Lake Washington School District will add a new online payment system beginning next week. The new system will enable parents of most secondary school (high school/junior high) students to go online and pay student fees, fines, make donations, buy yearbooks and more online using a credit card. Starting next week, online payment options will be available to our comprehensive junior highs and high schools, including BEST. Our choice high schools, ICS and STEM, will be included next year. Online payments will not be available at choice junior high/middle schools due to the low volume of transactions at those schools. Once the first phase of this project is implemented, the district can work to determine the cost/benefit of adding online payments at other sites.

The district is charged fees for accepting payment using credit cards. For this service to be self-supporting, the school board approved a processing fee for online payments. The fee is 3.5% per transaction with a minimum charge of $1 and a maximum charge of $10. Fees will not be assessed on donations made to the district.

To make an online payment, just log in to Parent Access and find the new "Online Payments" icon. When you click on this icon, you can select your student(s) and pay associated fees or fines connected to your student(s). There are help and contact sections that can answer any questions you might have.

Please note: Payments to a student's lunch account are still accessed separately through the "Lunch Account Balances and Payment" icon in Parent Access.

The High School Proficiency Exam testing in reading and writing is taking place this week, March 13-15. Please make sure your tenth grade student (or older student who has not yet passed both) is well rested and has had a nutritious breakfast on each of these days. These tests are required for graduation.

Students who do not pass in 10th grade have additional opportunities in 11th and 12th but your student probably would prefer to pass it the first time and not have to retake the test.

As reported in the February 29 issue of Connections, the Board of Directors unanimously voted to hire Dr. Traci Pierce as the district's next superintendent. She replaces Dr. Chip Kimball when he steps down at the end of June.

The board issued a proclamation concerning classified public school employee week, which is March 12-16. As Deputy Superintendent Janene Fogard noted, the district's classified staff maintained 3.5 million square feet of buildings, managed a payroll of $170 million, oversaw completion of $73 million in capital construction,  and drove 1.5 million miles to transport students over the last year.

The board also enjoyed performances from students involved in the PTSA Reflections arts competition. This year, over 460 students from 39 schools entered. This year's theme was "Diversity Means..."