Kitsap Education

Klahowya marching bands students stretch before practice Monday night.

I messed up. South Kitsap Sun reporter Chris Henry did a very nice and involved story in Sunday’s paper about the South Kitsap High School marching band’s trip to the Rose Bowl. Big congrats to Chris (who gets to tag along to Pasadena) and the SKHS band members. Unfortunately, Klahowya’s Marching Eagles did not get the treatment they deserve for a similar feat.

The KHS band will march in the Port of San Diego Big Balloon Parade on the morning of Dec. 30 and then perform that night with about 2o other bands during the 31st annual Pacific Life Holiday Bowl at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. KHS students, band boosters and parents have raised over $80,000 and planned and worked just as hard as SKHS, but I did not give them the coverage they deserve. I am sorry. A really big sorry to KHS band director Jeff McBirnie, a nice young guy out there working his tail off for KHS.

I went out tonight to watch the Eagles’ last practice before they leave this coming Sunday. It was cold and rainy and really, really dark (Seabeck-dark.) Yet there the band members were – instruments in hand, drums strapped on. One girl was even wearing shorts – she must be PNW-native. They marched all around the back parking lot for an hour while I, the big newspaper wimp, hung out inside because my hands were cold. I know the KHS band will have a great time in San Diego and make memories for years to come. And now their parents will have a newspaper story to cutout and keep. It should be in Wednesday’s paper.

On a side note, I was chatting with McBirnie before the kids started marching. The kids were doing laps around the basketball court and stretching exercises in preparation for marching. It was a shortened warm-up session, he said, because of time. Normally they do several laps and extended stretching work. He also said the KHS field show routine amounted to about a half-mile of marching. And keep in mind that marching bands practicing for field show perform the routine hundreds and hundreds of times throughout late August and on into November. Or in the case of KHS, into the end of December!

I mentioned that it was too bad the marching band kids don’t get P.E. credit for marching, considering how physical it is for many of them. (In the interest of full disclosure you should know that my son plays tuba in the Central Kitsap High School marching band.) McBirnie said he and Michael Woods, CK’s band director, have brought up that subject with CK central administration, but no policy changes have been made. It’s not so much that McBirnie, Woods (and me, frankly) want the kids to get out of P.E. or to be lazy. It’s more of a schedule problem.

My son, for example, will not get any P.E. credit this year. His class schedule does not allow for band AND P.E. during the school day. He tried to get into the zero-hour (that’s before school at like, o-crack thirty) P.E. class, but it was full. Summer school P.E. is a possiblity, except that would preclude him from going on our church mission trip and Scout camp – two very vauable, positive things in his life. I hope he doesn’t become the kid who has to drop band in order to get P.E. credits.

 I’m guessing there are schools out there that allow for P.E. credits for marching band, but it’s a tough week to find that out as all the school folks are on vacation. Anyone out there know if North Kitsap, Bremerton or other local schools have this policy?

Folks in South Kitsap are invited to a “Call to Action” open house tonight hosted by SK School Board members at five different sites across the district.
The open houses will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Western Washington Center for the Performing Arts on Bay Street with Patty Henderson; First Lutheran Church’s Ministry Center on Mitchell Ave. with Kathryn Simpson; First Christian Church on Hovde with Jay Rosapepe; Harper Evangelical Church on Sedgwick Rd. with Keith Garton; and Mullenix Ridge Elementary School with Chris Lemke.
At the open houses, SK’s “Call to Action” team hopes to begin the process of creating a Community Compact that will define what is desired for every child who attends school in South Kitsap. Call to Action team members include school staff, parents, business leaders, higher education, SKSD retirees and board members. Six specific, vision-related questions have been created and will serve as the basis for the discussion and the ultimate creation of the Community Compact.
For more information call Aimee Warthen, SKSD Community Relations director at (360) 874-7005.

Three  people serving on the Burlington-Edison School District’s board resigned their positions Monday night. Before coming to lead North Kitsap in 2008, Rick Jones served as superintendent in the Burlington-Edison School District. The school district has experienced such severe financial troubles in the last year or two that it now sits on the brink of insolvency. The B-E board members stated Monday that they resigned in hopes that, absent their leadership, the district could convince voters to approve a tax levy to save the schools from going under.

Read more about this in Kate Martin’s story on the Skagit Valley Herald’s website.

The Bremerton Lions Club donated 170 new winter coats and 40 backpacks to students in the Bremerton School District. Students at Renaissance High School received coats and the backpacks. The remaining coats were distributed throughout the district.

Pattye Heuer, who works in BSD’s administrative offices, was overwhelmed by the club’s donation and by the generosity shown by many folks this year.

“I’ve been in this district for 27 years or so and the generosity of people is heartwarming, the donations from individual and organizations this year have just been wonderful,” she said. “I see people giving of their time and money moreso than I’ve ever seen here. It’s been beautiful to watch it all.”

Heuer created a photo gallery on BSD’s website of kids and their new coats. Check it out here.

The Central Kitsap School District has debuted a new website. The new site is a VAST improvement over the old site, which I can recall was in use almost 10 years ago. Hooray for CK!

The Bremerton School Board voted unanimously tonight to name the Bremerton High School gym after Coach Les Eathorne and the court after Coach Ken Wills. A group of former players will raise about $6,000 to paint the gym floor, put up some plaques and erect some lettering on the building. The group of players was pretty enthusiastic after the meeting and were heading over to Eathorne’s house to tell him the good news.
There was some concern (though I’ve only heard it indirectly) about naming the court after Wills because the beloved coach killed himself in 1962. I guess folks were worried that honoring someone who committed suicide might send the wrong message to kids? But that didn’t come up at the board meeting. I talked with new board member Dave Boynton about it on Wednesday and said he was not concerned about that issue. With all that we know today about mental illness today, it’s easier to understand what occurred, he said.

In other school board news (Thursday is a busy school board night with North Kitsap, Bremerton and North Mason meeting at the same time) new school board leaders were elected. I will have to catch up with North Mason tomorrow. It’s getting too late to call now. But I do know that in NK, Tom Anderson retained his position as president; Val Torrens is VP. In Bremerton, Boynton is the new president and Carolynn Perkins is VP. On Wednesday, Central Kitsap School Board members elected Chris Stokke president and Eric Greene VP.

Central Kitsap School Board chose new leadership last night. Chris Stokke will be the new board president; Eric Greene will serve as vice president. N ew board member Mark Gaines will be the board’s legislative representative (which I believe makes him responsible for tracking state education issues and communicating with our legislators.)

Bremerton, North Mason and North Kitsap will make those decisions tonight. Also, three new board members will be seated in Bremerton: Carolynn Perkins, Scott Rahm and Dave Boynton.

I noticed a small blurb in the Sun’s print edition today that requests for Kitsap Comunity Resource’s Angel Tree are up 50 percent this year. Kids need socks, underwear, bedding, backpacks, shoes and other necessities. “It’s not just about the toys,” said KCR Housing Director Darlene Cook.

So if you’re looking for a place to donate this Christmas (or another place to donate – I’m guessing Kitsap Education readers are already pretty generous …) then give KCR a call at (360) 473-2032 or visit www.kcr.org.

I love this contest. For the last couple years,  KZOK 102-.5 and The Rock Wood-fired Pizza in Seattle have partnered to host the Battle of the Bands contest. High school pep bands from across the state enter their renditions of popular rock songs (think everything from AC/DC and Bon Jovi to Elvis and the Beatles) and videos too. South Kitsap has entered and made the finals in 2008 and 20o9. Could it be the year of the Wolves? Their tight brass section rocks out on “You Give Love a Bad Name” by Bon Jovi. But here come the Kingston Buccaneers with the school’s first ever entry. They chose “Radar Love” by Golden Earring and the band’s video is awesome and creative.

This contest is not fooling around either. First prize is $10,000; second is $5,000. Spirit and creativity will get at least one band $2,500. I know both SK and Kingston could use the money these days. SK is saving up for a big trip to the Rose Bowl. Kingston, open just two years, could use the money to build the music program.  

Check out SK and Kingston and a whole bunch of other cool bands here. Voting begins in January.

Strozier, the Kingston High School girls basketball coach, was put on administrative leave by the North Kitsap School District in early November. A Nov. 11 letter sent to Strozier by NK officials states that he was put on leave in light of allegations that he used drugs with students. Strozier, also a full-time campus security guard at KHS, resigned two days later.

The district put Strozier on leave as it began an investigation into the allegations, said NK Assistant Superintendent Chris Willits. He stressed that putting an employee on administrative leave is not a disciplinary action or an accusation of wrongdoing. Rather administrative leave is used to “keep kids safe and the employee safe” while an investigation is conducted, said Willits.

At about that same time, said Willits, the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Department became aware of the allegations and began an investigation. When law enforcement stepped in, NKSD’s investigation stopped so as not to intefere with the sheriff’s office.

The sheriff’s office found nothing.

“We’ve determined it was unfounded. He resigned and that’s between him and the school district,” said Sheriff’s office spokesman Scott Wilson today. “We did not determine there was any probable cause for his arrest. All reports go to the prosecutor to determine if there’s anything there, and there isn’t.”

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