Kodiak Island Borough School District’s teachers, administrators, and support staff sit in an auditorium, serenaded by their peers, who sang pop songs and show tunes like from the broadway show, “Rent.”
Convocation is the one time each year all district staff meet in a single room. Superintendent Cyndy Mika introduced this year’s theme: Believe.
“‘Believe’ is more than a feeling,” Mika told the crowd. “It’s a decision we make every day – to believe in ourselves, to believe in one another, to believe in our students, and in their potential to grow, overcome, and succeed.”
Mika said that includes asking the community to believe in Kodiak’s public schools, despite major changes coming this school year.
The most obvious being that North Star Elementary will not reopen. The school board voted to close it earlier this year as it faced an $8 million deficit. All of the school's staff were transferred to the remaining schools.
The other town elementary schools are now split up by grade levels. East Elementary will serve kindergarten through third grade, while Main Elementary will serve fourth and fifth graders.
Katrina Stewart, the director for secondary learning, brought it up during roll call.
“Many of you have been connected to North Star at some point in your lives, and we know that you carry the Navigator way with you,” she said. “We also acknowledge that because of reconfiguration, all of our elementary schools are beginning anew this week. It’s bittersweet, but it’s also full of potential and great opportunity.”
The two remaining town schools were also rebranded with a single new mascot, the Cubs.
Peterson Elementary near the Coast Guard Base Kodiak will still be a K-5 elementary and retain its mascot, the Puffins. But it will also have several staff new to the school. Mika said many of the previous employees there left the island when their military spouses were transferred to another base as part.
“It was really a fruit basket shuffle – every campus has new staff, new collaboration,” Mika said.
Schedule changes
Some schools will have new schedules as part of fewer schools reopening, with new bus routes when school starts.
East Elementary
- Classrooms open at 7:45 a.m., instruction begins at 7:55 a.m.
- Grades K-1 are dismissed at 1:45 p.m.
- Grades 2-3 dismissed at 2:45 p.m.
Main Elementary
- Classrooms open at 8 a.m., instruction begins at 8:10 a.m.
- Students dismissed at 2 p.m.
Peterson Elementary
- Classrooms open at 7:50 a.m., instruction begins at 8 a.m.
- Grades K-1 are dismissed at 1:50 p.m.
- Grades 2-5 dismissed at 2:50 p.m.
Kodiak Middle and High Schools
- First bells ring at 8:40 a.m., instruction begins at 8:45 a.m.
- Students dismissed at 3:45 p.m.
Superintendent Mika said this will likely impact traffic around the island. Both East and Main are near major roads in Kodiak, and will likely have more traffic than in past years.
“We’re going to have 10 buses at East for drop off and pick up, and so, especially at East, parents, give us grace as we work through the first couple of days and get everyone trained on the traffic pattern out there,” she said.
She also said there may be some delays as drivers get used to the new routes.
Cell Phones will be banned this year
Elementary kids won’t be the only ones seeing changes this year – the district’s school board voted to ban cell phones during instruction.
“Unfortunately, what we see a lot – or what we have seen – is that the cell phones are being used for meetups or for social media, watching movies, and they’ve been a distraction to the instruction,” the superintendent said.
Cell phones were already banned in Kodiak Middle School, but high schoolers will be subject to the ban now, too. Phones will still be allowed before and after school, as well as during lunch, but are expected to be kept in lockers during class.
Mika said she understands how the technology can be good for students, but that’s also why the school provides other devices.
Honors level classes
Kodiak’s middle and high schools will also be offering more rigorous honors classes this year.
“We need to do more for our advanced students and not focus only on our students that need to close the gap in learning, but we also need to ensure that our students are already coming in to us, ready to learn and coming into us advanced so that we’re meeting their needs,” Mika said.
All students are eligible for the honors program.
School starts Sept. 2.
