Dear SSD Families and Community Members,

I hope that each of you is doing well and that the end of February and beginning of March finds you happy and in good health! My purpose for reaching out is to provide an update regarding a few items. First, I want to congratulate our girls’ varsity basketball team who traveled to Longview to take on Woodland High School in the first round of the state playoffs. Even though they experienced a tough loss to a fantastic team, the accomplishments they had this season is based on their commitment and hard work.

Superintendent Candidate Interviews

As you may be aware, at the end of this school year, I will be retiring after 32 years in public education, with the last twenty years as superintendent in two school districts. Over the course of the 24-25 school year, the school board has been seeking applicants for the position. On March 1, 2025, they will interview six semifinalists in executive session. This group will then be pared down to 3 finalists who will each spend one full day in the district on March 4, 5, and 6. There will be a public portion to those interviews each day from 6:15-7:00 pm, and there will be an in-person and ZOOM option. ZOOM links will be shared on Monday, March 3.

Citizen Facility Advisory Committee

If you are interested in learning about our school facilities and helping solve the challenge of responding to growth and the need for adequate space, please consider getting involved. In addition, if you have a background in construction, finance, or another field that would be beneficial to the Citizen Facility Advisory Committee, please consider getting involved. The previous two bonds to build a new elementary school and remodel Gold Bar Elementary School both failed, and we are ready to move on and consider other projects and ways to meet our growing community and student population. In addition, we are also looking to host open houses on each of our campuses beginning in April. Look for more information to be forthcoming very soon.

READY! For Kindergarten

Parent will always be their children's first and best teachers. For this reason, we are adding the READY! For Kindergarten to our early learning instructional program. We have hired three wonderful facilitators, and we are going to be scheduling workshops soon. There is no cost to families. We have the capacity to serve up to one hundred children and their parents aged 1-5. See the https://youtu.be/N6IgCVj7PbU for more information about the program.