Make a Good Life

Trader Joe's Opens in Olympia!

That is my dear friend, Pam, with her arm raised in triumph.  She was the second person in line for the grand opening this morning....Two Buck Chuck, here I come! 

Read the rest of the story on The Olympian's website Photo courtesy of The Olympian

WASL Woes

WASL scores are out......I only mention that because you would be surprised at the number of people I speak with on a weekly basis who are making their school choices when moving here solely on these scores.

These standardized tests do provide a benchmark, but they certainly do not paint the full picture of a school or district.  I thought it fascination that North Thurston school district has actually hired a "PR" person, Courtney Schrieve.  She was present at a recent MLSA breakfast and asked the real estate professionals there, "What would it take for you to list North Thurston Schools in your listings as a selling feature?"

Well part of the problem with listing that school district would be that they consistently fall low in the WASL scoring....and we as agents have clients who want to know this.  Though we are limited in the amount of "steering" we can do to get our clients into a certain area, (none in fact!), all agents have their own preferences for areas and can "vouch" at least for the culture of the school.

Griffin school district was the only district to have made "Adequate Yearly Progress" which means that it met all of the federal benchmarks.  So this is not exactly high praise, just praise in comparison to the other 57 districts that are listed as needing improvement.  Griffin school district is on the Steamboat Island peninsula....my stomping grounds.  There is only one school that accomodates kindergarten through 8th grade...the only one left in Thurston County to do so.