Back to School

Welcome to WANIC Where students can find their

• PLACE
• PEOPLE
• PASSION
• PURPOSE
• PATHWAy

Here’s the thing: WANIC is a weird animal, right? This is possibly the first time your student will be splitting their day between two different locations, and for many of you, two different school districts.

By inviting you here tonight, we want to make sure we share with you the most important features of WANIC so you can be properly prepared when the new school year begins.

Students, by coming to WANIC Skill Center you’re committing to a year of diving deep into a single area of study, gaining experience from experts in the field, and spending half your school day focusing on the theory and skills that could lead you to a fulfilling career and/or post secondary study. You’ll meet like-minded students from up to 33 other schools and six other districts. You’ll work hard, learn a ton, and gain invaluable skills – not only in your chosen field but also in transferable employability skills to prepare you for any workplace you land up in.

It also means you are committing to a model that is a little different and a little more demanding than you’re perhaps used to. It is not a trivial task to split your day, immerse in two-and-a-half hour classes EVERY DAY FOR THE ENTIRE SCHOOL YEAR, follow the policies and protocols of a whole new program, and keep up with the demands of your own high school at the same time. It’s a challenge and an adjustment.

Take it from us, hundreds, thousands of WANIC students have come before you and learned, with great success, to navigate this odd, wonderful model. They have thrived and succeeded. Our wish and expectation is that you will thrive and succeed too.

• Welcome to WANIC & Lake Washington School District(LWSD)
• Contacts / Communication 
• LWSD Calendar
• Attendance Matters
• Transportation
• The WANIC Way - Employability Expectations
• Student Handbook
• Campus Public Safety - LWTech
• Barrier Reduction / Financial Support
• Questions

• Washington Network for Innovative Careers
• Skill Center, providing immersive training in Career & Technical Education (CTE) programs
• Consortium of seven school districts
• Hosted by Lake Washington School District (LWSD)
• Students are now members of their home high school plus LWSD
• Students spend half their school day with us and the other half at their home high school/program

Let’s start with what we ARE:

Washington Network for Innovative Careers is a Skill Center, ( 1 of 16 across the state) providing immersive training in Career & Technical Education (CTE) programs

We are a Consortium of seven school districts  which offers 19 programs across 11 locations

• Students receive LWSD email accounts
• Families access LWSD Skyward for grades and attendance
• We are a high school program
• Students earn high school credits
• We send grade/credit reports to the students’ high schools – transcribed to their high school transcripts

Families access LWSD Skyward for grades and attendance  (Skyward is our SIS = Student Information System)

SKYWARD is where we directed ALL FAMILIES NEW to LWSD to complete the LWSD enrollment process.

SKYWARD FAMILY ACCESs support

• This map shows the seven school districts in the WANIC consortium
• All seven districts and their high schools are “Sending” Districts and Schools.
• Students from each of the 34+ high schools have access to all WANIC programs

Bellevue School District:  Bellevue, Big Picture, Digital Discovery, Interlake, International, Newport, Sammamish

Issaquah School District:  Gibson Ek, Issaquah, Liberty, Skyline

Lake Washington School District: Eastlake, Emerson, ICS, Juanita, Lake Washington, Redmond, Tesla STEM

Mercer Island School District: Mercer Island

Northshore School District: Bothell, Inglemoor, Innovation Lab, North Creek, Northshore Learning Options, SAS, Woodinville

Riverview School District: Cedarcrest, Riverview Learning Center

Snoqualmie Valley School District: Mt. Si, Two Rivers

PLUS…

Some students from outside the consortium may access WANIC if space is available and a Shared Student Agreement is processed.

• We are NOT affiliated with Lake Washington Institute of Technology (LWTech)
• WANIC students are NOT LWTech students
• We rent space on the LWTech campus only, we are guests here
• We are NOT a college program
• We are NOT Running Start
• We are NOT College in the High School
• We don’t issue high school transcripts (the students’ high schools do)
• We don’t issue college transcripts (students follow steps to register with and pay PNWCC for Dual CTE College Credits)

Now we have told you what we are, we need to also tell you what we are NOT.

We don’t like to focus on the negatives, but it’s important we set some misconceptions straight right at the outset.

It can be confusing because we happen to be located on a college campus, but we are not affiliated with the LWTech campus.

We pay them rent and they provide some basic services like custodial support and security. Other than that, we are totally separate.

We are their guests.

What may help is if you imagine our programs are in classrooms in your high schools. This is essentially what we are, we just happen to be here.

DIRECTOR: DR. KARI SCHUH

DEAN OF STUDENTS: STEVE HYNDEN

SPECIAL SERVICES PROGRAM COORDINATOR: BARB BECK

OFFICE MANAGER: JANA ROBERTSON

OFFICE MANAGER: NIKKI MEREDITH

BOOKKEEPING/FINANCE: MITRA RAHNAMAI

Please use email wanic@lwsd.org

Phone number: 425-739-8400

DENTAL CAREERS: KATIE OOSTRA

FIRE & EMS: MULTIPLE. LEADS JACK GREAVES AND CAMERON MEANS

MEDICAL CAREERS: SEAN ALLEN

PRE-NURSING: KATRINA KINDRED

PRE-NURSING: CHRISTIE HENNING

Email Preferred wanic@lwsd.org

Phone

• Leave message
• 425-739-8400

ParentSquare

ParentSquare

Respond directly to ParentSquare emails or texts

Visit us

• Allied Health Building A108
• Office Hours: 7:00am – 3:00pm

PLEASE USE YOUR STUDENTS FULL NAME IN ALL COMMUNICATIONS

• Email
• ParentSquare

ParentSquare

ParentSquare is  LWSD adopted platform for SCHOOL / FAMILY communications;  connects schools, teachers and parents through email, phone and mobile app

WANIC will send instructions when school year begins 

All Guardians will automatically receive WANIC communications to the email addresses we have on record

Settings for preferred language and to receive texts, optionally

Attendance notifications

Office announcements and reminders

Teacher messages

Also … LWSD communications (may/may not apply to your family directly)

• StudentSquare

Students strongly encouraged to sign up to receive text messages

• We’d love to connect with you
• Please connect with us
• No PTSA
• Field trip chaperones
• Classroom volunteers
• Candy donations 
• Keep an eye out for ParentSquare communications from the office and the teachers for opportunities to engage

We look forward to building relationships with your students

We’d also love to build relationships with you, our student’s parents/guardians!

WANIC does not have a PTSA, so there is no fund-raising mechanism

Please watch out for communications from us inviting parents to participate in events, like chaperoning field trips, or volunteering in classrooms.

If you’d like to donate individually wrapped candies for our reception area candy bowl, we always appreciate that! Extra candy from Halloween is welcomed!

Mostly, we’d just love to keep communications open.

Send us your feedback, respond to our emails, check your students’ grades and attendance, and keep an eye out for teacher communications.

Contact us if ANY concerns arise throughout the school year.

• First day of school = Monday August 31st
• Breaks and Teacher Workdays may differ from your high school
• Plan ahead to avoid missing WANIC school days!
• Students are expected in WANIC classroom during all days LWSD is in session
  • Some exceptions:
  • No early-release days on Wednesdays
  • No school on day before Thanksgiving, Wednesday 11/25
• WANIC ends the school year one day earlier than LWSD
• WANIC-Specific calendar will be sent to all families once the school year begins

Workplace Expectations Employability Skills

• ATTITUDE 
• INTEGRITY
• RESPONSIBILITY 
• INITIATIVE  

WANIC programs collaborate with Industry Partners through Program Advisory Committees.

Employers tell us what they are looking for prospective new hires (whether out of high school or post-secondary programs).

Integrated into our programs in variety of ways.  We recognize students who reflect these characteristics in assemblies mid-year and end-of-year.

Workplace Expectations  / Employability Skills 

ATTITUDE 

• Be Positive
• Be Collaborative

INTEGRITY

• Be Respectful
• Be Trustworthy

RESPONSIBILITY 

• Be Present
• Be Safe
• Be Prepared

INITIATIVE  

• Be Presentable
• Be Valuable
• Be Solution-Oriented

THE WANIC WAY

• Consistent attendance is a key predictor of success
• Absences have significant impact!
• 1 day missed of WANIC = 3 days missed of a regular HS class
• Hands-on skills may not be reproduced after absence
• Students must demonstrate skills in the classroom to be signed off on competencies
• … in-person attendance is critical!
• No remote learning options

JUST SHOW UP

Students who show up for class, on time, every day… are the students who will get the most out of their WANIC program.

Missing one day at WANIC is equivalent to missing three days of a regular high school class. Absences add up fast!

It is quite difficult to catch up missed work after an absence, especially hands-on skills. When students join WANIC, they make the commitment to make attendance a priority.

Of course, some absences are unavoidable, and we’ll work with students if that’s the case. But whenever possible, students should do themselves a favor and JUST SHOW UP.

• Stay home if you're sick
• Guardian must email/call WANIC office within 48 hours to excuse an absence
• Only the WANIC office can record absences as excused, teachers cannot
• High schools do not inform WANIC of student absences, such as field trips or testing days
• Pre-Arranged Absence Form required for 3+ days
• Students are responsible for contacting their teacher to make up missed work per their classroom policy
• Refer to WANIC Attendance Policy web page

OVERALL:  MINIMIZE TOTAL ABSENCES!

Late Arrivals

• Student must stop by office for a Late Pass
• Arriving 1-29 minutes late = TARDY
• Arriving WANIC 30+ minutes = ABSENCE
• Absences must be excused by Guardian

Early Dismissals 

• Student may not self-dismiss before class ends under any circumstances
• Office must hear directly from Guardian ahead of time (include teacher)
• Please provide at least 2 hours notice, whenever possible

Some of you who are current student/families will know we used the term SUPERTARDY this year. This going away in ‘26-27.

This year a student may be:

• PRESENT – ideal
• TARDY – not ideal, especially in terms of employability scores issued by your teacher
• ABSENT – if a valid excuse is provided by a guardian, the absence will be recorded as excused. If not, the absence will remain unexcused.

Arriving to class 30+ minutes late will be recorded as an absence, because the student will have missed a significant amount of work.

This absence must be excused by a guardian and the missed work needs to be made up by the student.

Early Dismissals. We MUST hear from a guardian before we can allow students to leave before class ends.

The best method is to email BOTH the teacher AND the WANIC office.

• Students are expected to eat their lunch before or after class
• If short on time, suggestions:
  • Pack a lunch
  • Wear scrubs to school
• No food deliveries
• We understand scheduling challenges – we will work with students on a case-by-case basis
• Please email WANIC directly with any concerns

This mostly affects students coming for our PM sessions but could apply to our AM students if they don’t allow themselves enough time to eat breakfast

We want our students to get here safely and have time to each something nutritious.

No food deliveries!

There should be no scheduling challenges since sending schools should have only approved applications that work with the WANIC schedules.

But we do understand schedule conflicts sometimes come up, especially on block days.

We will work with you individually.

Our attendance policy remains: Students are expected in class for the full class time every day.

Recommendation:   Have a Plan A and a Plan B … even a Plan C to get to class daily!

• Network with other students from your high school
• Opportunities this evening when meeting classmates
• Start of year opportunities when we gather together

Per FERPA laws, WANIC office cannot distribute/share personal contact information between students/families

*FERPA   =  Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act

KING COUNTY METRO BUS is FREE for students 18 years old or younger  FREE ORCA CARD BUS PASS

The WANIC Handbook is available on our website

Emergency Prep  > we regularly practice emergency drills both for LWSD and for LWTech

Cell Phones   >  Off and Away during class time

Discipline    >  anticipate minimal issues, but we collaborate with sending high schools as needed

Attendance   >  if concerns arise for excessive absences, particularly UNEXCUSED, we communicate with sending school

Dress Code  >  keep it professional ;   expectation may differ from your sending school

Photos/Videos  >opted in... IF you wish otherwise, inform office directly

WANIC HANDBOOK

• DROP OFF / PICK UP -   do NOT stop along the RED PAINTED CURB (fire lanes)
• Train your parents to use the Pull Out section along the curb
• SOUTH LOT leads directly to 3rd FLOOR of ALLIED HEALTH BLDG
• NORTH LOT  (limited by construction) leads to 1st FLOOR WANIC main entry and our main OFFICE
• Emergency Evacuation ASSEMBLY area =  classes assemble in NE corner of SOUTH Parking Lot

• Campus is open to the public (unlike regular high schools)
• WANIC students are to remain within Allied Health Building areas
• During WANIC class hours, no access to the commons, student store, coffee stand, parking lots, etc. unless accompanied by teacher
• Before or after class time, WANIC does not provide supervision and is not responsible for students’ movements around campus

When leaving classroom…

• Similar to most secondary school setting, students use the Sign Out/In sheet
• Students carry Hall Pass Lanyard (safety alarm)  
• Don’t forget to Sign In upon return!

• CONTACT phone#: 425-739-8224. This is good to have as a contact in your cell phone
• Speed Limit  =  10 mpg
• LWTech does issue fines for violations  *we do NOT require car registration; NO assigned parking
• Drug & Alcohol-free campus  >>  Please contact Office if self-carry medication
• Lost & Found   -  typically routed to WANIC office first, then lands with Campus Security Office
• Report any issues to WANIC and Campus Public Safety:  ex:  see something, say something;
• includes vehicle accidents on campus

• Barrier Reduction Funds can be used toward Gas Cards, Scrubs, Etc.
• WANIC can support financial need (class supplies, gas card, etc.) if family qualifies for Free/Reduced Lunch or other financial aid
• Application form available on WANIC website: see:   Students & Families > Barrier Reduction
• In September, return completed form and scan it to  wanic@lwsd.org or deliver in person to A108. 
• Provide documentation such as:
  • Letter indicating student qualifies for “Free/Reduced Lunch” in 2026-27
  • Evidence of participation in an assistance program such as:  WIC program, TANF program, SNAP program
  • Email from high school counselor confirming you qualify for financial assistance
• KING COUNTY METRO BUS is FREE for students 18 years old or younger 

Barrier Reduction Funds information

• You are a valued member of our WANIC ‘family’
• WANIC = LWSD (Lake Washington School District)
• LWSD calendar for dates & planning
• Attendance Matters … Attendance really matters
• Transportation planning
• We’re here to support student success