August is upon us and we are about to begin another school year. Throughout the summer, many Konocti Unified School District employees have been working hard to prepare for the return of students and staff.

Soon after school ended, the principals began looking to fill any open positions. KUSD takes great pride in its intelligent, talented, hard-working staff and we were unwilling to accept anything but excellence in our new hires.

Fortunately, the pool of applicants was very large and we were able to find just what we were looking for – the best.

Our maintenance crews have been doing major repairs and upgrading the facilities while our custodians have been deep cleaning.

The groundskeepers have been working diligently to keep our fields green and healthy, giving our schools a park-like atmosphere.

The technology staff has been installing new interactive white boards and computers.

A group of our dedicated, highly-skilled bus drivers met to develop new routes and work on our staggered bell schedules – which will save the district tens of thousands of dollars.

Our curriculum coaches worked all of last week to improve our standards-based report cards.

The secretaries put one school year to bed and are preparing for the year ahead.

This summer, we provided enrichment programs for our students that kept staff employed and supported our local community.

We held an algebra academy for our incoming eighth graders that gave them with a vital head start on their algebra skills.

The highly successful science and algebra academies for our ninth graders were offered again this summer and the Lower Lake High School solar car team repeated as county champs.

Migrant Education held a summer school that culminated with wonderful cultural activities.

In cooperation with the Lake County Community Action Agency, we even had a summer camp for the

Highlands Academy students. Highlands students worked on their academic skills, rode horses, learned to swim and engaged in other exciting activities.

Maybe the most heartfelt activity that took place over the summer was the federal food distribution

program.

We served more than 1,000 meals a day to our students. Our cooks prepared breakfasts and lunches and distributed them at the schools and other locations, using vans. These vans went to the youth center and trailer parks where we had a high concentration of hungry students.

Our love and care for students was evident throughout the summer. This program helped raise our total free and reduced meal percentages for the year and thus allowed us to net over $100,000. This money will allow us to purchase high quality food for next year from our local farmers and through our countywide food purchasing consortium.

We have a very exciting year ahead. The general feeling around our district and the county is that Konocti is on the verge of making some huge strides forward.

The primary focus for this year must be to improve student academic performance as measured

through the STAR tests. We have enlisted the help of Dennis Parker to make this happen. Parker's strategic schooling model begins with the development of relationships and ends with strategic test preparation.

We have excellent personnel, facilities and technology in place. We are implementing instructional strategies that have consistently proven to raise test scores and we have eager students in need of academic and physical nurturing.

Our community is counting on us to keep the kids moving forward through these difficult times. We are primed for success and looking forward to seeing students on Monday, Aug. 30.

Dr. William R. MacDougall is superintendent for Konocti Unified School District, based in Lower Lake, Calif.