POULSBO — With the slice of a pair of golden scissors, the $5.2 million renovation of Poulsbo Junior High School was officially put into the books Thursday night as the Panthers gathered with the school community for a grand opening ceremony.

After a year and a half of playing “musical classrooms” in a discombobulated school, the Panthers have earned their new digs, Supt. Gene Medina said in his opening remarks.

“Most importantly, I want to thank the students and staff of the school who lived through a year and half of renovation for this,” Medina said.

“The real payoff is every day when the students and staff get to school, and you can definitely tell they are enjoying the space,” said PJH principal Matt Vandeleur. “That is a positive for students’ education.”

Stepping into his first year at the helm of Poulsbo Junior High, Vandeleur couldn’t have come in at a better time from a building standpoint. Throughout the 2005-2006 school year, PJH was a construction zone. With classrooms being juggled between the main building to extra portable classrooms and builders making racket in the hallways, the students and staff endured a year of irregularity so they and future generations could enjoy an improved school.

“They really had to live through a difficult time, and they had a smile on their face for most of it,” said Bob Hawthorne of the firm Bob Hawthorne and Associates, the district’s contractor on the project.

Thursday night, there were virtually no faces void of a grin at the grand opening ceremony.

As students, staff, administrators, parents and other community members stepped into the building’s strikingly new foyer, they couldn’t hide their appreciation.

“Isn’t this fantastic?” planning principal of Kingston High School Christy Cole asked North Kitsap High School principal Kathy Prasch.

“It really is amazing,” Prasch replied.

The banter continued on down the main hallway as the community took a look at what it has received for its tax dollars after approving the NKSD capital programs bond that made this and eight other North End school projects possible.

“We found out how much support this community has for its students and their education through the phenomenal amount of support we received through that bond,” school board president Catherine Ahl said.

The $60.1 million capital programs bond approved by NK voters in 2001 has already renovated the community pool and auditorium ($4.1 million), Pearson Elementary School ($5 million), Poulsbo Elementary School ($5.9 million), the NKHS gym and 100 building ($8.8 million), and Suquamish Elementary School ($4.8 million).

Continuing with the district’s construction vision, the capital program has three more projects on tap as Kingston High School moves forward to its September 2007 opening date while Spectrum Community School and North Kitsap High School look forward to upcoming renovations.

Through the PJH renovation, inline with the district’s quest for increased communication as a component for better education and higher student achievement, the once scattered classroom format of PJH is now structured into a collaborative arrangement.

Through the most intensive, tear-down-and-rebuild phase of construction, the school’s classrooms were configured into three different grade-level specific wings. Having a specific grade’s core classrooms in such close proximity will increase teacher collaboration while giving students a central place for the day.

The building’s mechanical and digital systems received an upgrade, which has promoted a more cozy place for the Panthers to come to every day.

“It’s comfortable, but not over the top. It reflects what we’re about,” Vandeleur noted.

And as the exterior of the building was outfitted with new steel siding and a paint job that matches it to the campus which its a part of, the school now truly reflects the pride of the Panthers.

“If they are proud of their school, they are going to do better work,” NKSD board director Ed Strickland said, noting his pride in the aesthetically pleasing surroundings. “North Kitsap has spent (its) money wisely.”