CK schools open doors on Sept. 4

Ready or not ...

The first day of school in Central Kitsap is today, Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2002.

Traffic will be clogged by 80 buses, some leaving the bus barn at 5:30 a.m., carrying half the district’s 13,000 kids.

The rest of Silverdale’s young scholars will be clogging traffic by walking, skateboarding, scootering, bicycling, mopedaling, motorcycling and driving their own cars to and from school — or being driven to and from in mom’s SUV or minivan, or dad’s car or pick-up truck.

Kids and buses are on the road from 5:30 to 9:30 in the morning and 1:30 to 5:30 in the afternoon, said Jeanie Schulze, community relations director, and Doug Sander, director of transportation.

Special education and kindergarteners are picked up and delivered directly to their homes.

The district hired 80 teachers for the new school year. There will be 700 to 800 teachers on the road, too, plus hundreds of support staff, all headed to more than two dozen schools and numerous other CKSD facilities.

School officials and teachers always hold their breath the first day, since most drivers who don’t have school-aged children forget about the start of school, and fail to watch out for children.

“The one message we would like to send out above all others on this day,” said Schulze, “is for drivers to be on the lookout and to be a little more cautious. The kids will be everywhere.”

The district was still registering new kids at the time of the interview for this article late last week.

“Remember,” added Schulze, “when a bus puts its stop lights on to let off or let on board children, drivers are supposed to stop, not just drive around — it’s the law.”

Aside from the batch of new teachers, also new this year is an Alternative High School at Olympic High, new principals for Brownsville and Silverdale elementaries, plus a new assistant principal at CK Junior High, said Schulze.

Certain schools may still have construction workers around putting the finishing touches on major roofing work done over the summer, added officials.

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