This is the second year of my dual role as superintendent and principal and I want to thank all of you who have provided support, good wishes and sometimes empathy as I have worked to towards achieving my goals. These goals have included improving the educational performance of our students, the fiscal stability of the district and the maintenance and upgrading of our facilities.

I appreciate the role that the community plays in the success of our students. Our schools rank in the top 5 percent of Washington State schools due not only to the hard work of our students, parents, and staff but also to the strong support that we receive from our community.

Sound financial management and increased enrollment have improved the fiscal stability of the district. In the past few years we have seen an increase in enrollment in the Orcas Elementary, Middle and High Schools and in the OASIS Alternative School with the greatest growth in the OASIS Alternative School. In addition, we have been working on a variety of grants to bring more Federal and state funding to our schools. This summer we will see work done in the high school funded by a Washington State Energy grant that will reduce our utility costs while improving our lighting, plumbing, weatherization, and the heating and ventilation systems.

To improve the maintenance of our facilities we increased our maintenance/custodial staff and refocused our efforts this year to pay more attention to our buildings and somewhat less attention to Buck Park. We have added staffing so that we now have a facilities manager whose time is spent planning and directing the work of our maintenance and custodial staff. These changes have improved the overall maintenance of our buildings but not addressed the issues in those buildings which require major repairs or which have reached the end of their productive life. These larger items will be addressed with the passage of the bond in August. Please call, or stop in or catch me out and about, to ask me about the bond.

Barbara Kline

Orcas School Superintendent/Principal