Whether you’re 8 or 88 years old, the first crisp fall always stirs up those back to school feelings. For me, this time was a combination of excitement, nervousness and enthusiasm about seeing friends and getting back into a real routine again.

It’s not just students and parents who experience those back to school feelings; our teachers and staff are just as excited to see the students on Sept. 9.

This year, we’re even more clearly focused on making every one of our schools places where all kids can succeed. For many years, schools have used that word “all” without taking specific steps to provide a quality learning environment for all students.

For a long time, most of our students have done pretty well with our traditional model of education. Highly capable students were also offered extra challenging coursework and opportunities and special needs students received coursework geared to their abilities. Most high school students have had a choice of courses to prepare them for college, career training or whatever came next for them after high school.

Unfortunately, not all students do well in the traditional model. Students who have a different learning style, a disability that creates extra challenges, students who are not fluent in English, or struggling due to some kind of family crisis were allowed to drift to the sidelines and away from being successful at school.

It’s not just kids who don’t all fit the traditional mold. Many teachers also do not do well in a traditional school environment. Teachers are often isolated from their peers (which seems ironic because they are surrounded by students all day.) Three algebra teachers in the same school may all have had different training about what makes effective algebra teaching. They may not even know whether their counterparts teach the curriculum differently than they do. A great teacher in the traditional model doesn’t have a way to share successful techniques with his or her counterparts, and a weak teacher doesn’t have access to counterparts with ideas that might truly improve their teaching.

Beginning this school year, we’re working to be sure that all truly means all. Students will have increased access to help from their teachers, or additional opportunities to soar and explore during tutorial times at both high schools. Students can use these tutorials to enrich their education or to “catch up” on concepts that maybe didn’t quite make sense when they first heard them in class. Students who learn differently or at a slower pace will have opportunities they have never had before for help.

Teachers at all grade levels will have increased opportunities to work with their counterparts. Third grade teachers can compare notes on how best to teach a specific lesson. Middle school team teachers can collaborate more closely about how students are performing and high school teachers can share ideas with their counterparts—even if their counterpart is somewhere else in the school district.

These are not drastic changes, but they move us toward a model of collaboration and learning that works in business and every other successful aspect of life. Teachers will be able to spend more time working with students, offering them more opportunities to learn and teachers will polish their skills by collaborating.

These are only a few of the reasons we’re excited about going back to school this year.

We’ll be talking with you more about these changes as the school year goes on. We’re excited to see your children again and we’ll keep in touch with you about how their school year is going.

Welcome Back.

Rick Jones is superintendent of North Kitsap School District.