Bremerton School District’s breakfast and lunch menu for Sept. 3-5

Sept. 3: cereal, muffin; cheese pizza or PB and J sandwich

Sept. 4: cereal, pancake and sausage on a stick; baked chicken nuggets and roll or hamburger

Sept. 5: cereal, power bar; super nachos or barbecue rib sandwich

With the first day of school slated for Wednesday, the Bremerton School District is putting the finishing touches on several summer projects as students prepare to fill the halls and playgrounds.

“As is typical with summer, our staff has been conducting routine maintenance throughout the district: trimming school grounds, striping parking lots and cleaning school buildings,” said BSD Spokeswoman Krista Carlson.

At Mountain View Middle School in East Bremerton, contractors worked on installing a new track, and the project should be completed by the middle of September, Carlson said, noting that although the project will be completed, it won’t be in use until spring so the new grass can get established.

At Naval Avenue Early Learning Center, new playground and fitness equipment was added during the summer to complement the new walking track provided by the Bremerton Central Lions Club, she said.

For several years, concerns have been expressed about pedestrian safety near Bremerton High School and currently the school district and city of Bremerton are working on installing new street lights to help improve the situation, Carlson said.

When it comes to hitting the books, several curriculum changes have been made for the 2008-09 school year, she said.

In addition to Naval Avenue Early Learning Center embarking on its second year of Spanish immersion, it now offers Spanish-immersion classes for first and second grades.

The district also has beefed up its math programs at both the high school and middle school levels, with a new program called “Essentials for Algebra” at the high school and an algebraic thinking class at the middle school to better prepare students for high school- and college-level math, she said.

An AP studio art class also has been added at the high school, she said.

“In our elementary schools, our professional learning communities are focusing on aligning our instruction to meet the new OSPI benchmarks in math,” she said. “We are implementing a new math program called Origo, to help provide students with new strategies and concepts in math.”

When it comes to actual enrollment for the coming school year, district officials are currently budgeting for 4,789 full-time students, she said, adding that district officials are hoping more students enroll than they project.

“We are optimistic because we have seen a steady stream of families getting registered for school, but we won’t know until after school starts what our true enrollment will be,” Carlson said.