Dear Students, Families, and Community Members, 

It is with great enthusiasm and positivity that I welcome you to the 2019-20 school year.  Yes, I said that correctly – this is the Class of 2020! 

We begin the year with a new mission, vision, and plan for excellence.  Efforts and priorities will be made in areas of student achievement, communication, student wellness, and safety.  We’ll also be focusing on supporting our students affective and post high school needs.  This will be a lot of work, but with a school-wide focus and team effort anything is possible.  Changes aren’t always easy, so we appreciate your grace and patience as we work toward achieving excellence in all we do. 

Our school district is thrilled to bring two fabulous new teachers into our school family.  LA Piper is teaching 5^th grade and Giselle Miller is our new k-12 art teacher.  Please give them a warm Haines welcome when you see them!

As you know it was an interesting year in regard to our funding.  We worked diligently as a school district to partner with our community and the state to navigated the uncertainty of the times.  Together with our School Board and staff, we responsibly and accurately predicted the correct final budget outcome.  This means that we will continue without a hitch or noticeable differences from past years.  I certainly appreciate the advocacy efforts made by many people on our behalf in communicating the needs of our students and school district.  We have identified goals for our district, have a plan, and are moving forward.  Even though we are consistently one of the highest performing school districts in our state, we are always eager to “raise the bar.”

We are privileged to begin again with what is surely the best staff in the State of Alaska.  All of our employees have been working in earnest to prepare classrooms, hallways, lunchrooms, and any other place imaginable for our learners.  Floors are waxed, lesson plans readied, menus created – now all we need is your children.  We look forward to the year ahead and appreciate your partnership in our endeavor to positively empower excellence every day!

Yours in Education,

Roy Getchell, Ph.D.

Superintendent