By MICHELL REID | SKSD Superintendent

I am thrilled to have the opportunity to serve the students and community of the South Kitsap School District. It has been such a joy to welcome back the students to the 2013-14 school year.  This is such an incredible district with strong traditions of excellence and a steadfast commitment to the ‘whole child’.  It is so inspiring to be part of a district and a community that so strongly believes in the capacity for success of each and every one of our children — no exceptions.

I am so grateful that this community continues to partner with us in so many ways as we together do all we can to ensure that each of our students is whole, safe, cared for, healthy, challenged, connected and hopeful. This is the heart of the South Kitsap Community Declaration of Interdependence and the key to our whole child, whole community vision.  It is also core to my values and beliefs.

I remain excited about the mountain top experiences awaiting each student in the coming year.  As a district family, led by our elected Board of Directors, we remain unwaveringly committed to nurturing growth, inspiring achievement, and building community (NIB) each and every day of the coming year.

While we will continue to build on the strong and proud traditions of this district and community, there will be a continued focus on restoring the financial health of the district this year. During the summer, we authorized an independent review of our budget and finances.

Several recommendations have been made to assist us in improving the financial health of the district. One of these recommendations is the development of a three year budget plan to pace the systems work necessary to improve our financial health.  As we continue to expect the state to improve its school funding, as it is ‘the paramount duty of the State to fully fund education,’ we must also do our part to ‘right size’ our instructional model.

I look forward to community members stepping forward to assist us in this important work over the course of the year.  We will be re-starting the Citizens Budget Review Committee (CBRC) this year and have as its focus the recommendations for the development of this three year plan.  We will continue to communicate our progress to this end on my blog connected to the district website, our Facebook page, and regular Board meeting agenda topic items.  Please feel free to provide suggestions, comment, or raise questions about the budget on any of these media.

We appreciate the great privilege we have in working with you to support and encourage the children of this community to learn and grow into confident, well-prepared, motivated young adults who will make a difference in this community and the world at large.  Our community is only as strong as our school district is because the school district provides the future for our community.

When you think about it, every profession in this great country requires their members to have at least gone through the K-12 school system, be it public or private.  Our school district is second to none in this level of preparation and I continue to be both honored and humbled to have the opportunity to serve you.

Please feel free to contact me directly if I can assist you in any way along our journey together this coming year.  Our office number is 360-874-7000, or my email, reid@skitsap.wednet.edu.

For more information, visit www.skitsap.wednet.edu, Facebook link www.facebook.com/pages/South-Kitsap-School-District/50383999943 and Twitter link @SouthKitsapSD  twitter.com/SouthKitsapSD.