Issaquah High School senior Victoria Lu grew up playing the viola and sharing her musical talent with others through performance. This fueled her passion for music and the arts, a passion that was too riveting to keep to herself. Victoria wanted to create greater accessibility to the arts in her community, especially to students with special needs. This ultimately led to her founding the nonprofit SoulArt. SoulArt is dedicated to helping special needs children through providing art instruction, encouraging creative expression, and donating needed arts and crafts supplies to local special education schools.
A team of high school students, who mostly attend Issaquah High School, work year-round to ensure the nonprofit is operating and students have access to the materials they need. “This summer…I concurrently became a volunteer art and music teacher at two special education schools, where I truly got to interact closely with the children. I witnessed firsthand the joy sparkling in their eyes every time I announced we would be doing art and the pride that shone on their faces when they completed their little masterpieces”, Victoria shared. To fuel donations, SoulArt has a wish list on their website of items like craft bags, washable markers, empty paint trays, colored pencils, and more. They also accept monetary donations.
Even in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, Victoria and her team loaded up their cars with donations and traveled to schools to ensure students had the supplies that they needed. Since its founding, SoulArt has donated a little over 1,000 arts and crafts kits.
Currently, artwork created by students supported by SoulArt is on display at KidsQuest Children’s Museum in Bellevue, and will be for the next month. In the coming year, Victoria hopes to be able to host awareness art exhibitions to continue educating the community about special education challenges, and the continued need for support. Additionally, she hopes to fundraise and gather more supplies to grow their reach, allowing SoulArt to donate to additional schools. She also hopes this will encourage greater participation in art courses and programs at the schools they partner with.
For more information about SoulArt, you can visit their website at https://projectsoulart.org/.
Early the morning of August 30, 2021 the Cedar Trails Elementary core team, Superintendent Thiele, Executive Directors of Elementary Susan Mundell and Melinda Reynvaan, the Issaquah School District School Board, and other staff gathered at the school entrance to celebrate the opening of the brand new campus. Nearly 385 students will call Cedar Trails home this fall, and the staff cannot wait to welcome them for the first day of school tomorrow!
Construction first began on the school district's sixteenth elementary school in the spring of 2019. Cedar Trails Elementary is part of the 2016 Bond package. For complete information on the Cedar Trails project, please visit our construction webpage.
Photo: Left to Right: ISD School Board Member Harlan Gallinger, ISD School Board Member Marnie Maraldo, Cedar Trails Elementary Principal Tera Coyle, ISD School Board Member and President Suzanne Weaver, ISD School Board Member Anne Moore, ISD School Board Member Sydne Mullings, and ISD Superintendent Ron Thiele.
School will start August 31 at Cougar Mountain Middle School, Issaquah School District's sixth middle school. Work on the new building in the Talus area has been delayed, but Cougar Mountain students and staff will start school together at Ringdall Middle School, a building in the Bellevue School District. They'll move to their brand new building when work on the new building is complete later this school year.
CMMS will be run by many amazing teachers and other staff members from around the district. They know that school is about the people, not the location, and they're eager to welcome their students and make sure everyone feels a sense of belonging. Go Falcons!
In a new 12-minute video, Issaquah School District leaders talk about our plans to begin the school year with full-time in-person schooling with COVID mitigation procedures.
You can watch the video on the ISD YouTube channel or below. You can jump to specific topics in the video using these links:
Much more information is also available on the Frequently Asked Questions page.
What could be more lovely than a nice summer bike ride? Last month we partnered with the non-profit organization Outdoors for All to host accessible biking events for students attending extended year elementary and high school programs. Adaptive bikes allow people of all abilities to experience the joy of riding. Special thanks to the Issaquah Schools Foundation for a grant to make these events possible!
Want to see more ISD students enjoying adaptive bikes? Check out this video from 2019: