POULSBO — As the current AAC recommendation stands, Kingston High School will open with varsity teams in all sports other than swimming, cross country and gymnastics which will combine programs with North Kitsap.

And both Buccaneers and Vikings may have to pay a $90 fee per sport to play.

The North Kitsap School District’s Athletics and Activities Committee has been delving into the structure of the NK secondary athletics program in order to make a recommendation on how it should look and how it will be financed once KHS opens along with a grade level transition in September 2007.

Nothing is final until the NKSD board takes action.

Monday night, the committee held its final briefing to gather face-to-face input from the community. Residents still interested in sharing their thoughts can do so through an online survey at www.nksd.wednet.edu — or simply e-mail their thoughts on the issue to athleticsandactivities@nksd.wednet.edu.

The AAC will host one or two more internal meetings before presenting its recommendation to the school board at a study session Dec. 14. The board will likely act in January — at which time the AAC is hoping to have a KHS Athletic Director hired. The position has not yet been posted on either the district or the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association Web sites.

“I see less teams with higher participation fees,” NKHS head baseball coach Jeff Weible said at the latest AAC forum. “What has changed between the last meeting and now?”

Between the Oct. 11 meeting with the community and the final Nov. 20 briefing the AAC gathered input from not only the the community but the WIAA and the Narrows League as well.

From those conversations, the committee created its recommendation to include a full varsity program for football at KHS — which had previously been debated as a combined varsity team with NKHS while hosting JV and C teams at the new school. The newest version of the recommendation also includes a combined team for cross country and separate teams for boys and girls golf.

The AAC is also recommending that North stick out it’s two-year commitment to the Narrows League despite its estimated drop in size in 2007.

“We are creating a recommendation to try to create opportunities,” said NKSD executive director of student support services Gregg Epperson.

However, a limiting and overriding factor in the decision making process are the budgets which will fund sports at each high school as well as each middle school. The Nov. 20 forum was the first time the AAC had divulged specific information about participation fees.

The AAC is recommending a hike in participation fees from $60 (currently) to $90 per sport at the high school level, and from $35 (currently) to $50 at middle schools in order to run the host of programs which it is proposing. In addition, a newly added fee would charge students $15 to participate in any club, intramural sport or activity, bringing it between $30,000 and $35,000 athletics and activities revenue.

There is a two-sport maximum so that parents of high schoolers will not pay more than $180 per year, however for some, especially families with multi-student athletes that price to play may be overwhelming.

“There’s a number of kids who won’t even turnout if they know they have to pay a lot of money,” said resident Herb Thatcher.

Epperson responded that the district has policies in place to assist financially-challenged students. He encouraged parents to watch the mail for a letter describing the process and including an application form.

“One way or another we are going to get it covered for kids,” Epperson said.