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In a 3-2 vote last week the North Kitsap School Board decided to
not fund construction of a press box at the Kingston High School
football field. It was a somewhat tortured decision, as board
members did acknowledge that the board had made a commitment to the
Kingston community.
But in the end there was some recognition that the commitment
was for a different version of the press box than the one the board
ultimately had designed, for safety reasons. And it was for less
money.
This in no way marks the end of varsity football games at
Kingston High School. I couldn’t attend Thursday’s meeting, (Other
news took precedence.) but based on the district’s recording, which
doesn’t include the public comment period, of the board’s
discussion of it someone in the meeting said Kingston should play
its games at North Kitsap.
Kingston backers seem prepared to live with the less than ample
seating and head cover at its home games. The students want to play
there and watch the games there. Much of the community loves having
games at home. What they have is preferable to them to what they
would have at what is clearly the home of the North Kitsap Vikings.
My hunch is if the board had been asked whether Kingston should
play at North Kitsap the vote would have been 5-0 against it, or
maybe 4-1.
“Kingston has a right to have its games played and its band play
on its field, and have its soccer team and football team and
basketball team and everybody else play at its school and at its
own homecoming at its home as North Kitsap has,” said Bill Webb,
school board member.
This was not a vote about home games, though. It was just a vote
about spending money on a press box, and board members said many in
the community recognize that. Sure, a large number want the press
box, but there were was a not insignificant number from Kingston
who lobbied the board to not spend the money.
Scott Henden, board member and electrician, was willing to
donate labor to putting in the electricity. He voted for the press
box. Ken Ames did too.
Dan Weedin and Tom Anderson voted “no.” And Bill Webb, who
before the vote said he hadn’t decided, ultimately decided that the
money “now” wasn’t a good expense.
Kingston boosters and the student body had raised about $30,000.
The district had earlier committed to $30,000 and set it aside. The
final price tag was just south of $85,000. At least $25,000 too
much for now.
The booster club meets Thursday and what to do next is on the
agenda.
This can continue in this
very place. | Kitsap Sun file photo by Carolyn J.
Yaschur
Kitsap County’s Department of Community Development issued an
administrative revision that paves the way for Kingston High School
to get a press box at its football field. The North Kitsap School
District applied for a conditional use permit to host home games on
campus and to add a press box. The county’s approval lends
credibility to the idea that this is Kingston High’s home field for
good. A building permit is next, barring appeal of the permit just
approved.
While community support in Kingston has been high for home
games, support is not universal throughout the district. NK
Education, a group of North Kitsap adults interested in the
education of their kids, gathered written comments about the field.
There were lots, by far the majority, of people opposed who said
spending $30,000 to match Kingston boosters’ contribution is too
much at a time when the district is cutting elsewhere.
And there were those who said the field was never intended to be
a place for games. Among those was former school board member Ed
Strickland, who was on the board from 2003-2011. He wrote:
“This is what I remember:
“The area we had to work with was very limited. To even get
a football field where we put it we had to get some kind of
permission to use park land for some of the field. I think this is
on the north east side of the field. There is a problem with the
east side of the field in that it is on a hill side that could have
a problem supporting that side of the field.
“We also had a problem with enough parking for the school.
To solve this the field was considered a practice field in the
permit process. After this was done we purchased the property to
the south of the Spectrum site, so this could be added for parking
at a later date.
“In the building of the field, I had Robin, with the Board
approval, put in conduit for lights on the field. We also were able
to add the artificial surface with some money saved from other
parts of the construction. We really had to do this as we were
getting artificial turf at the Poulsbo facility. The community
raised some of the money for the lights as they were needed for a
practice field.
“If we had thought that this was going to be a field for
large crowds we would have put in the infrastructure for bathrooms
and handicapped access for crowds. This we did not do as we never
had the idea that we would not use the Poulsbo facility for
games.
The lights were a real problem and the Board really messed up in
not putting them in in the first place. This brought the community
together in such a way that they supported playing football games
at the field. Even though you have no stands to see a game and no
way for the Band to have the crowd see their marching, both the
Band and football parents put up with this and play their games at
this field. There is no place for handicapped or restricted seniors
to see a game at this facility.
“If you look at the site, you will see lots of
infrastructure for storm water. Adding the stands that this field
needs for proper use will require that this problem be
evaluated.
“The community needs to be involved in the process of
changing this practice field to a game field for spectators. The
costs are going to be large. The parking and handicapped facilities
will run the project into seven digits if it is done legally. The
deed for the park may also be a problem. You can share my thoughts
with anyone as most of this is part of the Board record. I voted
against the design plan for the school and the field as I could see
that where the field was placed was not very well planned.
“Ed Strickland, NK School Board, 2003-2011”
Residents brought up issues to the county about safety of the
press box, traffic, stormwater, noise and light and other issues.
The chief stumbling block to those who oppose this game use is the
county’s opinion that the 2004 conditional use permit “does not
limit the field’s use.” The county sees game use and a press box as
a minor revision. The use and the press box fall within the bounds
set by the previous environmental impact statement, according to
the county.
The county has no say, of course, on the wisdom of the school
board committing $30,000 toward the press box.
Another argument is that few districts elsewhere have more than
one football field. Indeed the Central Kitsap School District’s
three high schools all consider a field next to Olympic High School
as their home football field. While true, you only need to go to
Bellevue to find a school district with four high schools and four
football stadiums. Sure, Bellevue is different from North Kitsap.
But they have their reasons. North Kitsap and Kingston have
theirs.
For all who might want to go back to what the district intended
when it built Kingston, that is to not have Kingston play its home
games on campus, it could very well be too late for that.
Strickland might be the most correct in answering why. “The lights
were a real problem and the Board really messed up in not putting
them in in the first place. This brought the community together in
such a way that they supported playing football games at the
field,” he wrote. Once the district let the Kingston boosters raise
enough money to put in lights, a huge improvement for that field,
there was no way to tell them “no” anymore. The community had
invested too much of its own labor, lucre and love to turn it down.
Had the district put in the lights from the beginning there would
have been little else around which the community could rally,
nothing that would have generated as much enthusiasm.
Additionally, if the district had worked even before Kingston
opened to alter the stadium at North Kitsap to be a home field for
two teams, the anger that led to the lights in Kingston might never
have happened either. In Central Kitsap that stadium is near
Olympic High School, but it’s Silverdale Stadium, not Olympic.
The Kingston High School football field met with more
conversation on Thursday, even as our earlier story broke, a
story didn’t have the benefit of seeing before the meeting.
Our story suggested approval of the change in the field’s
conditional use permit from the county is likely.
During Thursday’s North Kitsap School Board meeting Dave Dyess,
the district’s director of maintenance and facilities, showed plans
for a press box, plans that were prepared a year ago. The stick
built facility would be about $8,000 more to build than the
district had budgeted, but Dyess said a pole-built box would
probably serve the needed purpose and could be done for less
money.
Board members expressed caution about going forward, because
they want to make sure the conditional use permit is approved
before approving a press box. And they’re certain there will be an
appeal.
Tom Anderson asked why there needed to be a press box. People
stand in the rain at the game. Why build a press box so reporters
can. … That’s where he stopped.
Reporters are the last people who make use of press boxes at
high school football games. It’s called a press box, perhaps
because that’s what they’re called at big stadiums, where the press
really does do much of its work. At high school football games the
press box is first for the announcer, then usually a couple of
people operating the scoreboard. Coaches also use the higher space
to get the bird’s-eye view and call plays.
Many reporters, though, prefer covering the game from the
sidelines. The weather can change that, but many of the press boxes
around Kitsap County are pretty crowded even without the news
scribes. If the rain encourages a reporter inside, it’s primarily
because it’s tough to take notes in the rain.
The board gave Dyess some permission to check out pole-built
options, but not to submit a permit until the first permit is
clear. That might take years.
Varsity football games will very likely be played at Kingston
this year. The press box is less certain.
