KPBSD Superintendent Clayton Holland Talks New School Year

KSRM News Desk

8 months ago

The 2024-25 school year begins Wednesday, August 21st, and families are getting prepared to put another year under their belts. With that just around the corner, Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Superintendent Clayton Holland joined KSRM’s Morning Update to talk about school, sports, and what parents and students can do to make sure they start the school year off right.

Right away, Holland wanted to emphasize the importance of registering students in advance, as well as how and where to do that;

“The 21st is when we start. Registration, if you haven’t done that yet for both new and returning students, you can go online to kpbsd.org and right on that first page on the banner, there’s a link where you can Click to register. If you have any issues at all, you can call us at 907-714-8888 here or your local school, and if you don’t have computer access, your school can help you with that.”

More than just getting registered and ready to attend, Holland emphasized the importance of parents, family, and friends encouraging students by reinforcing good habits;

“I think now is a great time. You know, to start those sleep habits. You’re trying to go to bed a little bit earlier. Getting ready to have some breakfast in the morning, all of that. I know it’s easier to say than than do, having been apparent myself. Getting into that cycle of, you know, of where we are. I also think, you know, it’s important just to have those high expectations for our kids that you know, they’re gonna do well behaviorally, academically, that the challenge is there and and as parents are gonna support that and support our staff and just have those high expectations for our kids.”

The district removed two bus routes for the upcoming year, according to Holland;

“We took out two routes this year as a cost saving measure and combined some routes. So basically, we had Coho loop change there and really trying to find the place where we could minimize the impact, not that it’s not hard on those families there, but and move some routes around or move some bus stops around. So, really the impact becomes to those families, I believe there are five families impacted and then the Start Stop times for some of the Soldotna schools.”

Skyview/RCA/SoHi: Routes have been updated with bus stops and bus route changes. There is a significant change for secondary students located on Crooked Creek. Students will need to use the bus stops at Johnson Lake and Abram for the AM and PM route.

Tustumena ES: Route 142- Service to Crooked Creek has been suspended. Parents will need to coordinate with the KPBSD District Office regarding transportation options.

Soldotna ES/Soldotna Montessori: School start and dismissal times will be 15 minutes later. School will start at 8:55 AM and will dismiss at 3:40 PM thus a change to bus routes.

Here are the new route sheets with the new stop times; please review them and find your child’s new stop time:

To register for school, Kenai Peninsula residents can visit the district’s registration site, https://kpbsd.org/students-parents/student-registration/

For more back-to-school information and helpful tips, visit the KPBSD website: https://kpbsd.org/