A few weeks ago, when I looked into doing a story on Bainbridge High School’s newly-formed mountain bike team, its coach, Gordon Black, was quick to suggest I come to a Wednesday practice and bring my bike along.

I immediately cast that idea to the side. I’d have a City Council meeting at around the same time, and I couldn’t show up muddy and sweaty to a place as decorous and dignified as Bainbridge City Hall. But then a fight broke out during a recent council meeting, and I figured ‘what the heck. If the politicians can practice hand-to-hand combat, why can’t the reporters show up covered in mud?’

I mountain bike fairly regularly, but not at this team’s pace. I’m also not accustomed to the rollicking, narrow pathways they take in Grand Forest Park. There were plenty of sharp turns, steep slopes, crisscrossing tree roots and muddy patches that can instantly rob a bike of all its hard-fought momentum.

I showed up to the practice with a mountain bike a guy at an island bike shop once playfully ridiculed as a “Mad Max” bike. It’s made from mostly scavenged, bartered and donated bits and pieces. Its best part – the front shocks – were yanked from some ivy behind a church in Bremerton. Nothing really syncs up well thanks to the mismatched components and my own happy-go-lucky approach to bike assembly.

Black yelled for me to shift to an easier gear on our first hill. “You’ve got to shift, Tristan! You’re going to kill yourself!” Little did he know that steep-slope shifting on the Mad Max leads only to chain derailment.

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The two Bainbridge school levy measures were passing by healthy margins on Tuesday night.

Early returns showed the technology levy passing with 54.65 percent of the vote, and the operations levy lid lift passing with 60.64 percent.

Bainbridge’s Jay Inslee appears headed for another term in Congress. He was besting his Republican challenger, James Watkins, with 56 percent of the vote.

Rep. Christine Rolfes was beating fellow islander James Olsen to retain her state House seat. She had 55 percent to Olsen’s 44.8 percent.

Longtime Bainbridge attorney was in a tight battle with Supreme Court Justice Richard Sanders on Tuesday night. Wiggins had 49.15 percent, Sanders had 50.85 percent.

See more Kitsap Sun election coverage HERE.

Read my story about the school measures below.

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The Bainbridge school board selected a member of the school district’s budget advisory committee to replace Dave Pollock, who resigned from the board earlier this month.

Tim Kinkead, a business consultant with children in two Bainbridge schools, was chosen on Tuesday out of the five applicants who applied for Pollock’s spot.

Kinkead has served the last two years on the district’s budget advisory committee. He has children enrolled at Blakely Elementary School and Sakai Intermediate School.

Once he is sworn in on Sept. 9, Kinkead will serve out the last year of Pollock’s four-year term.

Pollock resigned due to work demands and because he no longer has school-age children.

As a business consultant for more than 20 years, Kinkead has overseen information technology and supply chain operations for large corporations. He has also worked for educational research and reform foundations.

District spokeswoman Pam Keyes said Kinkead’s background in technology, business administration and finance, and his knowledge of the district’s financial challenges, will be of great benefit to the district.

The Bainbridge school district is in the happy position of deciding what to do with $876,000 in surplus money from the 2006 construction bond.

The district could essentially give the money back in the form of slightly lower taxes or it could put it toward last year’s $42 million bond. A third option (which appears to be favored by district staff) would be to put the money toward equipment purchases.

A meeting to gather public input is being planned.

Read more HERE.

The bus driver who left a preschool student strapped inside a bus resigned yesterday.

The Bainbridge school district accepted the resignation last night, and is reviewing policies that may have helped prevent the Feb. 3 incident.

For more, click here.

The school operations levy was passing with an overwhelming 72.88 percent on Tuesday night.

“We are thrilled,” Superintendent Faith Chapel said. “We have had a number of levy measures in the past that have been approved at similar levels, but we weren’t sure what to expect following on the heels of a bond measure in November. We are deeply, deeply appreciative of the support we have from our community.”

Chapel said she was “grateful and absolutely thrilled at the results” throughout the county.

Similar levies were passing in Bremerton (63 percent), Central Kitsap (62 percent) and North Kitsap (72 percent).

Read more about the four Kitsap school levies here.

Today is the deadline for ballots to be postmarked for the Bainbridge Island School District’s operations levy.

You can also drop your ballot off at the Bainbridge senior center, 370 Brien Drive.