By REBEKAH DENN
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

The school campus is the thread that pulls the Smokey Point-Lakewood region together, but it's all headquartered within walking distance of the old railroad crossing, four schools clustered on a 100-acre tract.

The schools have grown as the community has, with 12 percent growth last year and 9 percent this year. The district unsuccessfully asked residents to pass a bond issue to expand in April, and says the reality of its growth means it will need to try again.

Even with its current enrollment of 2,400, the district is still tiny given its service area of 27 square miles. Its size remains one of its strengths, said Assistant Superintendent Gary Timmerman, who came to Lakewood as a teacher 33 years ago.

"It's still possible to get all our teachers together and talk face to face," says Timmerman, and parents and community members stay close and involved. "The challenge as we grow bigger is, how do we keep that same relationship?"

The district has tried creative means in recent years to acquire some of the amenities of larger schools without the accompanying finances. A recent state grant gave Lakewood a jump-start on computer technology, an expensive priority. The high school added Japanese to its foreign-language offerings by sharing a teacher with another small district. And science teacher Mike Fellows, after a training class at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, developed his own forensics class to teach upper-division students DNA.

An elective class of "peer helpers" teaches public speaking, communication skills and a dollop of community service, with projects that include mediating disputes at the middle school, mentoring high-risk elementary students, and organizing speakers on topics such as drug abuse and sexual harassment.

Junior Ben Davis signed up as a peer helper on the advice of friend Jeff Gillis, who had taken the class once and returned for another year. "He told me it could really make a difference," says Davis -- and it has.