Schools win awards for WASL scores

Three Southeast King County schools are among 86 across the state to receive the first School of Distinction awards given by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Crestwood and Martin Sortun elementary schools in the Kent School District and Bryn Mawr Elementary in the Renton School District were among 14 schools in King County to receive the honor.

The School of Distinction awards, announced Oct. 10, went to the top 5 percent of elementary, middle and high schools whose students have made the most progress over the past six years in reading and writing on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL).

Elementary

to work with

green program

Sierra Heights Elementary in the Renton School District hopes to reduce by half the amount of trash produced at lunchtime under a new partnership with King County and the state Department of Ecology.

Beginning this winter, the school will work with King County's Green Schools Program to reduce food waste and encourage recycling and composting.

Students will be responsible for separating, weighing and placing food into worm bins.

The Green Schools Program, launched in 2003, helps schools find ways to reduce garbage production and energy use.

Sierra Heights has applied for a $10,000 grant from the state Department of Ecology to pay for the project, district officials say.

— Karen Johnson