Bainbridge High School sports are at a disadvantage because there is no feeder program from the middle schools.

To help bridge that gap, school district athletic director Luke Ande suggested at the April 11 school board meeting to allow high school coaches to work with middle school students when certain sports are in season. It wouldn’t be as good as having middle school programs, but it also wouldn’t cost anything.

BISD does not offer football, wrestling, baseball, softball or girls’ soccer in middle school — all of which are available in other districts within the West Sound Middle School League. Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association rules prevent high school coaches from working with middle schoolers outside a sport’s designated season, unless the middle school “does not feed directly to the high school” where the coach already works.

As a one-public-high-school -town, that means Bainbridge students are missing out — not just on preparation, but potentially on a sport entirely. For example, if a freshman wants to try out wrestling, Ande said, it can be intimidating to jump into a competitive arena without any prior knowledge of the sport.

Coaches “want to provide foundational skills for athletes to be more prepared for high school sports, and to keep up with schools who are going full speed ahead,” Ande said.

Ande suggested that middle school participation with high school coaches would be optional, separate from high school students and open to all.

BISD middle schools would still miss other sports, like swimming and golf, but those are less prevalent around the region, Ande said.

School board member Sanjay Pal said the plan was a “no-brainer” — it was voted in unanimously.

The board heard eight presentations that evening, including the kickoff of its four-week series of School Improvement Plans, a state-mandated blueprint that every school must create that demonstrates how it plans to enhance student experiences. Typically SIPs are announced in fall, but due to the threats of school closures, BISD chose to delay the presentations until a clear path arose.

The first two schools to present were Ordway Elementary and BHS, both of which discussed school culture and student appreciation for their learning environments. Ten students from Ordway talked about their favorite parts of their school: its central location, walking distance to “tons of cool stuff,” the El Velero program and their pride in student teamwork.

BHS principal Kristina Rodgers shared updates in a similar vein. Rodgers described a community-building summit that BHS hosted a few weeks ago in which students were asked to reach across cultural and political boundaries to find common ground through school appreciation.

The final five of the eight presentations covered district policy initiatives – three of which were second readings of policies proposed in a board meeting March 21, regarding student financial education and hiring practices in the facilities department. The final two policies were first readings of new policy—district-wide accommodations for students with diabetes and an established procedure for anaphylaxis prevention.