Kitsap County Commissioners’ Monday decision to uphold Hearing Examiner Stephen Causseaux Jr.’s approval of a Conditional Use Permit for the North Kitsap School District was another hard fought positive in a project that has been marked with negatives.

And while it should allow the district to proceed with site work on the new Kingston High School plan, the ball of additional delay is still up in the air. Again. Whether it lands in Kitsap Superior Court or not is up to those who knocked it to the commissioners in the first place.

Hopefully, it won’t come to that as delays have already cost the NKSD a much needed summer of work. But, given the pattern displayed by those opposed to the project’s location, among other things, it probably will. It seems every time the school takes two steps forward, these folks are prepared to ensure it also takes another step back. It’s making for slow progress but it is progress nonetheless. Why some in our community are so set against it is still confusing despite the laundry list of concerns that range from potential health issues to buffers.

There are a few things not on these lists that are noteworthy as well. Some of our concerned citizens are convinced that the school’s construction at the proposed site has become an issue of pride with NKSD Supt. Gene Medina. That his small schools ideology is clouding his judgment and, as a result, Kingston will be getting a second-rate institution. That his vision is so blurred by his desire to build that the health of the students who will attend for years to come has also become secondary.

Hmm. We’re not mathematicians but that one just doesn’t add up. Here’s a guy who thousands of parents trust their kids with 175 days each year and allegedly doesn’t care about his own district’s current and future students? That doesn’t sound like Gene at all, does it? Not to us.

Let’s stay on the positive track and keep going forward.