POULSBO — Beginning to line up teaching assignments for the 2007-2008 school year, the North Kitsap School District has one more 9-12 grade building to staff without any extra basic education money coming from the state.

Therefore, the district hopes to have a spot for each of its teachers next fall to cover them all. That could mean some teachers will be relocated according to what positions need to be filled.

With that philosophy and NKSD executive and board support, Supt. Gene Medina and the district’s administrative team are broaching the volatile subject of staffing. Just how inflammatory the issue is for the district was indicated when the NKSD proposed a change to the way librarians and counselors are assigned to local schools.

“We’re trying to honor the fact that people wanted us to share,” Medina said. “Here’s a model … give us your feedback.”

The issue at hand is how to staff 11 schools with only 10 full-time librarians. There are no state funds to pay a librarian at Kingston High School.

Adding to the problem, two secondary librarians — Janet Schiersch (KJH) and Paul Christensen (NKHS) — are set to retire this year, leaving eight librarians for 11 libraries.

The district proposed a model that would move three of its current full-time librarians into KHS, KJH and NKHS while the elementary schools would share half-time librarians with one half-time district level coordinator.

Historically, each elementary school has had a full-time librarian.

Medina emphasized there has been no final decision, but the fact that it was expressed as an option has put the librarian and elementary school communities on the defensive.

“Removing assets from our libraries is like closing arteries to the heart,” Schiersch said at the Feb. 22 board meeting at which librarians voiced their opposition.

“When I do my research projects, I go to the specialist in my building,” said Suquamish sixth-grade teacher Jason Koontz. “It’ll be a sad day when I have to wait for a day and a half to say (to a student), ‘Go on down to the library and they’ll help you out.’”

“There’s nothing in the statement of what we’re looking at that says we don’t see the value in these services,” Medina said. “We understand that, but it’s a bigger issue of staffing.”

The issue in this case — with librarians — being that though Kingston High School is opening and being furnished with money paid for by voters and the capital programs bond of 2001, the NKSD won’t be getting any additional state moneys for operation of the school.

“We get funded on the number of kids we have. That’s it. Period,” Medina said. “So we have to be very judicious in the way we distribute that.”

Without additional state money for specialists at KHS, the district is also envisioning a shortage of counselors, so the administrative team has also proposed a model with 3.5 full-time counselors at North, two full-time at Kingston, two full-time at each middle school and half-time counselors shared between elementary schools with a half-time district level coordinator. This model also faces staunch opposition.

“We are constantly being asked to do more with less … by cutting librarians (and counselors) it’s at a point where it is going to break,” Wolfle first-grade teacher Averil Story told the school board. “Perhaps it is time to make cuts near the top.”

Teachers at all levels will be subject to change, but those at the elementary level could feel the strongest winds. With an NKSD estimated projection of a near 600-student decrease in enrollment between all of their elementary schools next year, Medina said there will be a surplus of teachers.

“We currently have more teachers than we need (at the elementary level) so we need to move them some place,” Medina said. “Staffing isn’t done, we’re just starting it.”

What that surplus looks like and how it will be re-distributed across the district is expected to be finalized around the beginning of May, Medina said.