VINLAND — On their first day back to school, new North Kitsap School District teacher Andra Murray promised fellow teacher Denise Walsh that she’d get used to calling her by her first name, detaching forever the “Mrs.” that she used to know her by.

Murray, a former second grader who had Walsh when she taught at Poulsbo Elementary, now teaches inside a portable classroom near her former instructor’s room.

It might feel like a bit of an odd beginning for the pair but when the school year officially begins today in North Kitsap, their relationship, though unique, will become purely professional.

The pair’s transformation from teacher-student to teacher-teacher isn’t the only one in the local school district, however. Murray’s husband, Jason, is also an NK grad and teaches at Suquamish.

The couple now resides in Keyport and were high school sweethearts who married in graduate school.

There’s also Erin Murphy, at Poulsbo Junior High School, Cori Goller, at Pearson Elementary, and Jason Koontz and Nikki Nicolet whom Murray knows personally. All attended North Kitsap schools.

“North Kitsap School District feels like a family,” Murray said.

Her own story in becoming an educator began growing up in Suquamish, attending both Poulsbo and Suquamish Elementary Schools.

“I was always most influenced by the teachers who cared about me as a person,” Murray said.

The result of which sees her teach with a caring style but one that demands her students develop critical thinking skills.

“I like to connect my teaching to real life,” Murray said. “Help my students become critical thinkers in the same way that my teachers helped me to do so.”

After attending the then-North Kitsap Middle School and North Kitsap High School, Murray graduated from NKHS in 1994 as co-valedictorian. Since graduating from the University of Washington with a master’s in education, she’s taught first and second grade at Wilkes Elementary School on Bainbridge Island for the past five years.

At Vinland, she’ll move up a grade, teaching third.

“I’m excited to give back to a school district that I was a part of, any way I can,” Murray said.

She reflected specifically on several teachers who helped her achieve her dream of becoming a teacher, but added, “It’s hard to single them out.”

“Each of my teachers had a profound impact on my life,” she said.

Now, as with any teacher in the district, Murray will turn her attention to educating the some 6,500 students who grace the halls of schools in the North Kitsap School District. Though she didn’t attend Vinland, she said she’s pleased to be among its teaching staff.

“I’m very impressed with the staff here,” she said. “They’re very dedicated in terms of professional development. And very warm and welcoming.”