Two items for a Friday morning that I’ll just send you other places to read, if you haven’t seen them yet:
Just posted on the Sun’s main page is this story about state school superintendent Randy Dorn’s visit to Washington, D.C., where he shared some successful ideas from our state — including Bremerton — with Education Secretary Arne Duncan. To me the surprising thing isn’t Bremerton — it’s that for once it’s not the early education model getting the praise.
The Associated Press reports that the program he highlighted provides incentives for Bremerton dropouts to return to school. It’s not something we’ve covered recently, though sounds akin to the new Washington Youth Acadmy in town, so I’d expect we’ll check in on it soon if it’s being proven as something that works for the district.
The morning’s second story is here, from the Kitsap Education blog by correspondent Marietta Nelson. The city council and school board heard last night from Robin Waite, who’s behind the Kitsap Pumas soccer club that will be playing at Memorial Stadium this summer. Waite floated the idea of a new soccer complex being built at the closed junior high on Wheaton Way. I’d heard about talk of some type of collaboration between different entities (city, schools, OC, parks department, etc.) on such a project last year, so maybe the Pumas can be the private-sector catalyst for that effort. Clearly there are a lot of what ifs on the venture, but Waite seems like a guy who dreams big and doesn’t wait around to make things happen. That’s how the soccer team got to Bremerton in the first place.
It’s worth a read, and we’ll keep tabs on where this plan goes. If the existing fields were removed (there’s two backstops and a football field there now), my softball team would have to move our practices. But that may be a blessing — ground balls are always reminding me that an infield the texture of the moon’s surface is not the place for a guy who values his teeth.
— David Nelson
