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With some schools already in session and all of the district to be in full-swing by Aug. 24, the Kenai Peninsula Borough School Board approved 24 new teacher contracts at its Monday night meeting in Soldotna.

Getting unanimous consent from the board, the new teacher list represents a little more than one-third of 70 new faculty to be hired for the 2009-10 school year, according to Dr. Steve Atwater, district superintendent.

"Last year we had 90 (new teachers) so I think this is a pretty typical year," Atwater said.

Also approved by the board were two elementary school assistant principals, something new for district elementary schools.

"There are two elementary schools with one building administrator housing (more than) 400 students: Mountain View and K-Beach," Melody Douglas, the district's chief financial officer wrote in a memo to the board. "With the increasing responsibilities of building administrators, it is becoming more challenging for elementary school principals to maintain and sustain school-district initiatives. By hiring full-time assistant principals for these schools, building principals will be able to better meet the needs of the students."

Jennifer Dowd is the assistant principal for Kalifornsky Beach Elementary and Teri Diamond will be the assistant principal at Mountain View Elementary. Since October 2004, Dowd has taught at Nikiski Middle-Senior High School. Diamond has taught the Sterling Elementary since 1999.

"We recognize that those principals at those large elementary schools are really taxed and can't do anything more than manage the building," Atwater said. "(Dowd and Diamond) are teachers of ours that are beginning their administrative career. They know who we are and are very anxious to begin their administrative careers."

Expansion of the district's nursing staff also was approved Monday.

"In order to provide a higher level of health service to our students and relieve other employees of nursing duties, an increase of 4.5 FTE (full-time equivalent) is requested at an estimated cost of $344,105," Douglas wrote to the board. The formula allows full-time nursing for any school with more than 200 students. Included is a "floating" nurse to cover for other nurses on leave or absent.

Board President Sunni Hilts, of Seldovia, said the increase also was due to "educating children with disabilities that need one-on-one nursing care and, because of funding, our nursing staff has been lower than it should have been."

All district teachers, new and old, as well as the rest of the district's certified and instructional support staff, will meet Monday at Kenai Central High School for a districtwide in-service. It's the first time an in-service of this magnitude has been done in six or seven years, said Atwater, who anticipates an attendance of approximately 800 staff.

"I feel it's important to bring the staff together for an opening, motivational piece, to gain a sense that everyone belongs to the district instead of just a school, and to share what we're doing with technology," he said.

"It's a good opportunity to take a step back and talk to each other."

The keynote speaker will be Dr. Steven Edwards, a nationally recognized educator, author, professor, speaker, facilitator and trainer. Edwards is president and chief executive officer of Edwards Educational Services of Alexandria, Va.

"He'll speak about dropout situations, the research connected with that and strategies for the district," Atwater said.

Decreasing the number of dropouts and increasing graduation rates in the district is one of the board's goals.

"We're committed to academic success and the drop-out rate is an indicator that some kids aren't getting that," Hilts said. "It's been a goal for a long time, and it's something we'll continue to work on."

Also addressed at Monday's in-service will be the recent technological advancements at some of the district's locations. Among those is the introduction of student laptop computers at Nikiski Middle and Razdolna schools.

"We're preparing ourselves for a more connected, online learning experience for the kids," Atwater said. "We won't get there immediately, but we're beginning to sow seeds for what that might look like."

Related issues of curriculum, equipment, communicating online with other schools, student-owned and district-owned computers are yet to be completely addressed, but Atwater said the district is trying to make technology "a more seamless part of what we have.

"It's going to take awhile, but we're excited. There's a lot of good things happening, and we want to celebrate some of our staff and what they're doing," he said.

The next school board meeting will be held at the Borough Building Sept. 14 in Soldotna.

McKibben Jackinsky can be reached at mckibben.jackinsky@homernews.com.