Board unanimously approves sports recommendation

Published 1:00 pm Saturday, January 13, 2007

POULSBO— A flood of school and sports community input drenched North Kitsap school board members Thursday as a full house gathered to hear the board’s decision on the face of Kingston High School athletics.

The board heard the proposal, which outlines all secondary athletics for the North Kitsap School District next year. The district-led, community-involved Athletics and Activities Committee has spent the past year developing the recommendation.

Before the agenda item was officially discussed, several people formally passed their thoughts to the board.

After board discussion, the directors unanimously approved the recommendation which has faced some opposition as it calls for a split of most all North Kitsap High School sports.

“If we put this off this year, we’re going to have another group saying the same thing next year,” board president Melanie Mohler said, noting that the split’s inevitability.

The consensus among many of the evening’s speakers — from school district staff, students and community residents — was that Kingston High School should develop an independent athletics program, however, some felt now isn’t the best time for all sports to split.

“What I would hope you would consider when you make the decision is that we not think of it as an either/or,” said NKHS cross country parent Vince Stamper. “Maybe consider a transition period where we’d allow the programs to combine working to that ultimate goal of separate teams.”

The AAC recommendation calls for separate programs at each high school in every sport other than girls and boys swimming, gymnastics and boys and girls golf — which will be combined programs due to facility constraints. At each soon-to-be middle school, the plan calls for each sport currently offered at the junior high schools except for baseball and fastpitch in the spring — due to lack of competition in the newly formed West Sound Middle School League.

Cross country has been a sport of special circumstance lately as its team has surveyed its ranks and informed the board that if current numbers remain, there may not be enough female athletes to form a full team at Kingston High School.

“If you’re going to talk about (cross country) you better be talking about wrestling,” board director Ed Strickland said, noting the current NKHS team has weight classes lacking varsity wrestlers.

Fortunately, the district is not locked to the number of combined teams which are laid out in the AAC recommendation, Olson explained as she spoke on the subject of when and how the schools could apply for a combined program. The application for a combined or cooperative program must be approved by the NKSD board president Melanie Mohler and West Central District Director Shelly Thiel.

Olson had talked to Thiel and reported that the director had noted, “There’s a lot of latitude to make that decision far later in the season, not something you need to decide in February.”

Considering that coaches for the Buccaneer program should be hired before the end of this school year to have time to communicate with their respective teams, Olson noted the district could put out applications for coaches of each of the KHS sports in question with a stipulation tied to student turnout. Then, if enough kids don’t try out for the team, the coaching contract could be altered or terminated, and the team could combine.

Another issue which has been heated throughout the process is that of participation fee increase in the 2007-08 school year. Under the current plan the cost would be $90 per sport at the high school level (up from $60) and $50 per sport (up from $35) at the middle school level.

The board discussed the issue, but when they adopted the AAC recommendation, the directors made it clear they were not yet passing the actual fee increase.

The directors empathized with those who will be affected financially, or otherwise by the fees.

The only problem is that the district is in a financial crunch itself.

“I challenge you, this is your opportunity if you don’t like participation fees, you have a chance to do something,” North Kitsap cross-country coach Lee Hodin said. “You have the opportunity to minimize that cost by combining some teams.”