POULSBO — Following a painful belt-tightening budget study session, the North Kitsap School Board drummed up possible ways that the district can contribute to the implementation of the North Kitsap Regional Events Center.

The NKREC master planning phase wrapped up April 11, ending the dreaming stage of community wants and needs, and bringing the project’s four partnering boards to the reality of finances.

At a combined boards meeting that day, the Kitsap Public Facilities District — which initiated the project and has been the lead agency through master planning — put $900,000 on the NKREC table asking for a combined match from the NKSD, city of Poulsbo and Kitsap County.

However, the school district’s estimated $300,000 slice of the pie appeared too big to swallow, much less chew, May 3 as NKSD executive director of finances Nancy Moffatt presented the school board with a $1.8 million budget shortfall for the upcoming year. Moffatt and the district’s budget advisory team have been wrangling with priority cost-saving measures to make up that difference.

With a brainstorm-stage series of cuts in mind, along with some hidden revenues found, the advisory team developed a scenario reduce the gap to $775,627. Possible savings ranged from transportation consolidation to one-student increases to class sizes.

“How do we participate, what is our part?” NKSD board director Catherine Ahl asked the school board. “It doesn’t have to all be cash, and I think that’s what we need to think about.”

Ahl came to the budget session prepared with a list of possibilities already in hand.

Since the NKSD, which will be taking over as the project’s lead agency once construction begins, owns the property and buildings involved, Ahl suggested the staff managing the project could be part of the district’s commitment.

Ahl also suggested the district estimate the property’s value in terms of leasing and noted that this figure could also help the district meet its commitment.

“The down side is we still need cash,” said Kitsap Public Facilities District administrator Anne Blair, noting the PFD is envisioning a roughly estimated split of $150,000 of in-kind donations and $150,000 cash from the NKSD. “If we suddenly pull out $150,000 that we’d imagined the district would contribute in cash, we may not be able to complete all of the first phase.”

The PFD is shooting for a $1.9 million goal for the first phase of implementation, which would include upgrades at Strawberry fields as well as synthetic turf at the NKHS stadium field.

Blair said the $1.9 million will come in the round-estimate form of: $900,000 from the PFD $300,000 each from the school, city and county along with community in-kind volunteer hours that have been committed by the NKHS lacrosse and track and field teams and the Poulsbo-North Kitsap Rotary.

The North Kitsap Soccer Club has also offered to equip the center with new soccer goals.

City of Poulsbo Parks and Recreation Director Mary McCluskey recently spearheaded efforts to complete the application for a 300,000 grant through the state Interagency Committee for Outdoor Recreation, which, if awarded, would also contribute to NK fields.

“It will be next year before we can do any of this, none of this (money) is totally committed,” Blair said, noting that each of the boards will soon be entering their respective budget processes. “The part that continues to be incredibly heartening is everybody’s willingness to figure things out.”