North Shore School District highlights academic gains, major capital projects and ARPA-funded pilots at Kenmore joint meeting

At a joint meeting with the Kenmore City Council, North Shore School District Superintendent Michael Tolley delivered the district's State of the Schools update, outlining academic results, demographic shifts, and major capital projects affecting Kenmore-area schools.

Why it matters: The district said local bonds and levies fund large construction projects and ongoing services, including special education and multilingual programs. The presentation previewed a multi-phase replacement at Inglemore High School, modernization at Kenmore Elementary, delayed athletic-field work at Kenmore Middle and program pilots funded with one-time ARPA dollars that will affect students in Kenmore.

Tolley opened by describing the district's scope and performance, saying the system serves more than 34 schools and over 22,000 students with roughly 1,500 certified staff. "When you provide an excellent education to an individual student, you don't just change the student, you change their family," Tolley said, and he cited a 95 percent graduation rate as evidence of strong outcomes.

He told the council the district is now a majority-minority district and that the number of languages spoken in students' homes has risen substantially; Tolley noted that Portuguese is now among the top three home languages in the district ahead of Russian and Chinese. The district's five-year strategic plan contains five goals and 26 measures; Tolley said six key performance indicators are tracked publicly on the district website.

On literacy, Tolley said the…