NK Stadium issue needs resolution

Sometimes adults tend to forget they’re supposed to be adults. We all do it. We all throw micro-tantrums when things don’t go our way.

Caught at a red light? Curse under your breath.

You’re running late and you can’t find your left shoe? That’s the worst.

Can’t get breakfast after 10:30 a.m.? Well, we’ve all seen “Falling Down,” haven’t we?

Sometimes we need to take a deep, collective breath, take a few steps back and think about a situation from a different perspective.

That’s where the North Kitsap School District lies now with the equal time/equal access question over the North Kitsap Stadium.

It’s a complicated adult-type situation, to be sure. The new artificial turf was installed through a partnership of the North Kitsap School District, Kitsap County, the city of Poulsbo and the Public Facilities District. The money used was essentially from a public fund with stipulations that pinholed it for the district stadium and Strawberry Field projects.

The partnership between these entities and the work involved behind the scenes — and on the scene, as it is — is absolutely commendable. Any time you can get folks to work for the common good of the community is well, for lack of a better phrase, awesome.

Now, however, there is a problem.

Earlier this year, rumors — unfounded, untrue rumors, at that — circulated that the school district was going to paint over the North Kitsap Vikings to make the stadium more neutral. North parents showed up at a NKSD board meeting up in arms, wondering how the school district could even consider that.

Now, Kingston High is beginning to find its voice in the matter, too.

Truth be told, Kingston is happy to let North have the stadium. They’d be perfectly happy playing games in their open field, without decent restrooms, bleachers or a concession stand.

But, fair is fair. It is supposed to be a district stadium. And right now, it is most certainly not.

In what is not a reflection on either schools, Kingston’s access to the so-called district stadium comes to a screeching halt in the month of November, forcing the boys soccer team to play at Kingston. No problem, right?

Well, there aren’t any lights on Kingston’s field, so the boys have to play games in the early afternoon so the games are complete before nightfall. This means parents who work in the daytime have to leave work early or miss the game all together.

Not fair. Not fair by any stretch of the imagination.

“The stance is you’re not allowed to play at the NK Stadium on an equal basis and you’re not allowed to have any money for improvements at your own facility. That’s not fair and that’s not easy to sell to the public,” Dan Novick, Kingston’s athletic director, said. “If they say equal access and it’s 50/50 and truly a district stadium and then have no money for Kingston, that’s fair from a competitive stand point.”

Yeah, what he said.

It’s time for the adults on all sides of this issue to come together and create an equal-access, fair-play solution.

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