The change in grade configuration that will add ninth grade to district high schools in the fall of 2012 has created a need for more facility space at Lake Washington High School.

As a result, Northstar Junior High, a Choice school that has been on the campus of Lake Washington High School, plans to move next fall to the BEST High School/Family Learning Center (FLC) campus, at 10903 NE 53rd St. in Kirkland.

Northstar will occupy portable classrooms on that campus. It will reopen as a middle school, as part of the change in grade configuration affecting current junior high schools in the district.

The BEST/FLC campus is relatively close to Lake Washington High School.

This move maintains a Choice middle school option in the Lake Washington High School feeder area. Choice schools are open to any student in the district rather than drawing from a specific neighborhood area.

Nell Ballard-Jones, the principal for BEST and FLC, will become the Northstar principal. Ballard-Jones served as principal of Northstar when she was associate principal at Lake Washington High School.

She is very familiar with the Northstar program.

District staff will work with City of Kirkland and the Houghton City Council to obtain the necessary permits to move additional portable classrooms to the BEST/FLC site.