Cascade School District enters new school year with new principals, new priorities

LEAVENWORTH —- Summer is over for students of Cascade School District, who returned to the classrooms on Aug. 27.

The start of the 2026-2027 school year is the beginning of several new chapters for CSD, as several schools welcome new principals and 2026-27 District Improvement Plan establishes its three priorities of the year: Learning & Growth, Community & Culture, and Rigor.

The district plan will guide districtwide priorities while individual schools develop aligned improvement plans. 

CSD’s learning and growth goal will focus on these areas: graduation rates, student goal-setting, ninth-grade success, attendance, state assessments, hands-on learning and arts.

It intends to maintain at least a 90 percent graduation rate; the high school was at 93 percent in the last two years and 96 percent in 2022-23 and 2023-24.

By 2029, CSD aims to have every student create and monitor at least one academic goal and one personal engagement/belonging goal, with 80 percent showing measurable progress. Starting in 7th grade, this goal setting process may be incorporated and aligned with required High School and Beyond Plans.

For ninth grade success, CSD wants at least 80 percent of first-time ninth graders to pass all the courses they attempt. That figure was 78 percent in the 2025-26 school year.

With standardized attendance procedures across all schools, CSD has a goal of meeting at least an 80 percent average regular attendance rate, building on last year’s 80 percent rate.

For state assessments, the district wants to continuously improve proficiency in English, math and science, with particular attention to students with IEPs and English learners. It also wants Cascade High School's mean SAT score to remain above the state average.

The district also plans to continue supporting arts and hands-on learning. Currently, every grade level at all four schools had at least one field or project based learning experience last year, according to CSD. 

Under the community and culture part of the plan, student belonging is a major priority, with a district goal of 85 percent of students reporting a sense of belonging and pride by 2029. This year specifically, it is looking at whether students enjoy coming to school, feel respected and feel safe.

The district plan recognizes that safety and bullying stands out as a challenge, though 77-81 percent of students report feeling safe at school. According to CSD reports, only 45 percent of high school students said bullying rules were enforced by all adults, compared with 64 percent at the middle school and 84 percent at Alpine Lakes.

While the survey — which asked grades 4-12 — showed high percentages for students reporting that they were “respectful of others at this school,” sentiment about enjoying school and feeling like most students were respectful of others were low almost across the board. The  only exception was 61 percent of Alpine Lakes students reporting that they enjoyed school.

As part of this broader goal, the district is also aiming to have 90 percent of families report that they have a trusted relationship with their child's school, feel informed about their child's progress, and know how to access academic, social-emotional, and community support by June 2031.

The last survey, during the 2024-2025 school year, showed high ratings from families of students in grades K-12 feeling that their child was cared for by adults at the school and that they received communications and materials in a language that they understood. However, all schools but Peshastin-Dryden received below-standard ratings for communication about student progress. 

Under the plan’s rigor focus, the district has a goal of creating a systemwide Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) plan in order to ensure that there are systemic access points to supports that are targeted to the needs of individual students. It also plans to continue meeting its goals of offering advanced learning and post-secondary opportunities as well as maintaining certified Advancement via Individual Determination (AVID) sites. Last year, 99 percent of Cascade High School graduates completed at least one postsecondary opportunity while in high school.

This year will also see new leadership at Beaver Valley, Alpine Lakes Elementary, Icicle River Middle School and Cascade High School.

After more than a decade teaching for the district — including teaching fifth grade and supervising the intervention program at Alpine Lakes — Terry Muscutt was appointed interim principal of Alpine Lakes and Beaver Valley Elementaries, filling the vacancy left by former principal Kenny Renner-Singer’s resignation this summer.

At Icicle River Middle School, Principal Kim Gilreath has stepped into the role following the retirement of Michael Miller. Most recently, Gilreath served as Principal of Parkway Intermediate School in Ephrata. Before her previous role, she held the title of Assistant Principal at Sultan Middle School, and even taught 7th grade science for six years at Icicle River Middle School.

Lastly, Cascade High School Principal Jon Gasbar is stepping into the role previously held by James Swanson, who is moving to Turkmenistan this fall. Swanson previously told Ward Media that his wife will be providing medical care for the Foreign Service. Gasbar comes from Waterville, where he spent the last five years serving as TK-12 principal, Associated Student Body (ASB) advisor, and interim Career and Technical Education (CTE) director. Prior to that, Gasbar worked as a Seattle-area administrator at bilingual, blended learning, and project-based learning schools.

Taylor Caldwell: 509-433-7276 or taylor@ward.media