Kennewick School District: Preparing students for successful futures

Our district is setting records in enrollment, staffing, student success and more, and we are thankful to our Kennewick community for supporting our efforts to adapt to the increasing and changing demands for quality education.

We have opened three new school buildings since August 2016. The relocated Desert Hills Middle School on Clodfelter Road and the district’s 15th elementary school, Sage Crest Elementary near Southridge High School, welcomed students on the first day of school this fall. Students of the district’s fifth middle school, Chinook Middle School, moved into their new home on 27th Avenue when classes resumed from winter break, having spent the first half of the school year at the former Desert Hills campus.

All of those projects were made possible because Kennewick voters saw the need for new and renovated schools in our community by approving an $89.5 million bond in February 2015.

Two bond projects remain to be completed: a rebuilt and larger Westgate Elementary on Fourth Avenue is scheduled to open in the fall of 2017. The district’s 16th elementary school will be built in the Clearwater Creek development between Steptoe Street and Leslie Road and open in the fall of 2018.

The new and enlarged schools are certainly needed: more than 500 additional students were counted in our schools when school resumed this fall compared to the same time last year, and that growth is expected to continue in the coming years.

In the spring of 2016, the state awarded the district a $51.1 million grant, the largest grant award of any district in the state, to build enough classrooms to reduce classroom sizes for students in kindergarten through third grade. That money will be partially used to pay for additional classrooms at the new elementary school planned at Clearwater Creek, a new 17th elementary school for the district’s Dual Language program at the former Desert Hills campus and a 20-classroom addition at Amistad Elementary.

Our eyes are on the future with a bond planned for 2019 that would address the rebuilding of Kennewick High School and new and remodeled schools elsewhere in the district.

All these additional classrooms and buildings require qualified teachers, paraeducators, custodial staff, secretaries and others. The district hired more than 100 new staff members before the current school year began and recruitment continues. A new recruitment website, choosekennewick.org, aims to show those interested in careers in education not only that our district is a great place to work but that our community is a great place to live.

Our students are being better prepared to live and work in the 21st century thanks to a more rigorous approach to math that has most students studying algebra before high school and a focus on technology with technology specialists in our elementary schools. All three of the district’s comprehensive high schools recently achieved extended graduation rates above 90 percent — a district goal — and will continue to build on that accomplishment.

The district has a long history of wisely using taxpayer dollars. Our goal is to ensure students have safe schools and leave them prepared for whatever path awaits them. It is our duty, and we are happy to carry it out for such a supportive community.

This story was originally published March 23, 2017 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Kennewick School District: Preparing students for successful futures."