Secondary Transition

🌼 From Lessons to Action: How Our Students Honored Earth Day 🌍🌿 At Secondary Transition, we’re not just teaching skills for the future—we’re building responsible citizens of the world. This past Earth Day, our Secondary Transition students learned the importance of taking care of the planet through real-life lessons in reducing, reusing, recycling—and even planting new life. Whether it was sorting recyclables, cutting down on waste, planting flowers and vegetables, or finding creative ways to reuse everyday items, they put responsibility into action and showed that every small step can lead to big change. We’re proud of the way our students are growing into thoughtful, capable, and eco-conscious members of their communities. Let’s follow their example and keep our Earth healthy for generations to come!

🎳 Bowling for More Than Just Strikes: How STEP Staff Support Social & Emotional Growth! 🌟 At STEP (Secondary Transition Education Program), we know that true learning happens outside the classroom too. Our recent bowling outing wasn’t just a fun event -- it was a powerful opportunity for our students to develop important social-emotional skills in a real-world setting. For students with special needs, social-emotional learning (SEL) is vital in helping them navigate relationships, cope with challenges, and build confidence. Bowling may seem like just a game, but for our students, it's an intentional learning experience where they practice vital skills like communication, teamwork, problem-solving, and resilience.

🛒 Learning Life Skills, One Aisle at a Time! Our Community IMAGES classroom students visited the grocery store this week, turning a simple shopping trip into a powerful learning experience. They practiced creating shopping lists, managing a budget, finding items, and navigating the store independently. These real-world lessons are a vital part of preparing students for life after high school. Activities like this build essential skills in money management, decision-making, and communication—laying the foundation for greater independence, confidence, and workplace readiness. We’re incredibly proud of the growth and determination shown by our Community IMAGES students every step of the way.

QUESTION: Why do we need all-weather fields in every region of our city? With increased interest and participation in after-school sports and activities at all of our five neighborhood high schools, our existing grass fields are wearing down faster than we can maintain them. A partnership with Spokane Parks and Recreation to create a citywide system of all-weather surface fields will represent the lowest possible cost to provide a high-quality play experience because we can program more activities on one all-weather surface field than on two to three grass fields. Learn more at http://togetherspokane.org/.

QUESTION: What’s happening at Madison Elementary School? ANSWER: The Together Spokane proposal for Madison Elementary School, the oldest northside school in the district, includes replacing the 75-year-old building with a new two-story structure on the same footprint. This new building would accommodate special education programs that are currently housed in five portable buildings outside the main school. The school’s location, adjacent to Franklin Park at North Division Street and West Queen Avenue, has created an opportunity for Spokane Public Schools and Spokane Parks and Recreation to explore sharing land and resources. This collaboration would co-locate the new Madison building with an enclosed, publicly accessible, multi-use recreational facility. The proposed “Field House” could include multiple indoor courts, one of which could be fully partitioned for use as Madison’s primary gym and cafeteria space. The Field House would also have a separate entrance, allowing the public to use the facility for basketball, volleyball, pickleball, and other community activities both during and after school hours. Co-locating public spaces helps save resources and taxpayer dollars. A similar framework has been implemented before, such as when the Spokane Public Library built its Hillyard branch at Shaw Middle School. As SPS and Parks developed this proposal and other Together Spokane projects, numerous community organizations expressed interest in investing capital and entering agreements for priority program use. The Boys & Girls Clubs of Spokane County, Pacific Northwest Qualifier and Spokane Hoopfest have signed letters of intent to collaborate with SPS and Parks for Together Spokane. Their participation will enhance spaces for education, recreation, and community wellness, benefiting Spokane residents of all ages. Learn more about this project at https://www.togetherspokane.org/Madison-School-Rec and share your feedback at https://www.togetherspokane.org/feedback.

TOGETHER SPOKANE: A proposal to improve schools, parks and neighborhoods. Spokane Public Schools and Spokane Parks and Recreation are proposing a historic initiative to re-build schools, renovate and add parks and create programming for kids and adults. Every neighborhood, every park and every school has a proposed project. LEARN MORE: https://www.togetherspokane.org/

Reminder: There is no school on Friday, Jan. 31, for semester break. We will see you again on Monday, Feb. 3, following our Late-Start Monday schedule.

WEBINAR REMINDER: SPS will host a webinar on Jan. 14 at 4 p.m. to talk about new student registration and choice requests for the 2025-26 school year. The webinar will be recorded if you are unable to attend. Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_qERmsCjWQAu-q3E9h33QuQ#/registration

SPS will host a webinar on Jan. 14 at 4 p.m. to talk about new student registration and choice requests for the 2025-26 school year. The webinar will be recorded if you are unable to attend. Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_qERmsCjWQAu-q3E9h33QuQ#/registration

Happy New Year! Registration for the 2025-26 school year is now open! Do you need to register a new student? Do you need to apply for "choice" or an option school? Begin the process here: https://www.spokaneschools.org/page/school-registration-2025-26

The HEART Gift Card Drive continues through Dec. 10! Hear from a couple students who have experienced homelessness and how much the gift cards meant to them: https://www.spokaneschools.org/article/1904694

Listen to the latest episode of “SPS Extra” and learn more about Engage IRL at http://www.spokaneschools.org/listen, or follow and subscribe to “SPS Podcasts” wherever you listen to podcasts.