A special publication of The Northern Light
BLAINE SCHOOL DISTRICT
Back toSchool 2025-2026
Dear Students, Families and Community Members, Welcome to the 2025-2026 school year! I am excited to have the opportunity to serve Dan Chaplik our students, families and staff as your inInterim Superintendent terim superintendent. This school year is Blaine School District going to be exciting as we look to bring the student experience in our schools to the forefront of our focus. In the Blaine School District, every student matters and it will be my foremost goal to work together with each of you to make a difference for our students. Over the course of the coming weeks, I will be sending out information to invite students to participate in a student-superintendent advisory council. We will meet once per month once we get started with the overall goal being to include student voice in the overall school experience. If you have a desire to volunteer in our schools please don’t hesitate to sign up. Citizens and parents who volunteer, play an important role in our schools and district that enhances the ability of staff to do things that they otherwise could not without this assistance. There are a number of different ways to be involved in our schools that include helping in a classroom, assisting with school events, going on a fieldtrip with your son/daughter or
participating on various committees. The thought exchange survey that went out to the community at the end of June is complete. The list of items that emerged as key themes that need deeper examination are the following: school merger, student safety, budget and resources, community trust and quality education. The school merger was stopped before it proceeded any further. We will develop plans for the other items that will include more opportunities for community input to help develop effective plans to improve each of the mentioned themes. Finally, I plan to engage the school district and our stakeholders in a discussion to evaluate and consider the adoption of a policy and procedure around cell phones and social media use on campus during school hours. Having been part of moving a district to adopt an appropriate cell phone use policy and procedure I can tell from first-hand experience the positive impact this move had for everyone but especially our students! Once the policy and procedure were put in place, students interacted with each other much more while engaging in their school work in a more meaningful way. If you have any questions, please reach out to me at dchaplik@blainesd. org or 360-332-5881.
www.blainesd.or g
1-Hour Late Start (9:20 a.m.) on First Day of School - August 27