Podcast: Community Cafe Bainbridge:
Re-elected school director Tim Kinkead highlights top issues and praises Faith Chapel

BCB Community Cafe Bainbridge Island - 150In this podcast, newly re-elected School Board Director Tim Kinkead shares his thoughts about the key challenges and opportunities to preserving the quality of education for the students in the Bainbridge Island School District.

Tim Kinkead
Re-elected School Board director Tim Kinkead

By chance, Tim’s BCB studio interview happened to occur on the day (Friday November 13th) that our community’s much-admired School Superintendent Faith Chapel publicly announced her planned retirement as of the end of this school year (see her press release, below).

Faith Chapel
Faith Chapel

In this podcast, Tim speaks of his respect and appreciation for Faith, and notes some of her accomplishments for Bainbridge schools, faculty and students.

Tim also outlines four sets of issues that will be important to the future of the school district:

– the need for community-approval in 2016 of capital bond funding for the reconstruction and repair of schools and facilities;

– the importance of finding a successor to the retiring Superintendent;

– the need to attract and retain the district’s excellent teaching staff amidst a failure of the majority of the state legislators to follow the Constitutional mandate to adequately fund public schools (see our January 2015 BCB podcast interview with our community’s State Senator Christine Rolfes advocating for the State Senate to step up to its duty to fund public education);

– finding the limited and balanced role for testing to play in Bainbridge student schooling records.

Credits: BCB host, audio editor and social media publisher: Barry Peters.


For Release on November 13, 2015

Superintendent Faith Chapel to retire in June 2016

Faith Chapel joined the Bainbridge Island School District in 2001 after serving as a teacher and administrator in California, Oregon and Washington; she has been superintendent for eight years

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, WA – After a 40-year career in education, today Superintendent Faith Chapel announced her intent to retire from the Bainbridge Island School District at the end of this school year, effective June 30, 2016.

In a letter to the board of directors, Chapel stated, “I want to express my gratitude to you and to the Bainbridge Island community for the opportunity to serve as the superintendent of one of the finest public school districts in the nation. It has been an honor to work with you and with a dedicated and talented group of administrators, certificated and classified staff to build upon a longstanding tradition of educational excellence and set the stage for the future.”

Chapel said that while it is difficult for her to leave the profession, she looks forward to spending more time with family and friends and pursuing avocational and community activities of personal interest.

Chapel began her career as an intern teacher in Laguna Beach, California in 1975 and spent 10 additional years as an elementary and middle school teacher in California and Oregon. She began her administrative career in 1986 in Lake Oswego, Oregon, as a middle school assistant principal, and then became the principal of Hallinan Elementary, Lake Oswego Jr. High, and Lakeridge High schools. After moving to Washington, she worked as the executive director of secondary schools in Central Kitsap School District before joining the Bainbridge Island School District in 2001 as the assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction. Chapel became superintendent in July 2008.

During Chapel’s tenure, the state experienced the worst recession in its history. In her letter, Chapel referred to those challenges: “While the last seven years have been filled with unremitting budgetary issues and other significant challenges in K-12 education, what I will carry with me is a deep appreciation for the resilience and dedication of Bainbridge Island educators and the island’s enduring support for education. Even in the darkest of times, this shared commitment to the children of this community, and the desire for continuous innovation and improvement have been sources of inspiration for me.”

“Faith has been an outstanding superintendent for our district,” said school board President Mev Hoberg. “She took the district’s helm at the beginning of the recession and successfully guided us through very trying economic times. We emerged strong, and with her leadership we have focused on improving student growth and teacher development. She has set us on a great path, and we will truly miss her.”

The board of directors plans to conduct a comprehensive search process to select the district’s next superintendent. The process will begin next week with a request for proposals from firms with experience hiring superintendents.