Sonoji Sakai Intermediate School serves fifth and sixth grade students. The school is located at the heart of Bainbridge Island and adjacent to the grades 7-8 middle school. Students are placed on teacher teams, creating smaller learning communities. With excellent teachers, a rich, core curriculum is expanded with art, physical education, and general music and band programs. Sakai’s full-time librarian supports students and staff in literacy, research skills, and technology integration. Counselors and administrators provide individual and group guidance and leadership. Special education staff members, a reading specialist, and a talented group of paraprofessionals also support students. Parent and other community members provide countless volunteer hours, enriching the base of support. In addition to an outstanding curriculum, students are challenged with academic competitions, such as Math Olympiad, and Geography Bee.

Sakai Intermediate School is committed to creating a caring, collaborative learning community, dedicated to preparing involved and capable members of a diverse society.

We believe:

• Sakai is positive, nurturing, welcoming, and engaging for staff, students and parents.
• Learning is joyful and rewarding, involving academics,  social skill development, physical activity, artistic expression, and play.
• Learning is a process that challenges students to think and perform independently and responsibly.
• Sakai educators set high expectations for themselves and their students and believe that all students can be successful.
• Fifth and sixth grade students are in a unique transition, and their learning should facilitate that change.

Sonoji Sakai Intermediate School is on two levels, with five to six classrooms in each of four clusters. At the school’s center, the library is the focal area for student learning. Classes fully utilize 1:1 Chromebooks. A large gym accommodates physical education classes, intramural and school lunch programs, and community groups. Environmentally sensitive considerations preserve a watershed and salmon stream that have been incorporated into the curriculum, and with other efforts demonstrate our focus on environmental stewardship.

Sonoji Sakai & Family

Mr. Sakai was a first generation "Issei" man of Japanese ancestry. He came to Bainbridge Island in 1915 and began farming in 1918.

When the U.S. declared war against Japan, Mr. Sakai and his family were interned in relocation camps. After nearly four years, the Sakai family was allowed to return to their Bainbridge Island home. When the time came for needing building sites for the new school in our district, the Sakai family offered a portion of their land at a nominal cost.

Mr. Sakai passed away in 1957. Through all his struggles during his pioneering years and his relocation camp years, Mr. Sakai remained a hard working upbeat person whose spirit and perseverance instilled great values in his children. He valued education and was grateful for the opportunities it opened for his children.

There is a wonderful glass etching of Sonoji Sakai and his wife, Yoshiko, in the entrance of our school.