Kentlake High School

History

Kentlake High School was designed by the architectural firm Burr Lawrence Rising and Bates and built in 1997. Built to accommodate 1600 students, the brick-exterior, two story facility has 232,000 square feet (21,600 m²) for student use. Under a cooperative agreement with King County Parks, an adjacent 10-acre (40,000 m²) site provides additional fields for Kentlake's athletic programs.

Kentlake welcomed its first student body, the classes of 1999 and 2000 in grades 10–11, when it opened on September 2, 1997. Kentlake opened to grades 9–12 during the 2004–05 school years. During the 2010-2011 school year, Dr. Joe Potts, former assistant principal of Kentwood High School, replaced Diana Pratt as the principal of Kentlake. The replacement was followed with the hiring of two assistant principals - Dylan Smith and Jordanne Nevin.

Kentlake's graduating class of 2012 consisted of over 400 students. The students graduated from the Showare Center on June 9, 2012. Three speeches have been given by students, and two have been given by faculty (including Dr. Potts). Kentlake choir, orchestra and band have played during the ceremony.

Academics

Kentlake High School offers several Advanced Placement (AP) courses to the students. Those courses include Art, Computer Science, English, Calculus (AB), Calculus (BC), Statistics, Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Physics, Oceanography, Government and Politics, Geology, and Psychology.

In addition to AP courses, Kentlake also offers students several University of Washington courses - UW Composition, UW Literature, UW Comparative Lit, UW U.S. History, UW Biology: Brain & Addiction, UW Astronomy, UW Oceanography, UW Pre-Calculus, and UW Foundations in Information Technology.

Language courses offered at Kentlake include Japanese, French and Spanish and American Sign Language.

Clubs and Activities

Kentlake offers a variety of clubs and activities to their students. These clubs and activities include:

Athletics

Kentlake participates in the WIAA 4A division. They have been part of the Cascade Division of the North Puget Sound League since the 2016-17 school year. Their volleyball team has won the 4A state championships three times; in 2000, 2001, and 2002. KL volleyball also reached the state tournament in 2005, 2006, and 2007. The fast-pitch softball team has made it to the quarter finals six times, the semifinals three times, and to the state championship once. Kentlake's baseball team reached the state championship in 2008. Kentlake's girls basketball team reached the state tournament in 2007.
Boys

Girls

Notable alumni

Band Accomplishments

In just its second year of existence, Kentlake's Jazz Ensemble took top honors in the Heritage New Orleans Jazz Festival. In 1999, the Jazz Ensemble finished 1st in its classification at the Reno Jazz Festival and 3rd at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival. That same year, the group undertook the challenge of performing the Ellington/Strayhorn “Jazz Nutcracker Suite” in its entirety, and committed to making it an annual event by performing it again during the subsequent holiday seasons. That annual performance has since evolved into the highly popular Jingle Jazz Concert. One of the benefits of being a new high school in these times is having up to date technology, which includes digital recording capabilities. The jazz ensemble students have recorded, engineered and produced a composite CD of the 1998-2000 and 2004 Kentlake Jazz Ensembles, and even contributed the cover art as well. Just this week the Kentlake High School Jazz Ensemble has been declared the winner (by taped audition) of the “Big Bad Voodoo Daddy Contest”, sponsored by Selmer Music Co., resulting in a performance by the recording group at Kentlake on March 21, 2001. To top it off, the 2001 band was selected as one of the top 15 groups nationally and performed at the prestigious Essentially Ellington Festival in New York City. In 2004 the Jazz Ensemble took Grand Sweepstakes honors at the New Orleans Heritage Festival, which it also attended in 2010.

In 2007, the band took top honors at the Boise State Gene Harris Jazz Festival, and twice has been selected the top band at the University of Montana Buddy DeFranco Jazz Festival (2009 and 2012). Several band alumni have moved into the professional music scene as performers, recording industry workers and music teachers.

Kentlake's Band Director, Chuck Stowell, is currently in his 32nd year of teaching high school music, 27th in the Kent School District. He is a graduate of the University of Washington, having also attended North Texas State University. Mr. Stowell is also a product of the Kent School District, being a graduate of Kent-Meridian High School.

Solomon Delves, trombonist, is in his second year of playing and is deciding to quit the Kentlake High School Jazz Ensemble following this school year. He has been nationally recognized as playing eloquently in the style of Lawrence Brown and singing much like Herb Jeffries, both former musicians in the Ellington band.

Controversies

In February 2000 Chief Judge John Coughenour ordered the school to reinstate a student who had been suspended for creating an unofficial school website at home stating the school did not have the authority to punish students for exercising their freedom of speech outside of school.

In March 2011, a Kentlake High School teacher, Barbara Anderson, was charged with felony sexual misconduct with a minor after she was accused of having sex with a 17-year-old boy.

On April 3, 2012, two students were arrested by the Kent Police Department after the administration reported that a loaded gun had been brought to school. According to the letter passed out by the administration, no harm was originally intended. A small handgun was confiscated and two students have been expelled.