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Eleven Mercer Island Destination Imagination teams recently participated in the Global Finals tournament in Kansas City, Missouri and performed phenomenally well. We represented less than 2% of the 589 teams at the tournament, and yet the teams took home 16% of all the first-place awards!

Well, we made it to June! However, this is a bit like our hopes and dreams for each graduating class. Our dream for our graduates is to not just get into college or on a career trajectory, but instead to thrive wherever life takes them. Thus, we need to all remember that getting to June is not the objective- it is now time to excel all the way through June 23rd!

Mercer Island School District Superintendent Dr. Fred Rundle recognized the District’s Employees of the Year, Retiring Staff, and staff with a years of service milestone in a ceremony this evening in the MIHS Library.

The Mercer Island School District Transportation Department will be hosting rides and tours of our new Electric School Bus this Saturday, June 3, to introduce the Island community to the new bus.

Tuesday afternoon at Mercer Island High School 29 seniors signed National Letters of Intent to play collegiate and university sports next year in a ceremony in the high school Commons.

Washington Aerospace Scholars (WAS) has announced five students from Mercer Island High School successfully completed the WAS Phase One curriculum and qualified for a place in the competitive Phase Two – the WAS Summer Residency.

Mercer Island High School’s Media Technology, Filmmaking, and Storytelling Class announced today that two student works have been named Best Student Works in the record breaking 44th Annual Telly Awards.

This past weekend, Team 98040C, the Islander Middle School Robotics team competed at the 2023 VEX Robotics World Championship in Dallas, Texas.

The students, staff, and community continue to amaze and inspire me. Students are excelling in and out of the classroom through athletics, clubs and organizations, and even personal pursuits beyond MISD. Some of our staff members are gaining recognition by local, state, and national organizations. And our families, they are volunteering through the schools and PTA, supporting the Mercer Island Schools Foundation, and sending eager learners to school each day. I will highlight specific events coming in May, but also invite you to read more about recent accomplishments and points of pride at the end of this letter. 

The Mercer Island School District, in partnership with the Mercer Island Preschool Association (MIPA), hosted an Inclusionary Practices Roundtable for Mercer Island Preschool Directors this afternoon. The roundtable took place in the Board Room in the MISD Administration Building.

The grant from MISF provided students with two workshops with a guest artist from Seattle Shakespeare. In one of the workshops students were guided by the guest artist in the language, characterization, and world of Shakespeare.

The MIHS team represented Mercer Island by bringing their ‘A’ game to these challenging events by exhibiting poise, determination, grit, creativity, and sheer hard work.  There were 253 MIHS DECA students that began the year with the Area 3 DECA competition in January.  Five MIHS students made it onto the stage as finalists in Orlando out of the 22,000 students that competed.

Mystery Science is a fun and engaging way for elementary students to learn science. This school year all Mystery Science materials used by our elementary teachers have been provided through a grant from the Mercer Island Schools Foundation (MISF).  

The Mercer Island Destination Imagination (DI) teams had a fantastic showing at both the Regional and State DI competitions. At the regional tournament 21 of the 24 teams earned awards and recognition for their work. This included several special awards recognizing exceptional technical designs, integration of music into their solutions, and the inclusion of superior engineering elements. 

The Northwood Elementary Adaptive Music and PE classes are grateful for a generous grant from the Mercer Island Schools Foundation (MISF) for pentatonic xylophones, Joia tube instruments, and adaptive bowling balls.

This afternoon at Mercer Island High School (MIHS) a new campaign called "Island Space" was launched by Mercer Island Youth and Family Services (MIYFS) and SAFE (Super Awesome Fun Events) Club students.

Island Park Elementary second grade student Sri Vadlamannati participated in the 2023 Washington State Science and Engineering Fair on March 31 and won three awards.

The National Youth Leadership Council (NYLC) hosted their 34th annual conference, the National Services-Learning Conference, in Nashville, Tennessee from April 2 to April 5.

Mercer Island High School students in Rita Harvey’s Physics 2 and Chemistry 2 classes have a STEM culminating project of building a Stirling Engine from ordinary materials.

The Mercer Island High School Mock Trial Club competed at the 2023 Washington YMCA Mock Trial Sate Championship from March 24 to March 26 in Olympia.

Upcoming in April, we have more religious and cultural celebrations to recognize. Though some of these spiritual or days of significance fall either on a weekend or when the schools are closed for spring break, we will continue to recognize and make space for our students and staff who participate in the many traditions. 

Islander Middle School Math 3 teacher Liz Jose used a grant from the Mercer Island Schools Foundation to purchase 10 copies of a Choose Your Own Adventure Math Mystery book called The Outlier’s Secret for her students.

The IDEA project is a one-week program that is custom-tailored for the elementary grades and offers an opportunity to create understanding and empathy by educating students about differences and different abilities.

This afternoon at Northwood Elementary the Kids Quest Museum visited all three kindergarten classes to present their Forces In Motion program.

On Friday, March 3, Mr. Hartman, aka The Toymaker, met with all three second grade classes at Island Park Elementary.

On Saturday, March 4, Mercer Island High School Islander and Isla staff members attended the Washington Journalism Education Association (WJEA) State Conference at Mountlake Terrace High School.

The Islander Middle School Mathcounts team of Kyle Liao, Eli Glowitz, Keith Chung, and Eric Shao won third place at the Washington State Mathcounts Compe.tition on Saturday, March 18.

Each class, as a whole, will decide on characters, settings, plot, and other elements of their novel. Once all of those are determined, Ray creates chapter summaries and the students use their summary to write their chapter.

The Mercer Island School District is pleased to present its eighth annual Pathfinder Award to a 1974 graduate of Mercer Island High School whose achievements, strength of character, and citizenship inspire and challenge today’s youth to make significant contributions to humankind.

Ben is an author and illustrator best known for his Narwhal and Jelly books. Ben has written or illustrated over 25 children’s books.

A Mercer Island Schools Foundation grant helped bring Ijeoma Oluo to Mercer Island High School to be Keynote Speaker at the school’s Black History Month Assembly on February 10.

Ten Mercer Island High School students placed in the Top 10 on March 10 at the 2023 HOSA-Future Health Professionals Washington State Competition.

The Mercer Island High School Science Club took three teams to the regional Science Olympiad in Longview, Washington, on March 4.

Coming to Northwood Thursday, March 23, 2:30-3:30 pm, kindergarten and 1st graders. Order your autographed copy of Ben's Books by March 20th from Island Books. 

The Mercer Island School District, in collaboration with the Mercer Island Fine Arts Advisory Council, invites the Mercer Island community to the annual Fine Arts Showcase, a two-day event celebrating the amazing accomplishments of our K-12 students in Performing Arts (Music and Drama) and Visual Arts.

The high school principal in a single high school district is a very important position, which is further amplified here on Mercer Island. 

Every year, the Washington Music Educators Association selects and presents an All-State Band, Orchestra and Choir that perform in conjunction with the Washington State Music Educators Convention.

The Mercer Island School District congratulates the eight students who are 2022-23 Award Winners at the state level for the WSPTA Reflections Program. 

Six Islander Middle School seventh graders formed a robotics team in the summer of 2022.

MIHS DECA students took part in three days of competition at Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue this past weekend at the DECA State Tournament.

Children’s book author and illustrator Ben Clanton visiting Lakeridge Elementary on Tuesday afternoon.

The Mercer Island High School Mock Trial team has advanced to the State Tournament on March 24-26 in Olympia.

KMIH 88.9 The Bridge has earned 16 national awards for excellence in broadcasting from the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System.

Welcome to March! Winter is not yet behind us, but longer days and buds forming on trees give us hope that spring is coming. We have spring athletics, Fine Arts Showcase, and so much more to look forward to in March.

The Mercer Island School District is pleased to announce we have relaunched our District and school websites. 

The Mercer Island School District and the City of Mercer Island are pleased to announce a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for the newly updated South Mercer Playfields (SMP) on Saturday, March 11, at noon.

On February 9, over 100 Black and African American parents and students from the Mercer Island School District gathered for the first annual Black Student Union Dinner (BSU) at Mercer Island High School.

To kickstart the second half of the 2022-2023 school year MISD celebrates Black History Month. 

Kindergarten registration for the 2023-24 school year begins on Wednesday, February 1, 2023. 

Mercer Island School District Superintendent Fred Rundle and Executive Director of Finance and Operations Matt Sullivan held a Budget 101 webinar for the Mercer Island community on Thursday, January 19, from 5-6pm.

The Mercer Island School District is reforming the Long Range Facility Planning Committee to update the MISD Facility Plan for 2023 and beyond.