It began with a simple meeting.

Bill Henningsgaard was attending a January 2011 Bellevue Schools Foundation gathering in Lake Hills with the intention of donating. What Henningsgaard learned jolted him into action. Even in Bellevue, one of the best school districts in the nation, the achievement gap was growing. So, too, was the number of children on free and reduced lunch, a key indicator of poverty among students.

The school district features many programs to battle these problems, as do countless service organizations throughout the area. But, Henningsgaard noted, services were being duplicated, and organizations were not working together as much as they could.

This paved the way for Eastside Pathways. The organization, more than a year in the making, gives the city’s groups and agencies a forum and method to battle these problems. It is designed to help kids succeed from “cradle to career,” he said.

“The role we want to play is to help pull the efforts of the organizations in that space together so they can be more impactful than they were on their own,” Henningsgaard said.

The Pathways’ model stems from a theory known as collective impact. First practiced in Ohio, the idea is that having groups that can help unite the various service organizations to focus on what each group does best.

Henningsgaard was a little worried about getting organizations on board, but it turned out groups were more than willing to step up. Eastside Pathways does not tell groups how to solve problems. Through collection of data such as the percentage of kids on free and reduced lunch or the number of students speaking English as a second language, the organization wants to shed light on the trends in the Bellevue School District.

The organization has already built a long list of partners, including regional organizations such as United Way of King County and the YMCA, to local groups such as the city of Bellevue.

Bellevue City Councilmember John Stokes was one of the core members of the organization. Having served many years with the Bellevue Schools Foundation, Stokes counts fixing the achievement gap as a primary focus.

Stokes said the group is important because it puts emphasis on all schools within the district. Some can more easily solve problems through donations, while others don’t have the pool of potential donors.

“There’s just a big difference in the amount of support some communities can give,” Stokes said.

Nat Levy: 425-453-4290;

nlevy@bellevuereporter.com