Brenna Lander graduated from North Kitsap High School in 2007. After graduating High School, Brenna played soccer for Western Oregon University where she graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Exercise Science. Originally seeking a physical education position, she moved to Hawaii where she worked with an after-school camp for at-risk youth and coached basketball and flag football. After a few years on Oahu, she decided her passion was in the classroom and moved to Colorado to attend Northern Colorado University where she received her Masters in Elementary Education. She and her husband, Mitch Icard, spent five years hiking, biking, skiing, and adventuring Colorado until the pull to be closer to family while raising kids landed them back in their forever home in Indianola. On the weekends you can usually find Brenna on the beach in Indianola with her family and dog, rain or shine! 

Before joining the NK Options Program, Brenna was a stay-at-home Mom and underwent treatment for stage 2 Lymphoma. Since September 2021 she has been in full remission and has been looking forward to the next chapter of life while her kids begin preschool and she gets back into the classroom. Her love for animals, her students and this community comes through in her teaching every day. She feels passionately that every student is capable of great things and loves to teach as much as she loves to learn. 

Brenna was awarded North Kitsap 'Rookie of the Year' for 2022/23!

We are thrilled to welcome Mrs. Jackson! More info coming soon!

Timothy Wilkinson was born and raised in Sequim and Quilcene, Timothy began his teaching career in high school, starting a business doing presentations on medieval history and then teaching in religious schools for almost twenty years. After working in construction, glazing, sales, masonry, journalism, web design, canoe building, photography, and as a mortgage broker, writer, and sailing instructor, he began classroom teaching in 1999 for Olympic Peninsula Home Connection, a parent-partnership program of the Sequim School District. He also started a consulting and tutoring business for homeschooling families. After teaching for Sequim’s Olympic Peninsula Academy and Crescent School District’s Home Connection program, in 2015 he was invited to teach the 4th-5th-6th grade class at North Kitsap Options. 

As an amateur archaeologist, Timothy has overseen the archaeological excavation of the Snow Creek Logging Camp in Jefferson County since 1995. He also participates in medieval and bronze age reenactments as a way to learn more about these periods of history. He grew up in the foothills of the Olympic Mountains and has hiked and practiced survival skills in the Olympic Mountains almost every year since he was six. He lived aboard a sailboat for two years and spent more than 15 years teaching sailing, boating, and other maritime skills in Port Angeles, Sequim, Port Townsend, and Poulsbo. He has also been a screenwriter and filmmaker, poet, playwright, and published novelist. In 2003, he designed and implemented a multi-disciplinary, project-based, multi-age project that tailored a year’s instruction for the entire student body to make a full-length feature film, which was released to the public. He now uses project-based, multidisciplinary, multi-age instruction as the foundation of all that he does in the classroom.

Recognized as an "Outstanding Educator" by the Kitsap Country group of women educators of The Delta Kappa Gamma Society International in March of 2024.

Nat Smith began his teaching career directly after graduating from Bowdoin College with a degree in Government and Legal Studies and a minor in Russian. As a charter corp member of Teach For America, his first placement was in a 5th-grade multi-lingual classroom in Compton, CA. Teaching for 6 years in the inner-city reinforced for Nat a commitment to provide equity and opportunity for all his students. Through working closely with several parents, he learned much about the influence of community on classroom success as well as how to build a classroom community based on mutual respect and support. 

In 1998, the Options's program expanded to include middle school and Nat was the first teacher hired for the team. Nat, who grew up in Port Orchard, moved back to Kitsap with his wife (also a teacher) to start a family and begin building the Option's middle school program. 

Since their move, the Smiths have lived at three addresses, had 2 dogs and 4 cats, many chickens, turkeys, and fish, planted an orchard, and sewn many gardens. They’ve hiked all the major drainages in the leeward Olympics, hosted 3 exchange students, and they’ve jumped off the Indianola dock during summer phosphorescence AND on New Year's Eve. 

Nat has been with Options since the last century! In that time he has taught every grade level from 3rd through 9th. He has been involved in at least 45 camps, cooked for 15 Mystery Dinner Theater events, participated in 3 or 4 re-Visioning processes, navigated at least 3 existential threats to the program, and received the Rangsveld Kvestad Teacher of the Year Award in 2012.  

We are so excited to welcome Bethany LaHaie as the principal of Wolfle Elementary and the K-8 Options Signature Program. Principal LaHaie comes to us with 8 years of experience as an elementary administrator. She first became knowledgeable about the Options Program when working as a teacher at Richard Gordon Elementary (which was home to the program until 2019). 

Principal LaHaie has two wonderful children who attend NK schools. In their free time, they enjoy getting outside and spending time with family and friends. Originally from northern Michigan, Principal LaHaie moved to the PNW in 2003.