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Many changes in KPBSD administration coming

KPBSD

The incoming superintendent of the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District gave a report to the borough assembly last night. While Clayton Holland’s official start date is July 1, he will be the de facto superintendent starting June 9, the day after John O’Brien’s last day on Monday.
    Holland said his promotion wasn’t the only change coming up in administration at the district and school levels. They include several at Homer area schools.
    “It's been keeping me really busy lately and half of it's my own fault because I selected people to be working with me who are in buildings,” Holland said. “So assistant superintendent Kari Dendurent, who is a current Homer Middle School principal, will be joining us as the assistant superintendent. Elementary education director will be Eric Peterson from Homer as well. And the director of secondary education is Tony Graham, who's the current SoHi principal.”
    He pointed out that three new principals in the district are past graduates of the district.
    “Probably a lot of you know Sarge Truesdale, but he's moving up to Soldotna High School. And then we have Dr. Sturm who is the new Razdolna Principal. He's a Skyview grad, and then Hannah Dalton, who has been teaching in the district for a while, started with Kenai'tze as a ISP, they call them, became a teacher and now will be assistant principal at Mountain View Elementary School,” Holland said. “So very cool. And we have our own folks in those positions. I think another strong thing is in the vast majority of them filled by our own people.”
    Holland spoke at length about the career and technical education programs, many of which offer professional certification before the student even leaves high school.
    “So we have currently 70 courses through distance, a distance and an asynchronous and in-person delivery,” Holland said. “Then the industry certification, (we) average of 300 credentials each year, and this year is no exception. So the ETT class, emergency trauma technician classes, become a very popular course. I wish I had that number, but we have a number of students that leave with a Microsoft certification, food worker cards, OSHA training, rigging, HAZWOPER.”
    Holland said the vocational training opportunities are important to him, and he knows they are important to assembly members.
    “And I think you should know that we've never just focused on are our students going to college, but a lot of what we talk about are those students. And I mentioned last time we've had students who are at Harvard. I was just talking to somebody today about a former Kenai student who's a second year intern becoming a doctor. She's here in town. So we have students like that who are students at West Point right now in full ride scholarships,” Holland said. “But we want all kids to choose the path that they want and be able to succeed at that.”
    Holland’s PowerPoint presentation is available on the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District website.

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Local News KPBSDClayton Holland
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