The kids didn’t want it. The parents didn’t want it. But they all got it anyway.

Last week, in what North Kitsap School District Superintendent Rick Jones dubs a tribute to the high school students in the district, North Kitsap Stadium got a new coat of paint. He gave a nod to the district’s booster clubs and students raising an insane amount of cash to install lights at Kington High School. The lights were intended to give Kingston more practice fields and give the Buccaneers’ soccer and football teams somewhere to play their home games, rather than having to travel to Poulsbo. Both communities worked together to give Kingston High what it needed and, at the same time, preserve the stadium for North Kitsap High.

That was always the parents’ and students’ intention: They wanted Kingston to have a sports home of its own and the district to keep paintbrushes out of North Kitsap Stadium. Well, at least they got half of what they asked for.

For $17,000, the district neutralized the bleachers with a fresh coat of non-commital gray and painted over the once-purple scoreboard with gold.

To Jones’ credit, he regarded the paint job as a preventative measure, as he said the paint was peeling, cracking and losing its luster.

That’s commendable.

However, we are going to side with Lael Stock, who thinks this money could have been better spent.

“I don’t care if they paint it, when it’s necessary. I just think it was premature,” she said. “We are in a recession, with limited funding for education. If the bleachers were showing wear and tear, fine, paint them. But those are relatively new bleachers.”

It’s just not fair that now the stadium is team neutral and Kingston has its lights but no concessions or bathrooms.

It’s going to be an interesting school year.