We Are Bremerton!

March is Music in our Schools Month - a time to celebrate the positive impact of music in the lives of our students that lasts a lifetime.

Every day, in classrooms across our school district, music educators dedicate themselves to reaching all students with life-changing musical experiences. Parents, administrators, and the wider community often only see the wonderful results of music performances; however, we don’t always see the months of practice and rehearsals and more importantly the learning process that takes place to make it all happen.

Thank you to ALL of our music educators:

• Max Karler - Bremerton High School band and orchestra, District K-12 music coordinator
• Allan Anderson - Mountain View Middle School band and advanced orchestra
• Emily Craig - Naval Avenue Elementary music
• Miranda Dodge - Kitsap Lake Elementary music
• Kathryn Donaldson - Mountain View Middle School choir and 6th grade orchestra
• Vanessa Drem - West Hills STEM Academy music
• Alejandro Fleites - Bremerton High School guitar, “Jammin’ Club” adviser
• Amy Hutchison - View Ridge Elementary Arts Academy music
• Wendy McPhetres - BHS choir and adaptive music
• Liam Near - Crownhill Elementary music
• Dana Reynolds - Armin Jahr Elementary music
  

Spring is a busy time for our music students and staff, as you may recall from our February community e-newsletter. March was filled with concerts, festivals, competitions, and more! A few March highlights included:

Bremerton High School orchestra students participated in the Olympic Regional Solo and Ensemble Contest. All students gave a strong performance, received lots of positive feedback and next steps for growth, and enjoyed hearing orchestras from throughout the region perform.

Bremerton High School and Mountain View Middle School choirs, bands, and orchestras all had spring performances at the BHS Performing Arts Center (PAC) this month. (Photo, left: MVMS Symphonic Band)

Bremerton High School hosted the Olympic Region Choir Festival this month, during which our Shining Knights and Concert Choirs earned "Excellent" ratings, and Knight Sounds Choir received a "Superior" rating.

Last weekend, 100 students in the BHS music department traveled to Victoria, BC, where they experienced a performance of St. John's Passion where students listened to the 2nd half of Bach’s Easter masterwork, and had an opportunity to watch the musicians rehearsing. The students commented that they enjoyed observing the rehearsal more than the performance. The students also had the opportunity to explore Victoria, touring Butchart Gardens and the Royal British Columbia Museum, and adventuring at Wild Play Adventure Park.

Our elementary choir students are busy learning six pieces for an all-elementary choir concert scheduled for 6 p.m. April 23rd at the BHS PAC!

In addition to choir, band and orchestra, Bremerton High School offers an adaptive music class where students learn how to read music while playing rhythm sticks, bucket drums, boomwhackers, and other classroom instruments. Students explore different types of music and instruments, and move to music. There is a lot of smiling, laughing, and singing everyday in this fun class!

Photo: adaptive music class students play their homemade violins.

March 11 - 15, 2024 was Education Support Professionals Week (formerly School Classified Employees Week). More than 340 education support professionals work with and help students and staff throughout the Bremerton School District. They work to maintain school buildings and grounds, provide administrative support, prepare and serve meals, provide safe transportation, keep school facilities clean and safe. They also promote and support student and staff health and wellness, assist in the classrooms, provide information technology and media services and more.

These education support professionals are there for us and our students without fail, each morning, each afternoon, each day -- in every aspect of our schools. And each one of them assists us in keeping our school district thriving. Thank you to all of our educational support professionals!

The Bremerton High School Orienteering Team beat the six-time returning JROTC champion team from Georgia and are the new JROTC National Orienteering Champions!

Orienteering is the sport of navigation, using a highly detailed map. Prior to going to the national contest, the team competed in eight orienteering competitions this season (which runs from November - February) and the local championship with students making huge strides in their skills at each event. All students begin as Rookies, and then move up to Junior Varsity or Varsity once they become eligible based on skill and the number of times they have competed.

“The competition was very challenging, said Brian Newvine, BHS Naval Science Instructor and Orienteering Team coach. "Our team is used to competing in the Western Washington forested parks or college campuses. The Eastern Washington deserts were wholly new and provided the opportunity to prove how much they’ve learned. Everyone pushed through and we are extremely proud of them!”

The 3-day Junior National Orienteering Competition was held in the Gorge area this year, providing an opportunity to take a big team to the competition and have lots of supporters there cheering them on!

The BHS Orienteering Team includes students from BHS and MVMS - and most are members of BHS’s NJROTC.

A number of team members also earned individual awards at the National Orienteering Championship including:

• Nathan Hinds (3rd place for schools and 1st for JROTC Male)

• Bradley Pickering (3rd for JROTC Male)

• Allison Smith (3rd for JROTC Female)

• David Eckstrom (1st place Rookie)

• Jerimyah Beam (3rd place Rookie)

• Rebecca Smith (1st place Novice/first time competitor)

• Bailey Miller from MVMS (2nd place Novice/first time competitor)

Photo: David Eckstrom, Avery Herold, Jerimyah Beam, Allison Smith, Nathan Hinds, Victor Gehring, Andre Robinson, Rebecca Smith and Sean Rascon. Not pictured are Bradley Pickering, Hailee Henehan and Bailey Miller (MVMS 8th grade).

The Mountain View Middle School wrestling team held a food drive for their annual service project and brought in nearly 270 pounds of food for the Bremerton Backpack Brigade! Way to go, Squires!

The Bremerton High School Robotics Team “BremerTron” had a great season. Every year the robotics competition game is different and teams are tasked with building an "industrial sized" robot to compete. These robots are typically about 3'x3'x4' and they weigh 150+ pounds when complete.

BremerTron placed first in the first of two District events, and ended the year ranked #53 out of 148 teams-- just barely missing out on the PNW Championship Tournament (top 50 teams). “We are very proud of our performance as we continue to set and meet big goals from year to year which improve our performance and rank despite being a relatively small team,” said Blake Greisinger, Robotics Club adviser. 2024 Robotics Team members include: Noah Kroker, Ruby Brooks, Maddox Bradbury, Ricky Clarke, Autumn Clarke, Nicco High, Tommy MacCubbin, Alfred Metcalf, Adrien Jackman, Pim Sangkarom, Marilyn Steele, Catalina Blyth, and Kai Blythe.

(Photos, below) Team BremerTron test their robot at school before a competition earlier this month.

The Bremerton High School Theatre program is growing after some rocky times post-COVID. Their spring performance “She Kills Monsters” appealed to a wide array of performers and technicians, and many of the 26 members of the cast and crew had never worked on a play before.

At Bremerton High School, we strive to be a safe, inclusive space for all students and staff. Unfortunately, bullying remains an issue, and the students and staff work together eliminate it from our halls. The need for this continuing effort is part of why this play- which included scenes of bullying - was chosen.

“One of the best things theatre does is create containers in which messages and meaning can be examined,” said Alicia Grosso, BHS Theatre Arts teacher. “Another great thing theatre does - particularly high school theatre - is create connections to each other and memories that last.”

Congratulations to all the students involved, and thank you to BHS alumni and parents who volunteered with this production!

Photos (L-R): 1. Milani Martinez, Evelyn Ulrich, Jordan Copenhaver. 2. Grace Kubli, Kaylynn Beems, William Davis, Abigail Lugo, Makenna Gordon, Rame Vincent. 3. Lavina Watson.

Volunteers recently held a garden work party at Naval Avenue Elementary School (NAE). The school had a small but well-established fruit and vegetable garden prior to the pandemic that was maintained by NAE teacher Mrs. Heidi Bell. The garden beds have been a little neglected since Mrs. Bell retired at the end of 2021. But no more!

Naval PE teacher Matt Taran is coordinating the effort to revitalize the garden, in partnership with SNAP-ED at the WSU Extension and a Naval Avenue Elementary neighbor Mrs. Jennifer Green. They are also getting support from Kitsap County Master Gardeners!

Students will be involved in all aspects of the edible fruit and vegetable garden that includes apples, grapes, blueberries, strawberries, tomatoes, lettuce, zucchini, beans, rosemary and oregano. Students will also learn about and grow different plants that are grown in North, Central, and South America.

Most of the garden bounty will be enjoyed by NAE students, and will be featured during family nights where we will teach students and families how to cook different recipes that use the foods from the garden. Extra food will be shared with the Bremerton Backpack Brigade.

Thank you to all the volunteers who came out in the rain to help them with revitalization work in the Naval Avenue Elementary school garden! Among the volunteers were some of our BHS students, AJ Tirador (NJROTC), Oliver Adams (NJROTC), Sierra Bower, and Javier Gutierrez.

Distributive Education Clubs of America (known as DECA) is a CTE program offered at Bremerton High School that helps prepare students for business careers in marketing, finance, hospitality, and management.

Bremerton High School's DECA team recently competed in the state DECA competition. These students qualified for the state competition by receiving high scores at their local area conferences in January. More than 4,000 students (!!) from across the state competed in the two-day event in Bellevue.

Students compete against their peers in business-themed role-plays. They also take a business-themed test that counts for one third of their total score. Students can work by themselves or in pairs.

Congratulations to Brayden Grimm for scoring a 90 on his role-play. Helene Rode and Xingxing Pan received an 86 on their role-play, and Dillon Lovestedt scored an 84 on his test. Congratulations to all of our DECA students and DECA advisor (and BHS grad) Bryan Webb.

Photo: Joseph Cao, Dillon Lovestedt, Ale Mendoza, Xing Xing Pan, Helene Rode, Adviser Brian Webb, Atticus Monroe, Alex Kempfer, Eli Warner, Braden Grimm, Marilyn Lorenzoj.

Bremerton High School science teacher Jessica McBride (currently teaching Biomedical Science, Anatomy and Physiology, and Biology) recently created this beautiful painting of Bremerton High School called “Knight Time” that is proudly on display in the BHS main office.

While Mrs. McBride’s mom enjoys crafting, she doesn’t come from a family of artists. She first started painting in middle school, and while she’s taken a few art classes over the years, she’s not formally trained. She’s experimented with various mediums, but her current passion is Golden Fluid Acrylics.

If you are at Bremerton High School, we invite you to stop by the office to see this beautiful work of art. Thank you, Mrs. McBride!

Lots of progress is being made on the new school and community sports complex at Mountain View Middle School, which will open for use in the fall! This exciting community project is funded with local capital levy dollars approved in the February 2022 election.

Construction has started on the new West Sound Technical Skills Center (WST) building! The original WST facility was built in 1977 as a low-grade warehouse facility. The front half of the building has been demolished in preparation for the new two-story facility (see renderings below).

The new facility will provide improved teaching and shop spaces to simulate real-world experiences, and increased square footage for classrooms to accommodate hands-on learning experiences for students.

West Sound Technical Skills Center prepares high school students for post-secondary pathways across 13 high-demand programs in career and technical education. Students can earn high school credit (including CTE, elective, and in some courses, equivalency credit), free college credit, and certification in their program of interest.

Note: West Sound Tech is fully-funded by the state legislature. This project is NOT funded with the recent capital bond passed in the Bremerton School District. The Bremerton School District serves as the fiscal agent for the facility that serves students from 10 school districts.

Photo: Elected officials, school district representatives, WST board members and the community celebrated the groundbreaking for construction of the new facility earlier this month.

BOARD RECOGNITION

During the March 7th board meeting, the board recognized School Support Professionals Week.

President Rotter read the names of all of our classified employees with 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 and 40 years of service and those in attendance we asked to stand. A Resolution was also approved to Proclaim March 11-15 School Support Professionals Week!

Governor Jay Inslee has declared the week of March 18-24, 2024, as School Retirees Appreciation Week. President Rotter read the Proclamation.

At the March 21 meeting, Mountain View Middle School Athletics Director Mitchell Judie presented highlights and student successes from winter sports.

POLICY NEWS:

Two policies were presented to the board in March.

• Policy 3207- Prohibition of Harassment, Intimidation, and Bullying. This policy was presented for a 2nd reading and was adopted.
• Policy 4260- Use of School Facilities (1st reading). This policy was approved.

OTHER BUSINESS:

BHS French teacher Elise Erickson shared information on the Bremerton High School student trip to France in April of 2025. This will be her fifth time taking students to France! The trip was approved by the board.

For more information about these meetings and to view any of these documents, visit BoardDocs.

Bremerton School Board meetings are in-person and online! All are welcome at Bremerton School Board meetings. Interested in participating in a meeting? Access the meeting schedule and learn more at BremertonSchools.org/SchoolBoard.

The regular April School Board meeting is Thursday, April 11. There is only one meeting in April.

View all current job opportunities at BremertonSchools.org/Jobs.

The Bremerton School District does not discriminate in any programs or activities on the basis of sex, race, creed, religion, color, national origin, age, veteran or military status, sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, disability, or the use of a trained dog guide or service animal and provides equal access to the Boy Scouts and other designated youth groups. The following employee(s) has been designated to handle questions and complaints of alleged discrimination: Garth Steedman at 360.473.1031 or the Section 504 Coordinator, Mark Mayfield at 360.473.4702. Mailing address: 134 Marion Avenue North, Bremerton, WA 98312.

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Email: communications@bremertonschools.org
Website: www.BremertonSchools.org
Location: 134 Marion Avenue North, Bremerton, WA, 98312
Phone: 360-473-1000

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