Renaissance to Remain at Eastlake Campus

 will remain at  despite a grade reconfiguration planned for next school year, the Lake Washington School District announced.

In the fall of 2012, the school will move out of the high school building and into its own mini-campus, a configuration of modular, portable classrooms that will be served with water and plumbing. The same kind of mini-campus of portables is also being built at BEST High School to house Northstar Middle School. Renaissance students will continue to use Eastlake facilities as needed to support the program, such as the gym and the library.

Based at Eastlake High School, Renaissance School of Art and Reasoning blends visual and performing arts, as well as science and math, together for its students, who will be 6th to 8th grade students beginning in 2012. In addition to art, the school stresses critical thinking skills and community awareness.

The institution is a Choice School in the Lake Washington School District. That means it is small by design and geared to meet specific academic needs and interests. Renaissance administrators even offer advice on whether a Choice School is a good fit for a student. 

The school, founded in 2006, has a maximum enrollment of 90 students.

Parents who wish to enroll students in Renaissance must attend a mandatory Parent & Student Information Night and Tour Jan. 5 from 7–9:00 p.m. in the Eastlake High School auditorium. Applications for the choice schools in the district are due by Jan. 27, 2012. A lottery will be held for available spots on Feb. 3.

In May of 2010, the district decided to change its grade configuration, beginning in 2012, to deal with projected growth that will primarily be seen at the elementary level over the next five to seven years. Moving from a grades K-6 elementary, 7-9 junior high and 10-12 high school system to a K-5 elementary, 6-8 middle school and 9-12 high school will shift one grade out of the elementary schools where space is already tight and move the population to the secondary schools, where more space is available. At locations where portables are used, each portable costs roughly $250,000, according to the district.

Based on initial projections for Eastlake High School with the addition of ninth grade next year, the district sought a new home for Renaissance to provide more room for Eastlake students. There was no suitable space available in existing buildings in the eastern half of the district. Because of the restrictions on building in unincorporated King County, building a campus for Renaissance on district land also was problematic. A number of options were researched and considered but no suitable option was found.

After updating projections for Eastlake based on current enrollment numbers, it was determined that the Eastlake building with its new addition will be able to accommodate all Eastlake students, including the ninth graders. That freed up for Renaissance School the space that had been reserved for portables in case they were needed for Eastlake students.

--Information from Lake Washington School District