husband was leaning more towards Bellevue (to cut his commute) but I have my heart set on Issaquah/Sammamish. We are coming from Oklahoma and something about that area just feels right. Thanks for your post!

[texastrigirl]

We very much like living in Sammamish (Pine Lake area) and it is a great smaller city to live in. I also love Issaquah which has a little more personality because it's a lot older and has more history. Samammish will get there though...it's not a very old city but it has top notch parks, open spaces and events for the community. Any of the schools will be great with very involved parents so you should focus on the neighborhood you like the best. Creekside is only a year old, is green built, is a fantastic campus and has state of the art everything. The principal is also very highly regarded in the district with a lot of experience and she was able to hand pick from fantastic ISD teachers to make her staff.

As far as gifted programming, they test at the end of 2nd grade for gifted placement. I believe you can retest your child if you are coming in after that timeframe. They use the Stanford, SOI and COGAT. Depending on scores, students have the option to go to the Merlin program which is hosted at Apollo and Endeavor and they will be in a classroom of all gifted children for grades 3-5. You also have SAGE which allows a child to stay in their current school, mainstream classroom but to be pulled out for SAGE activities once a week. Keep in mind, ISD is comprised of many parents who work in the technology sector and the like so even your "avg" ISD student will have parents that are focused on education and that child will perform pretty highly. Demographically there is a larger Asian population and the bar is raised on academics because of it. We have opted for SAGE and are very happy with it but I know a few that do Merlin and would recommend it. It really depends on the child's personality, their social needs and your ability to transport your child. It all starts over in Middle School and their options are Math Path 2 and Humanities Plus. In HS, I believe AP and IB are open for anyone who wants to tackle it. Here's more info on that.

Gifted and Highly Capable

Where in OK are you coming from? My BF lived in the Jenks district in Tulsa for a while and raved about it.

[AEJsMommy]

Thanks for the link, texastrigirl. So far, I am really impressed by the ISD. I was worried, we wouldn't find a school as comparable as our current one.

In our current school district, they start gifted placement testing in Kindergarten (actually my son was tested in PreK). The younger students take the Slosson Verbal or the Naglieri Nonverbal (NNAT). In 2nd grade they will administer the COGAT.

We are in Norman, OK which is just south of OKC and home of the University of Oklahoma. Boomer Sooner!

Your husband works at AMZN, right? What does your he think of the commute to SLU? Does he drive each day or utilize the Park-and-Ride?

[texastrigirl]

Originally Posted by AEJsMommy

Thanks for the link, texastrigirl. So far, I am really impressed by the ISD. I was worried, we wouldn't find a school as comparable as our current one.

In our current school district, they start gifted placement testing in Kindergarten (actually my son was tested in PreK). The younger students take the Slosson Verbal or the Naglieri Nonverbal (NNAT). In 2nd grade they will administer the COGAT.

We are in Norman, OK which is just south of OKC and home of the University of Oklahoma. Boomer Sooner!

Your husband works at AMZN, right? What does your he think of the commute to SLU? Does he drive each day or utilize the Park-and-Ride?

He does work at AMZN and he utilizes both the PNR or his car depending on what's going that day. He also sometimes ride shares with co-workers on his team. The commute can vary widely. He likes to go in early so some days can make it in 35 minutes if he drives. Bus can be 55-75 minutes depending on time of day. Little bit more challenging commute now because of the SLU location...you have to catch the SLU trolley from the bus terminal so it adds. But he reads on his Kindle or listens to Podcasts so it works.

People don't live out here for the commute though. It's for the schools, the natural beauty and the space. We are 45 minutes from the slopes, 10 minutes from some of the area's best hiking and within 5 minutes of 3 lakes. We decided that trumped commute as have many others. Sammamish/Issaquah is about 15-18 miles from DT so still close enough to do stuff down there regularly if you avoid rush hour or can use HOV lanes.

[Hemlock140]

I bus from South Sammamish Park & Ride to the waterfront on the 216, and there are several others that work at Amazon. They either walk the 1.5 miles from Westlake or transfer. For them it's worth the trouble to live in Sammamish. An alternative is the 218 from the Issaquah Highlands which makes less stops and is more frequent. As I recall the 554 then the 26 gets you there from the Issaquah Transit Center in about 45 minutes.

[wegotworms]

Hi!

We also ended up going with the Issaquah school district. My husband was the one pushing for Bellevue or Mercer Island because of commute and the lure of "best schools", but we found that in terms of test scores, community involvement, and college prep, the schools in the Issaquah district rivaled if not surpassed at least the Bellevue schools we looked at.

We just went pending on a house in Sammamish that is districted to Creekside Elementary, Pine Lake Middle, and Skyline High. The commute is about 20-25 minutes to downtown. My husband agrees that it is worth it given the quality of life out in Sammamish.

When we were looking at schools, we were told that if you go with Issaquah, make sure your high school is either Skyline or Issaquah and not Liberty.

Other than that, it doesn't appear you can really go wrong in the ISD. We are super excited to move into our new house and learn more about the schools and community!