Whatcom Middle School
Encyclopedia
Whatcom Middle School, home of the Wildcats, is a middle school
Middle school
Middle School and Junior High School are levels of schooling between elementary and high schools. Most school systems use one term or the other, not both. The terms are not interchangeable...

 located in Bellingham, WA. With enrollment of 606 students in 2006-2007, it was the largest of four middle schools in the Bellingham School District
Bellingham School District
Bellingham School District No. 501 is a public school district in Whatcom County, Washington, USA and serves the city of Bellingham.As of October 2004, the district has an enrollment of 10,763 students....

. It was also the oldest existing school building in the Bellingham School District. On November 5, 2009, a fire broke out and caused irreparable damage to the school building. Since the fire, students have been dispersed to the three other Bellingham School District
Bellingham School District
Bellingham School District No. 501 is a public school district in Whatcom County, Washington, USA and serves the city of Bellingham.As of October 2004, the district has an enrollment of 10,763 students....

 middle schools, and some sixth graders will remain at their elementary schools for the 2010-2011 school year. The building is expected to be rebuilt on the same site, and is expected to take two to three years to complete.

History

In 1903, North Side High School was built to service the city of Bellingham, the conglomerate of four communities that surrounded Bellingham Bay
Bellingham Bay
Bellingham Bay is a bay located on the northern Pacific coast of Washington state in the United States. It is separated from the Strait of Georgia on the west by the Lummi Peninsula, Portage Island, and Lummi Island. It is bordered on the east by Bellingham, Washington, to the south-east by the...

 - Whatcom, Bellingham, Sehome, and Fairhaven. In 1916, additional construction doubled the size of the building, and the name was changed to Whatcom High School. In 1937, Bellingham High School
Bellingham High School
Bellingham High School is a public high school in the Bellingham School District located in Bellingham, Washington. The school serves students primarily from the Whatcom Middle School and Kulshan Middle School attendance areas.-History:...

 was built, and the students from Whatcom High School were moved to the new building. The old building became Whatcom Junior High for grades 7-9. The school was reorganized into Whatcom Middle School in 1967 to serve grades 6-8.

The school was heavily damaged in a major early morning fire on November 5, 2009 while undergoing a retrofit. As of November 2010, the fire was revealed to be accidental. The fire was related to the welding work at Whatcom Middle School, as the Bellingham Fire Department revealed.

Academics

In 2006-2007, Whatcom met WASL
Washington Assessment of Student Learning
The Washington Assessment of Student Learning was a standardized educational assessment system given as the primary assessment in the state of Washington from spring 1997 to summer 2009. The WASL was also used as a high school graduation examination beginning in the spring of 2006 and ending in 2009...

 standards for Adequate Yearly Progress
Adequate Yearly Progress
Adequate Yearly Progress, or AYP, is a measurement defined by the United States federal No Child Left Behind Act that allows the U.S. Department of Education to determine how every public school and school district in the country is performing academically according to results on standardized...

 in 17 of the 19 required categories, failing in only reading and math assessment for Special Education
Special education
Special education is the education of students with special needs in a way that addresses the students' individual differences and needs. Ideally, this process involves the individually planned and systematically monitored arrangement of teaching procedures, adapted equipment and materials,...

 students with and individualized education program.

External links

  • Official website
  • Bellingham School District
    Bellingham School District
    Bellingham School District No. 501 is a public school district in Whatcom County, Washington, USA and serves the city of Bellingham.As of October 2004, the district has an enrollment of 10,763 students....

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK