The summer solstice is traditionally celebrated as the longest day of the year, but in 2006 for North Kitsap students, the day in which the sun was at its greatest distance from Earth’s equator was feted as the last day of school.

The final school bell of 2005-06 rang, dismissing kids into the North End for just over two months of downtime. And in the spirit of the solstice, Poulsbo Junior High School eighth-grader Jon Barnes said he would be getting as far away from school as possible.

“There’s not too much to do other than skate and hang out with girls, but whatever I do, it’s going to be far away from school,” Barnes said Thursday of his plans for the school-less months.

Inside the walls of NK schools throughout the summer, Barnes will be missing out on a summer that promises to be full of internal planning and external construction for the North Kitsap School District.

In the midst of a $38.5 million construction project at Kingston High School, a major renovation of the PJH building and a smattering of smaller school restorations, NKSD director of capital prog-rams Robin Shoemaker and the district’s construction force will be continuing the work which they’ve been hammering out over the course of this past school year.

For contractors, the solitude of summertime is a welcomed emptiness as it provides more space to work.

For seventh graders Christian Lewis and Pat Thompson, the downtime of summer is a welcomed opportunity to skateboard.

“I’ll probably be up here like everyday, all day,” Lewis said, standing at the top of one of the quarter pipes in Raab park.

Thompson added that there will be little time for chasing girls.

“No, no…I’m just gonna concentrate on skating, try to get sponsored by Punk Rock Skateboards,” he said as he dropped in off the side of the ramwp.

Just down the road from the ramps of Raab park at the NKSD administrative support center this summer, NK Supt. Gene Medina and his team of executive directors will also be skating back and forth, coordinating and connecting the three new secondary principals that the district hired in 2006.

Among the gamut of paramount plans on the district’s educational plate this summer are on-going preparations for the severance of NKHS along with a grade level configuration transition, both set for the beginning of the 2007-2008 school year.

Grade level transitions and personell positions won’t be concerning Kingston Junior High School soon-to-be freshman Cassandra Wurden. For her, the paramount plans of the summer are focused on her family.

“Sometimes during the (school) year you don’t get to spend as much time with your family, so I’m looking forward to spending time with them,” she said.

On Sept. 6 Wurden, Medina, Thompson, Shoemaker, Barnes and the rest of the North Kitsap school family will be back together to undertake another year of education.