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Community Connections
The Community Connections newsletter is mailed to over 40,000 residents in the North Thurston Public Schools boundaries and includes updates on construction projects, our School Board, and more.
Community Connections Winter 2026: Growing our own
At NTPS, we work hard to hire and retain highly qualified and diverse staff. Our students benefit from engaging, talented educators, and we also want students to see themselves reflected in our staff.
It’s why we focus on growing our own: providing NTPS staff with opportunities to further their career within our school district. For example:
We offer a principal internship program in collaboration with Saint Martin’s University, City University, Pacific Lutheran University, and others. NTPS staff interested in exploring the principalship can attain their administrator certification while getting hands-on leadership experience in our schools.
Paraeducators can apply for an apprenticeship program, during which they gain classroom experience and obtain a teaching certificate with a special education endorsement. This is a partnership with the Washington Education Association.
We support and retain new teachers through our Beginning Educator Support Team (BEST) mentoring program, which pairs them with an experienced mentor.
We offer National Board Certified Teacher (NBCT) cohorts for teachers who choose to pursue this highly respected professional certification. We have 131 NTPS teachers with this distinction!
Our Teacher Academy education program offers North Thurston, River Ridge, and Timberline High School students the opportunity to explore the teaching profession, talk to current teachers,
and work with students. They also learn about curriculum and working within a school system.
Supporting our educators is an essential part of Expecting Great Things from our students!
The NTPS Board of Directors has been selected as a 2025 Board of Distinction by the Washington State School Directors Association! Our Board was highlighted for their ongoing focus on high-quality early learning opportunities that prepare students for success. WSSDA pointed to the Board’s efforts to include community voices in early learning decision-making.
Over the past several years under the Board’s stewardship, NTPS has:
Enhanced our Future-Ready Kindergarten (Transition to Kindergarten) program to serve students at eight elementary schools in the year before they are eligible for kindergarten.
Secured funding through a capital levy to build the Lacey Education and Family (LEAF) Center off Marvin Road to enhance preschool and family education opportunities.
Continued our strong partnerships to offer Head Start, ECEAP, Bezos Academy, and Capital Forest Preschool opportunities to community families.
Congratulations to our Board, and thank you for your service to and leadership in the NTPS
community!
Future-Ready Kindergarten students at Olympic View Elementary School participate in story time and other learning activities the year before kindergarten.
More than 2,000 NTPS students have an active-duty military parent, and many others are military-connected. These families face unique challenges: frequent moves, family separations due to deployments, and readjustment after deployment.
NTPS offers a variety of resources to help support these families, including:
A district military support liaison
School-based military and family life counselors from Joint Base Lewis-McChord at 10 of our schools to support military-connected students on a variety of topics.
Events throughout the year for military families to meet, connect, and build community.
This November, schools held Veterans Day assemblies, programs, and events to honor and celebrate veterans in their school communities. Guest speakers shared about their time in the military with students, students shared their experiences as military children with their peers, and school musical groups performed patriotic songs for their guests of honor.
Another highlight so far this school year was the Military Family Game Night in November.
Military families played board games, ate pizza, and learned about resources in our community
for military families.
This year, NTPS moved to weekly Academic Collaboration Time (ACT) days. Every Wednesday afternoon, NTPS educators meet in cohorts to analyze data, track student progress, and celebrate student achievements.
“The weekly ACT days give teachers consistent, structured time to collaborate and respond more quickly
to student needs,” said Lorraine Larson, a 1st-grade teacher at Olympic View Elementary School.
During a recent ACT day, the Olympic View 1st-grade teachers reviewed data and celebrated that 80% of
students had achieved mastery of a specific reading skill, up from 63% mastery the month before. On that same day, science teachers at Komachin Middle School met to align lessons and activities across grade levels.
Jakki Smack, who teaches a horticulture elective class for 7th- and 8th-grade students, asked her colleagues when they would start lessons on photosynthesis.
“I would love to align my horticulture vocabulary with what you’re doing in science class,” she told her peers.
The teachers then shared how they were gathering data to improve students’ science vocabulary, and offered tips for using an online flashcard tool to track student understanding.
At North Thurston High School, choir teachers from each middle and high school met to review data and identify areas that needed additional focus.
“We often talk through what’s been working with our students, what hasn’t been as successful, and how we can learn from one another’s experiences,” said Stephanie Bivins, director of choirs at Aspire Performing Arts Academy. “Even though I’m the teacher my students work with every day, they’re really benefiting from the collective knowledge and expertise of all the incredible choir directors in our district.”
Teachers use collaboration time to share ideas, address challenges, and discuss ways to improve outcomes for students.
NTPS School Board Director Sarah Tracy took the oath of office at the December 9 Board meeting. Tracy was appointed to the Board in 2024 to fill a vacant seat and was elected in November 2025!
The Raj Manhas Activity Center (RMAC) south wing is now open after a complete modernization, thanks to voter support! This beautiful facility on the corner of Sleater-Kinney Road and Martin Way is now home to:
Ignite Family Academy, our K-8 family partnership program.
The NTPS Family and Youth Resource Center, which offers support and resources for NTPS families.
NTPS Student Records and Archives.
The South Sound Reading Foundation, a district partner that supports early literacy efforts.
We will host an open house for community members interested in seeing the RMAC later this spring.
Watch the NTPS website for details!
In other construction updates around the district:
The River Ridge High School administration wing and library are now complete and open! Next up in this major modernization project: renovating the theater, music classrooms, athletic fields, and career and technical education classrooms.
We have completed a remodel of the Bower Learning Center at 6th Avenue and Sleater-Kinney Road. The center is now home to Summit Virtual Academy (our K-12 online school) and the VOICE Program, which serves students 18-22 with life skills programming.
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