MISD “Did You Know” Spotlight Series Continues with January, February & March Stories

Northwood teacher Lindsay Oliveira's fourth grade class on the track at Islander Stadium. The class was spotlighted on KING 5 TV for their support of students in California impacted by wildfires. 

Mercer Island, WA, August 19, 2025 - In the third installment of our “Did You Know” Summer Spotlight series we look back at student, school, and district stories from January, February, and March of the 2024-25 school year.

There were so many fun, interesting, and exciting stories in MISD this past school year. The purpose of this series is to highlight those stories on our students and staff that you might have missed during a busy school year.

April, May, and June stories will be posted on Tuesday, August 26, the day before the 2025-26 school year starts.

Let’s check out all the January, February, and March stories now.

KMIH 88.9 The Bridge Advanced Broadcasting students returned after Winter Break to a visit from Seattle Mariners play-by-play voice Rick Rizzs, who was a guest on Breakfast on the Bridge on January 7, and then gave a career talk to the students.

On January 9 IMS announced their 7^th and 8^th grade orchestras were chosen to be a Concert Hour Exemplary Honor Group for the 2025 National Association for Music Education’s (NAfME) All-NW Conference in Spokane. The orchestras performed five pieces on February 15: High Strung by Adrian Gordon, Acharanga by Reena Esmail, Chinese Folk Song Suite II: The Flowing Stream, La Muerte de Neftolio by Augusto Lozano, and Good Luck Babe by Chappell Roan.

MIHS students go on some great field trips over the course of the school year. This past year both MIHS Materials Sciences classes went to Lawless Forge to put into practical use many of the concepts they had learned in a Metals/Metallurgy unit. It’s so great to see our teachers providing real world examples of classroom units.

On January 10, KMIH and MISH.tv students learned they had been nominated for 30 Intercollegiate Broadcasting System (IBS) awards, including KMIH being tapped as top high school radio station in the nation, MIHS.tv with the best TV newscast, and all three MIHS media teachers being named best faculty advisors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Members of our community have many different winter celebrations and traditions. It was great to be at West Mercer when the school held an all-school assembly on January 14 to highlight the different winter traditions members of the school celebrate.

Crest Learning Center teachers Carrie Thompson and Patrick Rigby developed a project based learning (PBL) program on the ethical use of AI for their students. The point of the project was for students to study and learn about AI while testing out its tools and capabilities. The program was very well received by students.

“Accepting Imperfection” was the theme of this past school year’s National PTA Reflections program. Numerous MISD students were recognized for their artwork that explored their thoughts, feelings, and ideas.

Lindsay Oliveira’s fourth grade class at Northwood helped raise funds for students and teachers in the Pasadena Unified School District that were impacted by wildfires during January. Ms. Oliveira told KING 5 news, who did a story on the fundraising, "I hope they can look back on this day and can say, hey we made a change and made a difference because we cared and asked how we can help."

West Mercer introduced Wolfpack Block, a small group learning initiative, at the school three years ago. The initiative has been so successful because of how the program builds and expands the capacity of the school’s paraeducators. We were enormously proud to share the story of Wolfpack Block with our community on January 21.

MIHS cheerleaders took third place in the 3A Traditional Non-Tumbling Medium Division at the WIAA State Cheer Championships on January 24.

The MIHS Coding Club supported seniors in our community regularly last year at the Tech Help for Seniors program at the MI Library. The weekly drop-in sessions help make technology more accessible to seniors on our island.

The MIHS Drama production of “Puffs, or Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic” opened in January. Just prior to opening night, eight drama students were recognized as State Honorees in the Washington State Thespian Thespy Awards.

Late in January we announced 125 MIHS DECA students would be taking part in the Washington State DECA Championship at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue. This was the highest number ever of MIHS DECA students who qualified for the State Championship.

The 2023-24 edition of Pegasus, the MIHS creative arts magazine, eared three marks of distinction from the National Scholastic Press Organization (NSPA) on February 4. A NSPA judge commented “"I enjoyed evaluating this volume. It was never boring. Bravo to the staff on a job well done."

It was great to see the Northwood choir perform at the Mercer Island Lunar New Year celebration at the MI Community Center on February 2.

For the first time in over a decade, the MIHS boys wrestling team won the KingCo Championship with 11 wrestlers placing.  At the State Championship senior Chase Warnick won the 157-pound title and five other wrestlers earned podium finishes. It was an exciting season for the team.

MIHS junior Adele Ross was named one of two recipients of the Boys & Girls Club of King County Quincy Robertson Service and Leadership Award on February 8.

MIHS students joined AARP’s Wish of a Lifetime Cupid Crew and Coordinating Council for Refugees (CCFR) to spread joy and love on Valentine’s Day. As part of the nationwide initiative, students delivered over 150 roses and Valentine’s cards to residents at Island House Assisted Living and Aljoya Mercer Island on February 14, reminding seniors that they are cared for and appreciated.

We’re very proud of the MIHS Unified Basketball team clinching a spot in the State Unified tournament that took place in March.

MISH freshman Connor Carson won the 3A State Diving Championship on February 20 at the King County Aquatic Center.

MIHS senior Owen Powell did something no other Washington high schooler had ever done on February 15 when he broke the 4-minute mile mark by running a mile in 3:57.7 at the Husky Classic. This was hugely impressive!

The Lakeridge Culture Fair gets better and better ever year. Third graders work really hard on their presentations and the excitement from the students, their family members, and staff is palpable.

The partnerships MISD has with the MIPD and Mercer Island Youth and Family Services (MIYFS) are so valuable, as evidenced when SRO Olivia Phan and MIYFS Counselor Chris Harnish visited IMS on February 28 to present educational lessons on nicotine and vaping to students.

Class of 2025 graduate Kyle Gerstel was busy in early March as he competed at the annual Seattle Shakespeare competition and took first place with his performance of Romeo’s balcony speech from Romeo and Juliet and Sonnet 138. Kyle was named the recipient of the Lu Flannery Outstanding Journalist Award from the Washington Journalism Education Association.  Kyle went on to compete in the national Shakespeare competition in New York in April.

Lakeridge fifth grader Aria Naftolin took first place in the PTA Reflections grades 3-5 Music Composition category for her piece title “Long drive home” which she performed at the Reflections Awards Ceremony at IMS.

Islander Middle School intermediate robotics students visited Ash Grove Cement Plant on March 7. Teacher Sarah Olson provided the students with a terrific opportunity to see what industries use the technology students were learning. Student also were able to “drive” Spot, a robotic dog, built by Boston Dynamics, that is used at the plant to check for air quality, temperature, and other measurements.  

On March 12 KMIH 88.9 The Bridge and MIHS.tv received numerous accolades at the 2025 Intercollegiate Broadcasting System (IBS) Awards, including KMIH receiving the Golden Microphone for being America’s top high school radio station. Teachers Joe Bryant, Natalie Woods, and Michale Ketchum were honored as best the Best Radio and Video Faculty Advisors.

Robotics classes and groups are strong at MIHS. MIHS Robotics Team 5937 took second place at the PNW Bonney Lake Event and the MIHS VEX Robotics team took third place at the State competition to earn a trip to the World Championship in Dallas in May.

Our 2024 Annual Report was sent to the community via regular mail on February 18. The stories in the report were highlighted on our website and shared on our social platforms in late February and early March. These stories included a story on Demonstrated Excellence in Academics, MIHS senior Jordan Balousek’s story Student Voices Shines in MISD, and Mary Wayte Pool – A Vital Community Space for Mercer Island.

One of the special things about MISD is how MIHS students will regularly visit our elementary schools to give presentations or provide mentoring opportunities. On March 19 members of the MIHS Black Student Union (BSU) visited the newly formed West Mercer BSU to speak to elementary students about their high school experience and discuss things they have in common.

The Mercer Island Schools Foundation (MISF) is such a great partner, supporting new programs and annual programs in our schools. A program they have supported since 2013, is the Novel Writing project for fifth graders at West Mercer with local author Roz Ray. Each of the three fifth grade classes at the school come up with the characters and plot for their class novel and Ray breaks the plot up into chapters, and each student writes one chapter of the novel. MISF was also instrumental in implementing two new curricula across our elementary schools, which after implementation, students’ standardized test scores improved significantly. The annual novel writing unit and curricula adoption would not be possible without your support of MISF.

The Mercer Island High School HOSA-Future Health Professionals group had an incredible few days in Spokane from March 11-13 competing in events, attending workshops, and visiting colleges at the HOSA Spring Conference. The chapter saw remarkable performances in preliminary testing, with 10 members advancing to the second round and 16 members attending the State Leadership Conference.

The Taproot Theatre visited West Mercer on March 18 for a anti-bullying assembly called “Rocks”.

The MIHS Drill Team made program history on March 28 at the State Championships at the Sun Dome in Yakima sweeping all three categories, Military, Kick, and Pom, to win three State Championships. This was such an impressive feat for the team!

West Mercer 4th graders completed two “Skills For Theatre…Skills For Life” workshops with the Village Theatre Kids Stage. The workshops focused on the physical connection between drama and life skills and the on the written aspects of drama and connections to life skills.

Local author Ellie Peterson presented a graphic novel workshop to all students at Lakeridge on March 26.

We hope you enjoy these look backs at stories from the 2024-25 school year. There is so much in our district to be proud of and celebrate.

We have one installment in the series left, on Tuesday, August 26 when we will highlight April, May, and June stories.