A year laden with budget conscious decision making on the eve of the opening of a new high school, North Kitsap School District officials are exhausted.

Along with the help of parents, students, staff and community members, either serving on committees or attending forums, they have carried the weight of the future on their shoulders throughout 2006 as the district readies for a massive shift in educational format.

Beginning with the 2007-2008 school year, the NKSD will be a two high school district under the K-5, 6-8, 9-12 grade structure.

Preparation has been put in both locally and abroad in 2006 as Washington state aims to improve its public education system.

School board ups

math requirements

POULSBO — According to the United States Department of Education it takes just two years of math classes to graduate high school in the state of Washington, but it takes quite a bit more to succeed in the real world.

With that in mind, the North Kitsap High School math department asked North Kitsap School District teaching/learning executive director Marylou Murphy that the NKHS graduation requirements be raised from two to three credits.

The school board agreed Jan. 26 as it enacted a third math requirement for NK students beginning with the class of 2010.

North Kitsap

OKs school levy

As unofficial results from the Feb. 7 special election made their way from Port Orchard to North Kitsap, NKSD officials and school protagonists gathered at the North Kitsap Education Association building were ecstatic.

In order for the NKSD’s four-year $49 million renewal levy to pass, it needed a 60 percent or better super-majority as required by state law.

According to unofficial tallies from the Kitsap County Auditor’s office Feb. 9 at 4 p.m., the levy passed with 68.5 percent of the vote equating to 9,436 votes of the overall 13,762 voter turnout.

NKHS class of 2008

recommended to be split

POULSBO — A full capacity audience at April 27’s North Kitsap school board meeting waited through two hours of minor business items and math curriculum discussion to hear Supt. Gene Medina’s recommendation to the board for the location of the 2008 senior class.

“The issue is to open a full compliment program at Kingston High School, that was the intent for the school,” Medina said, noting the abnormal situation the district faces with a modernization project at NKHS falling in the same timeline as the opening of KHS. “We understand the challenges this presents for the seniors, but I believe they can deal with this. It can be a very positive thing if you want it to be.”

The reaction from the near standing room only crowd was less than enthusiastic as many sighs could be heard and head shaking could be seen.

Along with the decision to separate the district’s educational student body, a district-led Athletics and Activities Committee was tasked with deciding how the KHS and NKHS athletic programs will be split.

State adds graduation requirements

POULSBO — Show your skills.

State legislation aimed at better preparing Washington’s high school students to enter an increasingly competitive world has enacted three new graduation requirements beginning with the class of 2008 — this year’s sophomores.

Beginning with that class, in order to graduate, students will have to earn the requisite 19 high school credits in addition to a certificate of academic achievement earned by meeting standard on the reading, writing and math sections of the WASL.

The class of ‘08 will also be the first to have to complete a culminating project and a high school and beyond plan, outlining what students intend to acquire from high school as well as what their next steps will be.

More than 900 sign

petition against SLCs

POULSBO — The May 11 regular meeting of the North Kitsap school board featured flaming items that brought a near-capacity audience into the NKSD board room for a marathon meeting.

But, before the meeting moved into the school board nitty-gritty, community members stepped to the mic to spark an issue that wasn’t even on the agenda — Small Learning Communities.

Kami Hattrick, 2006 NKHS PTA president, was among four parents and one teacher who pleaded with the board to slow down and reevaluate the process that is carrying the NKSD toward the implementation of SLCs.

Hattrick read a letter which a combination of more than 900 parents, students, NKHS staff and community members signed, agreeing to the concern that SLCs may not be the right fit for all students.

New high school math curriculum passes

POULSBO — Beginning in 2006, the North Kitsap School District’s secondary math curriculum will take on a new unified approach under the College Preparatory Math curriculum.

However, at May 11’s regular NKSD board meeting, support for the curriculum was anything but united.

Board directors Tom Anderson and Ed Strickland cast the dissenting votes in a 3-2 split decision to move ahead with the implementation of the CPM curriculum, one year at a time, starting at the Algebra I (typically freshman) level in 2006.

NK Band brings home nine Heritage trophies

SAN FRANCISCO — The crescendo that has been the North Kitsap High School bands’ work this year reached fortissimo May 24-27 at the Heritage Music Festival in San Francisco, Calif.

The NK Jazz Ensemble and Wind Symphony each earned gold awards and first place trophies in their categories, while the Symphonic Band brought home a silver award, coming in second place of the instrumental ensemble category.

The trophy given out for the highest scoring ensemble of all those at the festival was awarded to both the NK Jazz Ensemble and NK Wind Symphony which each scored 93 points in competition.

The NK band was also honored with an invitation to perform at the 2007 Nationals in Boston, Mass.

Suquamish Tribe starts work on ELC building

SUQUAMISH — On the heels of the completion of the Clearwater Casino Resort — which provides employment and entertainment for adults — the Suquamish Tribe recently began construction on a $2.3 million building that will promote education for youth, ages infant to 12.

July 21, a group of those youth — decked out in orange hard hats and matching shirts — spaded the first shovelfuls of dirt for the tribe’s new Marion Forsman Bouschie Early Learning Center, which will share a campus with the existing tribal education department once it is constructed off of Totten Road in Suquamish.

Project manager Greg Byler, of Gregory G. Byler and Associates, estimated that the building would be complete in February 2007.

NKSD board gets look

at WASL report card

POULSBO — The North Kitsap School District board got its first solid look at NK students preliminary 2006 WASL data Aug. 24. And while a fearful number loomed in the mathematics column — only 56.2 percent of NKHS sophomores met standard, a requirement for graduation — the directors’ discussion remained optimistic toward the kids while somewhat critical of the test.

In the reading and writing portions of the test, NK sophomores jumped above the 80th percentile following last year’s performance of 72 percent in reading and 61 percent in writing. Math scores also jumped from 43 percent in 2005 to 53.4 percent in 2006, but that still leaves almost half of the class of 2008 in need of a mathematics retake in order to graduate.

That fact prompted the board to question “is the WASL doing what we need it to do?”

School remodel

improves Panthers’ den

POULSBO — With the slice of a pair of golden scissors, the $5.2 million renovation of Poulsbo Junior High School was officially put into the books Sept. 14 as the Panthers gathered with the school community for a grand opening ceremony.

NKSD aims to cinch

calories out of hallways

With increased availability of processed, high-fat, high-calorie, heart-attack-in-a-bag fast food to the point of not even leaving one’s seat, American’s waistlines are swelling.

In Washington, the percentage of adult obesity has climbed from a range of 10-14 percent in 1993 to more than 20 percent today; it has remained under 24 percent since.

Finally this year, following a state legislative enactment in 2005, schools in North Kitsap and around the state are putting nutritional and wellness policies in place in an attempt to curb rising youth obesity rates.

In North Kitsap no food, in competition with the school breakfast or lunch program can exceed 35 percent of fat from calories, 10 percent saturated fat from calories or 35 percent sugar. Soda machines and candy bars — from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. — and Krispy Kreme fund raisers will now be things of the past in NKSD schools.

Wolfle hosts seven Korean exchange students

KINGSTON — On an educational vacation from a school system that seems as stiff as an ironing board with nightmarishly strict teachers, seven kids from Seoul, South Korea have come to America.

In December, they landed in Kingston at David Wolfle Elementary School, where they will spend the next few months studying both the American school system and the red, white and blue way of life.

The exchange will last until February when the Korean delegation will board a plane and fly back across the ocean with an experience that could well last a lifetime.