Letter from Matt- May

Dear Overlake Community,

Ahhh…May has arrived. This means slightly warmer temperatures (on some days), less rain and longer daylight.

To kick off this month we start with ArtsFest today. If you have time, stop by to hear some great music, watch wonderful student performances, and check out some fantastic student art. ArtsFest has been an event at Overlake for many years and with our 50th year it will certainly be a particularly eventful one.

I also hope you have a chance to come to the community briefing on Monday at 6:30 pm in Discovery Hall to learn about the school’s plans as articulated in the Strategic Plan. The evening will cover the work the school has done and the work we need to do in the future.

I am particularly excited about our plans as we have crossed a major milestone. As the school sits in an area that is zoned for residential use any upgrades that we want to do to our facilities requires the school to complete a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) with King County. After several years of work with the County and our neighbors, I am happy to report that we have cleared the CUP process. We can now move forward with projects that have been placed on hold while we worked on completing the CUP.

This means that the work on our lower playing fields and parking lots can proceed. We are working with our construction company to plan for this work. Once we have solidified those plans, we will communicate on when and how that work will occur.

Part of the CUP process, however, does require us to upgrade the road leading to campus. We will be making these upgrades this summer. During this work there will be access to school, although at times with only one lane of entry. 

As I look out over campus, I can see the sun starting to peek out from the clouds. This means that more students will venture out to enjoy the campus and have lunch with one another and just maybe a class or two will move to the outside!

Warmly,

Matt