The 2009-10 school year is about to come to an end and it is important to take a moment for reflection.

This has been a very hard, stressful year for everyone in our community. A majority of our families have suffered due to the financial crisis and have been required to make many hard decisions.

A greater percentage of our students came to school hungry, sleepless and under emotional stress. It was incumbent upon the schools and our community to provide these students with the intellectual and biological nourishment needed for growth.

I believe that we have done an admirable job. We began last summer by handing out more than 600 breakfasts and lunches a day at no cost to the school district.

Many of our businesses, service groups and individual community members donated time, clothes, money and other items to our schools. Our graduates received a record amount of scholarship monies for their future endeavors.

We asked for volunteers to help in the school and they came out in greater numbers than ever before. These volunteers did many very important jobs and did them well – everything from tutoring algebra to coaching our seventh and eighth grade intramural teams.

Despite the hard times, our students had more options than ever before because of the efforts of our community. We joined together to make our children’s lives better.

The Konocti Unified School District was able to keep all of its programs in operation while still making improvements.

This was our first full year with students being able to play in our state-of-the art gym facility at Lower Lake High School (LLHS). We also just completed the fitness center which is filled with new physical fitness equipment.

We upgraded the Burns Valley and East Lake fields and the LLHS baseball backstop with help from PSI Seminars and our community.

A wide range of performing arts and athletics were available to our students. Martha Miller continued to teach our elementary students the fundamentals of music, band and choir.

Dozens of seventh and eighth grade students were transported to LLHS at the end of the school day to work with Tracy Lahr-Bettencourt and Cydney Dixon in music and drama. LLHS maintained all of its music and drama classes and gave many superb performances throughout the year.

Our athletic programs also grew and prospered. The seventh and eighth grade intramural programs more than tripled the number of athletes participating in athletics from the prior year. Our LLHS athletes represented their school with skill, dedication and sportsmanship in all of the sports in which we have competed in previous years.

Our community also provided additional athletic opportunities such as basketball (KBL), football (youth football), baseball (South Shore Little League), soccer and wresting.

We have kept our honors courses and expanded our career-tech vocational programs at the high school. Carlé High School was once again recognized as one of the finest schools in the state, with its six-year WASC accreditation. Highlands Academy was created to address the needs of the district’s most at-risk students in grades fourth through ninth.

The most crucial element for success in any educational system is personnel. Every school employee makes a difference in their lives of our children. The relationships and good will that they foster are one of our district’s greatest strengths.

Our bus drivers greeted students each morning, drove them safely to school and even supplied jackets/sweatshirts for students in need.

Our teachers worked very long hours to make sure that their students mastered the academic standards, grew socially and were emotionally nurtured.

Our paraprofessionals tutored individual students and gave them a safe, kind environment in which to learn.

Our administrators provided guidance and support to parents, students and staff.

Our cooks made sure that healthy food was available to all students, that it was offered with a kind word and that the special dietary needs of our diabetic students were met.

At the beginning of the year, I asked all of the Konocti Unified School District employees to do what they could to fulfill the needs of our students and community and to become the “heart” of our community.

I watched our employees work harder than ever before to provide for our students and to support our community.

If you know someone who works for the school district, please express your thanks for a job well done. These employees have truly gone the extra mile, in a very difficult time. Your thanks would mean the world to them and supply the encouragement needed to do it all over again in August.

Thanks to everyone who helped our district survive and thrive this year.

Dr. William R. MacDougall is superintendent of the Konocti Unified School District.