Statutory mandate: Chapter 28A.310 RCW

It shall be the intent and purpose of this chapter to establish educational service districts as regional agencies which are intended to:

1. Provide cooperative and informational services to local school districts;

2. Assist the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the State Board of Education in the performance of their respective statutory or constitutional duties; and

There are nine ESDs in Washington, each serving a specific geographic region of the state.

 

Click here for links to each ESD.

NEWESD 101 provides cooperative services to 59 public school districts and 47 state-approved private schools in seven counties of Eastern Washington Adams, Ferry, Lincoln, Pend Oreille, Spokane, Stevens and Whitman.

NEWESD 101 is the states largest ESD in the number of districts served, counties served and geographic region served (14,026 square miles). All told, the region counts more than 96,000 PK-12 students and 257 individual schools buildings.

1969: Spokane County Court House was the original home of ISD 101.

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Washington's nine ESDs have evolved from a system that began as 39 individual county offices of education. When the regional districts formed in 1969, they were originally known as Intermediate School Districts, or ISDs.

By 1977, a series of consolidations and name changes yielded the present system of nine regional ESDs.

Subsequent legislative studies in 1982 and 1995 commended the ESDs for providing affordable, high-quality service to schools.

 

In 2009, the ESDs were recognized in a 40-year anniversary celebration at the state Capitol in Olympia.

 

Putnam in 2009

NEWESD 101 history: From its original home in the Spokane County Court House, the growing organization migrated to a pair of north Spokane locations in the 1970s and 80s before purchasing the current site on South Regal Street in 2001. A 5,000-square-foot educational conference center, behind the Regal office complex, was constructed the same year.

In 2009, the organization re-branded itself to more definitively reflect its regional identity and commitments. With the addition of "NorthEast Washington" to its name, ESD 101 became NEWESD 101.

One of the most important figures in the history of NEWESD 101 was board director Carl Putnam of Inchelium. Putnam served on the first ISD board in 1969 and remained a director for 28 years.

 

Upon retiring in 1997, he was the longest-serving educational director in the state, completing 50 years of board service -- 49 of them consecutive (World War II interrupted the streak).