August 25, 2022
Dear SSD Families and Community Members,
It is hard to believe that the start of the 2022-2023 school year is just about here. We are looking forward to working with you and your student(s) this year. The first official day of school is September 7th for grades 1-5 at Sultan Elementary School and Gold Bar Elementary School, grade 6 at Sultan Middle School, and grade 9 at Sultan High School. The first official day of school for grades 7 & 8 at Sultan Middle School, and for grades 10-12 at Sultan High School is September 8th. The first day of school for kindergarten students is Monday, September 12. On September 7, 8, and 9 Kindergarten students will be participating in WA Kids (Washington Kindergarten Inventory of Developing Skills). Your child’s kindergarten teacher will contact you for a time. We offer this staggered start so that our students in 6th grade, 9th grade, and Kindergarten students can get acclimated to the new environments without the stress of all students being present.
We take the opportunity to work with your child very seriously and we want nothing more than to create an atmosphere where all students grow and prosper. The school district's partnership with families to create this kind of an atmosphere is very important and for those of you who have been in the community for a while, we look forward to continuing to work with you. For those of you that are new to Sultan, Gold Bar, or Startup and the Sultan School District we are anxious to get to know you. I have no doubt that the 2022-2023 school year is going to be exciting and rewarding for all of us!
New Staff
We have filled many positions in the school district this spring and summer with very caring and effective teachers, leaders, and school staff. In the district office, Kaela Chong is the new executive assistant to the superintendent and Crystal Plotkin is the new Director of Human Resources. Jason Van Zant has been hired as an interim assistant principal at Sultan High School in place of Ryan Malone who moved to the Lake Washington School District. At Sultan Middle School, Brett Chapple is the new principal, and Jill DuFloth, the new assistant principal. Each of the schools will introduce new staff to their building. While we will miss those staff that has retired or moved on to new positions, we are excited about the future with the new employees we have hired.
Sultan Elementary School Pick up and Drop Off
We have taken steps this summer to alleviate the traffic issue that has developed over the last on Date Street when students are dismissed at the end of the day. With more people driving students to school and our population growing, traffic has become a challenge at the end of the day. To improve this situation, we are putting in a sidewalk to the north end of campus where students can also be picked up. We are asking that 5th-grade students and their families please use the north side of campus to be picked up at the end of the day. Another option that would help is to utilize our buses that transport students to Sultan Elementary School.
Safety
The safety of students, staff, and patrons is of paramount importance to us. We have a districtwide safety team as well as building safety teams to make sure that our efforts are streamlined and consistent. Both Sultan High School and Sultan Elementary School will very soon see an upgrade to the fencing that is currently in place. The fencing will be 8ft high and generally be in place to provide a more closed campus that keeps unwanted people out without creating a fortress. In addition, we also have developed a solution that will require video check-in at each of the front entrances to our schools to be certain that nobody is entering our schools who should not be. The fence at SES will be installed within the first week of school and at the high school shortly thereafter.
Covid Testing
While we are hopeful that the worst part of Covid is behind us, we are nevertheless still going to offer a testing program for staff, students, and community members. Testing will once again be available on Sultan Middle School campus. You can access testing on the west side of the building from a door leading to the parking lot.
Levy
I want to take a moment to thank the citizens of the Sultan School District again for your support on both of our levies that were passed in April 2022. We will not start collecting the money for these levies until the spring of 2023 and your support of them means the continuation of many important programs as outlined in Proposition 1 and facility and safety improvements that were outlined in Proposition 2.
Sky Valley Transportation Cooperative
The bids are in for the Sky Valley Transportation Cooperative, and I am excited to let you know that the winning responsive bid came in under budget. In the next week or so we will be issuing a notice to proceed to the winning contractor, and we expect to break ground in September. This is a real win for the community in that we will get nearly $4,000,000 in matching money from the state to assist with the construction of the facility. The building will be paid off in 4 years. For capital levy project progress, you can check our website at: CurrentLevy - Sultan School District 311 (sultanschools.org)
If you have questions about anything discussed in this letter or about the Sultan School District, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me.
Sincerely,
Dan Chaplik, Superintendent
Sultan School District