Kingston gets lights
After a year and a half of lobbying, fundraising and negotiating, Kingston High School got the OK to install lights at Buccaneer Field this year.
The news came at an April 23 school board meeting, when the board voted 3-1 to fund the lights using a pot of money originally intended to be used for other projects at the high school.
“I think it’s good that we finally got lights,” said Ry Ravenholt, a Kingston High senior at the time and a member of the student task force that presented a lights funding proposal to the school board in February. “I’m not exactly happy with where all the money is coming from, and that we didn’t go with the original proposal, but I guess it is good that we finally got the job done.”
Additional money for the lights came from calendar sales, student car washes, state funds and Kingston Rotary’s “Swing for the Lights” golf tournaments.
The lights were installed in the fall, and on Oct. 16 the Kingston High football team played — and won — the first night game under their glow.
“It’s easy to say after a win like this that there’s a home field advantage,” Head Coach Dan Novick said after the game.
District struggles with budget, personnel
As the North Kitsap School District struggled to finalize a 2009-10 budget, administrators laid off eight teachers and eliminated five administrative positions in May.
When the public learned assistant superintendents Chris Willits and Shawn Woodward would be getting raises for doubling their responsibilities in the reshuffle, some cried foul.
“How, in this economy, can you justify raises for anybody, especially those in senior management?” community pool advisory committee spokeswoman Jan Harrison asked the school board in July.
Ultimately the school board voted to slightly reduce the raises.
Over the summer, the district reworked its budget and rehired all but one of the laid-off teachers.
Parents and district officials have talked of forming a Citizens Budget Review Committee to help with next year’s budget process.
“We’re going to have some tough years ahead of us,” North Kitsap High parent Lael Stock said in July. “It’s going to be important for all of us to work together for the betterment of the kids.”
Alternative education expands amidst budget squeeze
Despite budget reductions across the district all year, the North Kitsap School District was able to expand some areas of alternative education.
In February, district administrators and principals met with students and parents from the Parent Assisted Learning (PAL) program and Spectrum Community School to discuss how to reach more students with each program. Spectrum is located in Kingston, and PAL classrooms are in Poulsbo.
In April, the district decided to make PAL-like classes available in Kingston and Spectrum-style classes available at North Kitsap High in Poulsbo.
“We just want to open more choices for kids,” North Kitsap High Principal Kathy Prasch said in April.
Mitch Murdock talks his way into national debate contests
Kingston High School student Mitch Murdock put Kingston on the national map in the spring of 2009.
Murdock, now a senior, competed in two national public speaking contests this year. In April, Murdock was one of 53 students nationwide to compete in the American Legion High School Oratorical Contest in Indianapolis. Two months later, he traveled to Birmingham, Ala., to compete for the second year in a row at the National Forensic League’s National Speech and Debate Tournament.
“The national tournament is the pinnacle of the entire year,” Murdock said in April. “It’s what everyone works toward.”
District brings in Flying By Foy for ‘Peter Pan’ production
The North Kitsap High School Drama Club transformed Poulsbo into Never Land with its February production of “Peter Pan.”
The school hired nationally renowned stage crew Flying By Foy to provide the show’s special effects. Foy rigged the ropes and harnesses for the original Broadway production of “Peter Pan” starring Mary Martin. Its crew rigs plays across the country and, according to “Peter Pan” director Randy Powell, is one of the few reputable companies in such a line of work.
“Because of their background with Mary Martin, we chose (Foy),” Powell said. “This is a phenomenal setup. It’s not something you would expect to see on this stage.”
