POULSBO — At Thursday’s regular meeting of the North Kitsap School Board, discussion took on an ominous undercurrent with regard to the North Kitsap Regional Events Center. But school board president Melanie Mohler pronounced it as a “premature” conversation.

Master planning efforts over the past year between the school district, Kitsap County, the city of Poulsbo and the Kitsap Public Facilities District have envisioned a sweeping event complex on the NKSD’s Poulsbo property including a synthetic turf field, an enhanced performing arts venue and a brand new indoor events center among other projects to be built by the partnership over the next 20 years.

The first phase of the project — which those involved have been pursuing in earnest — includes installing synthetic turf at the NKHS stadium field as well as making improvements to Strawberry Field, including a cross-country style running/walking trail.

Throughout the planning process Phase I has been viewed as a package deal, KPFD administrator Anne Blair said. But with a decreasing budget and cost estimates from the original projections on the rise, it may come down to an either/or situation, KPFD Poulsbo representative Linda Berry-Maraist told the school board Thursday night.

“Our costs have gone up, our budget has gone down … we’re in a pinch,” Berry-Maraist said.

Even so, intentions are to move forward with the entire project, “realizing that some critical piece that we’ve outlined for this summer, likely will not go forward,” said NKSD capital programs manager Robin Shoemaker.

The $300,000 the KPFD was hoping to secure through the state Legislature during the current session won’t likely come to fruition, Berry-Maraist said. Estimates are that about $1.2 million — through the funding partnership— is available for Phase I.

Estimates of the total cost of all projects for Phase I are approaching $2 million.

In the event the project comes down to either NKHS stadium or Strawberry Field, the option has been put on the table that Strawberry Field might take priority, Berry-Maraist said.

“I don’t even want to see that,” school board director Ed Strickland said of the proposal. “I would think that the No. 1 key thing would be that stadium because you can bring a crowd in and host big deal events.”

But there are two issues with that field which are creating qualms.

First, cost estimates for turfing the stadium field have increased by about $200,000, Berry-Maraist said. Second, the KPFD is concerned about the uncertainty of how much use the public will have there as it is currently slated to host fall and spring varsity events for both North Kitsap and Kingston high school teams as well as a few additional middle school and JV events.

“We have to know that there will be time available to spend on public use in order to commit that money,” Berry-Maraist said.

The KPFD is the largest contributor of the partnership as it has laid down a $900,000 chunk, which is to be matched by $300,000 commitments from the NKSD, the city of Poulsbo and Kitsap County. By law, the KPFD can only contribute money to projects slated for maximum public use. With that in mind, Strawberry Field would seem the better candidate, because right now, the NKSD field scheduling picture is unclear as to just how much time the public would be able to use the stadium field, Berry-Maraist said.

As a result, Mohler said the hour-long discussion between the board, Shoemaker and Berry-Maraist was premature until a solid scheduling picture is available.

“We can’t wait,” board director Dan Delaney said.

There is a very small construction window during the summer for work to be completed on NKSD’s athletic fields, and in order to meet that time frame, the project would need to go out to bid in May, Shoemaker said.