Small Learning Communities. School sports changes. Academic standards. Adele Ferguson. Val Torrens. Wal-Mart. Kitsap Transit’s new ridership boundaries. North Kitsap Herald reporters. Tribal finances. It’s a mixed bag and of topics to be sure but one that got a good shake Monday night as the North Kitsap Herald Advisory Board sat down to discuss the issues at hand.

No formal decisions were made, no candidates endorsed, but ideas were shared. Concerns were voiced and, most importantly, opinions were heard. Dissenting opinions in some cases, similar ones in others but opinions nonetheless.

What’s the point here? Real discussions between members of the community in an open format. While many such chats occur at sporting events, after meetings and even the checkout lines of local grocery stores, the HAB sessions are much less hindered. Folks say their piece … and then some. It’s an unrestricted forum for the most part. It’s also an interesting group of folks, all of whom have a stake in North Kitsap as community members.

The biggest suggestion of the night and one all of the HAB seemed to back was looking into new columnists for the editorial page and getting rid of Ferguson and Torrens. While some definitely have a vested interest in removing the latter and others just don’t feel the prior translates well to today’s readership, the most compelling argument was one of staying to local issues.

True the Herald prides itself in being “intensely local” but should it continue running local columnists who have a flare toward state and national issues? It was a fairly interesting question when put that way and something we’ll look into.

Does the Herald expect everyone to like our columnists and agree with them? In a word, no. Really, what would be the point of having writers — both of letters and columns — on the editorial page who don’t inspire discussion or, in some cases, provoke it? Isn’t that the point of the page to begin with? Much like the HAB meetings, this page is a forum of ideas and feelings but how localized we want to have it is something to ponder. We’ll keep you posted.

JOE IRWIN

Editor