Kodiak High School

A message from KHS Principal Bill Watkins 

Dear Parent(s); 

Welcome to the 2012-13 school year! We welcome you and your child to a year packed full of fun and engaging learning opportunities.  Our staff embraces the philosophy that all children want to learn; it’s our responsibility to create the environment and opportunities to support a variety of learning styles and interests.  At Kodiak High School we strive to meet the physical, intellectual, emotional and social needs of every student.  All students will have the same advisory teacher for all four years of their high school education.  The advisory teacher will meet with their 10 to 15 students once a week to check on grades, attendance and help them develop their 4-year academic and career and college ready plans.  All students are encouraged to participate in one or more extra-curricular clubs or activity as a strategy for building positive relationships with their peers and other adult mentors.  Students who participate in one or more clubs/activities usually have a more successful experience in high school.

Parents please don’t feel shy about getting involved in school functions and activities.  We welcome your participation and support and hope to see you at the school as often as possible.  Our assistant principal, Ms. Dawnn Catt and myself have an open door policy and are happy to meet with you or speak with you on the phone at any time to answer questions.  With that said, we do have many meetings and would advise you to call 481-2501 to schedule an appointment.  If it is an emergency and you need to speak to one of us immediately, one of us will make ourselves available.  We are looking forward to another great year at KHS and can’t wait to see your children on the first day of school – Thursday, August 23^rd. 

Changes and Adjustments over the Summer
As always, things happen over the summer that require us to make some adjustments to our master plan for the 2012-13 school year.  I’ve learned over the years that the best-made plans fall apart; so better things can fall together.  In an attempt to make this letter as brief as possible, listed below are some of the changes and adjustments that occurred over the summer.

1. KHS made AYP in all academic categories for all sub-groups! Keeping students accountable for learning through re-takes and make-ups and checking up on students academic progress during advisory is working!
2. Mr. Craig Baker Retired ;-( Moving to some other island not near as nice as Kodiak! He will be missed.
3. Changes and Solutions for KHS staffing:
   1. Mr. Jim Street (who is a credentialed science teacher and is quick to say that science is his favorite subject) has agreed to move to the science department and pick up Mr. Baker’s A&P classes. Mr. Street even agreed to teach the dual credit College A&P class.  Thanks Mr. Street!!
   2. Mr. Yung Kiely who was hired to replace Ms. Sami King will replace Jim Street and be a full time math teacher – instead of a social studies/math teacher.
   3. After a few other adjustments to the social studies department, we now have a vacancy for a full time social studies teacher.
   4. Ms. Brianna Pannell (our librarian and Student Council Advisor) has moved to Ecuador ;-(  We have already hired a new librarian, Ms. Elizabeth Bender who has experience in Alaska and the lower 48 as a librarian/multi-media specialist.
   5. We lost Michael Remy ;-( We hired an excellent orchestra teacher – Ms. Rachael Lanigan who comes to us with a wealth of experience teaching all aspects of music (orchestra being her specialty).
   6. Ms. LeeAnn Hall is now married.  Her new name is Ms. LeeAnn Conner.
   7. We have a new counselor!  Ms. Stephanie Smiley.  Well, not really – it’s the same Stephanie with a new name.
   8. We really do have a new counselor.  Our partnership with the Alaska College and Career Advisory Corp has allowed us access to a grant that places a full time career guide at Kodiak High School!  Better yet, our new career guide is a 2006 Kodiak High School graduate – Mr. Brian Rivera!  Please welcome Brian as he works directly with our staff and students to use the advisory lessons and activities to help students develop their career portfolios and plans.
      1. We will not be using Pinnacle for grading.  Instead, we will be using powerschool.  Soon . . . we will have a new feature connected to powerschool called schoolnet for the instructional side.  Training will be provided at in-service
      2. We are outsourcing Moodle to a server off our local network.  The people/person managing the moodle server will be here for our building in-service to train staff.   
      3. Baranof Park improvements are almost finished!!  We have a new green field and a new red track!

General School Information:
Please use our web site and powerschool (grade book) to access important school and student information.

Website:  http://www.kibsd.org/

Powerschool:  We will be sending (in the mail) your Powerschool access information the first week of school. If you remember your password and login from last year, you will have immediate access the first day of school.

Staffing Changes:
As mentioned in the changes and adjustments section of this newsletter we have a few new faces at KHS.  Please Welcome: 

Mr. Yung Kiely:  Mr. Kiely, who is currently our Assistant Girls Basketball Coach, has been hired as a full-time math teacher.  He will be replacing Mr. Street who has moved to the science department.  Mr. Kiely is very familiar to the students at Kodiak High School and comes to us as an experienced math teacher and coach.

Ms. Elizabeth Bender: Ms. Bender will be the new KHS librarian, replacing Ms. Pannell who moved to a new teaching position in Ecuador this summer.  Ms. Bender has experience as a librarian in Alaska and in the lower 48.  In addition she has a strong background in technology and multi-media. 

Ms. Rachael Lanigan: Ms. Lanigan is our new music teacher providing instruction in orchestra for KHS and KMS students.  She comes to Kodiak with a wealth of experience and knowledge.  Ms. Lanigan will teach in the morning at KHS and the afternoon at KMS.

Mr. Brian Rivera:  Mr. Rivera is a 2006 KHS graduate who will be returning to Kodiak High School as a Career Guide.  Our partnership with The Alaska College and Career Advising Corp provides the funding for this new position.  Brian will be working directly with our staff and students to make sure all students have well-developed career plans.  Our goal this year is to make sure every graduate has a career plan and has completed the FAFSA to access funding for post-secondary training.

We are still in the process of hiring a full-time Social Studies/History teacher and a full-time Academic Transitions teacher.

KHS makes tremendous gains to make AYP (Adequate Year Progress) for all sub-groups
We are proud to report that every sub-group at Kodiak High School made significant gains in their reading, writing and math scores.  I firmly believe the implementation of advisory and the adjustments to grading policies have had a positive impact on student achievement.  Every student at Kodiak High School has a counselor and an advisor.  Students have the same advisor for all four years of their high school experience.  They meet with this advisor at least once a week to do career planning, have weekly grade and attendance checks, and engage in a variety of other activities that help keep students connected to their education.  Because we have changed our grading policies with the philosophy that Learning is the Constant, and Time/Teaching is the variable, students are required to re-take and/or re-do quizzes, tests, projects, assignments that do not demonstrate a level of proficiency.  Students are no longer given permission to forget and move on when they perform poorly on an assessment – instead they are required to spend more time learning the concepts and demonstrate an acceptable level of proficiency.  We are very proud of the continuous growth model we have implemented at KHS – it is working!

We have added some new classes:
Gaming/Application: Mr. Lauscher will teach this class and students will learn how to develop games and applications.  During the second semester, we will have representatives from Apple work with our teacher and students as they learn how to develop and use applications.

Advanced Human Anatomy and Physiology (College Credit): Mr. Street will team-teach this class with Ms. Sue Buie (a Kodiak College Professor).  This is a very difficult course that students will need to complete if they are planning to pursue any health career.  Students enrolling in this course should have already completed Biology, Chemistry and Regular human anatomy and physiology. 

Medical terminology (College Credit): Mr. David Horne will teach this college credit class.  This is another required class for students who are planning a career in the health field.  Students should have completed biology and chemistry prior to enrolling in this course.

Health Occupations (College Credit): Mr. Eric Linscheid will team-teach this class with our school nurse, Ms. Christy Kinter.  Any student pursuing a career in health related occupation should consider enrolling in this course.  Students will be exposed to a variety of health careers on and off the island and will have opportunities to visit and learn from professionals in the health field.

Aerobics/Yoga: As requested by the students, we have expanded our physical education program by offering a new class – Aerobics/Yoga.  This was such  a popular request that we had to offer 3 sections!  Students are interested in maintaining a healthy lifestyle ;-)

Intro to Drama: This class has been offered in the past.  Unfortunately, for the past few years we did not have enough interest to fill even one section.  This year, we have more students interested in Drama and we were able to fit one section in to the Master Schedule. 

Robotics:  We have enough interest from students to fill two sections of our new Robotics class.  Students will learn how to build and program robots and will have opportunities to compete against each other and students from other schools.

Orchestra and Full Orchestra:  Since we hired a new music teacher whose specialty is orchestra, we have expanded our high school music program to include two sections of orchestra.

Policies and Procedures to be aware of:

1. Cell Phones: We do allow cell phones at school.  Students and staff understand there is a time and a place for using cell phones in the classroom.  Cell phones can be used as a calculator, to research the internet, to record or video lectures, take notes, take photos, complete surveys, social networking for class related information with students in other schools far away.  Cell phones cannot be used unless the teacher has given the student permission to use the cell phone.  Students who abuse the cell-phone policy will have their cell phones taken away. PLEASE REMEMBER WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR STUDENTS LOSING THEIR ELECTRONIC DEVICES.  JUST LIKE IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL – IF YOU BRING YOUR TOYS TO SCHOOL YOU ARE AT RISK OF LOSING THEM AND THE SCHOOL IS NOT RESPONSIBLE ;-)
2. Attendance/Tardies:  Class attendance is essential to the learning process.  Absenteeism disrupts and hinders that process for the student and the student’s classmates.   Please do not call and excuse your child when he/she has knowingly skipped a class and is truant.  A student who misses 15 days could be denied credit for the course depending on the reason for the excessive absences.  Any student missing 10 days in a row will be dropped from the attendance roll.  The student can be re-enrolled after a meeting with the student and parent(s) or legal guardian.  A student will be considered tardy if he/she is not in the classroom when the tardy bell rings.  A tardy can result in a detention.
3. Technology Use:  Before students are allowed to use any technology they must have all the KIBSD Student Acceptable Use Policy Agreement and Laptop Agreement form signed and on file in the office.
4. Theft:  Theft, possession, or use of stolen property are prohibited and will result in disciplinary action and notification of the Kodiak Police Department.
5. Dress Code: Any clothing that is deemed offensive, promotes alcohol/drug use, displays sexually explicit pictures, profanity, or which is (or which purports to be) gang affiliated is prohibited.  Clothing with revealing holes, cuts or tears, and or safety pins is considered inappropriate.  Regular fit pants should be worn at the waist – undergarments and midriff while standing should not be visible.
6. Building Hours: KHS is open for classes at 7:15 a.m. and students are dismissed at 3:10 p.m..  Any student remaining in the building after 3:30 must be supervised by a member of the faculty/staff and/or approved sponsor. 

All freshman and sophomore students will receive copies of the KHS handbook complete with KHS policies/procedures, calendar of events, and personal organizer.  In addition the KHS handbook is on our web-site.

Please know that I write “News from the Principal” letters frequently through out the year to keep our community updated on the school improvement plan, calendar/activity information and the KHS facility project.  Copies of the newsletter will remain on the web site for easy access.

Again, we are looking forward to welcoming your child to the 2012-13 school year.  We thank our parents in advance for your help and support through out the year. 

Sincerely, 

Bill Watkins
KHS Principal and Director of Secondary Programs
bwatkins01@kibsd.org
907 481-2510

For your convenience, KHS's Strategic Plan document can be found here.