KINGSTON — In a proverbial cauldron of offices and classrooms throughout North Kitsap, the brew of the Buccaneers is beginning to boil.

The school itself has been years in the making for the North Kitsap School District, and as its building construction rounds the 90 percent mark of completion, excitement about the first year is already through the roof.

Joining planning principal Christy Cole and office manager Terry Darrow, Kingston High School’s planning athletic coordinator — current KJH history and PE teacher Scott McKay — and planning Associated Student Body/activities advisor — current NKHS history teacher Robin Alberts — were hired on Monday.

“I think it’s really exciting. It’s an opportunity to crystalize what’s worked well at North … and see what things do we want to change,” Alberts said. “School spirit building, that’s one of the things that we want to emphasize.”

Alberts and the ASB will be inking the school’s constitution as soon as its officers are elected this spring. The KHS ASB is currently meeting after school Thursdays in room 101 at NKHS.

Additionally, most of the school’s certified teaching staff have been given their tentative assignments for the 2007-2008 school year, NKSD HR director Chris Willits said.

Aiming to satisfy some of the KHS community’s anticipation, the school’s Web site is in its final stages, Cole said Friday, while the first edition of the Buccaneer Broadcast — the school’s newsletter — hit stands Feb. 7.

“People are getting more and more excited, playing off of the Buccaneer identity … that’s really become a rallying point in a way,” Cole said. “As the opening day grows closer and more and more things become real, people are coming together and saying this is going to happen.”

Cole has been meeting monthly with a group of 17 teachers, which has been laying out the school’s first steps by defining its vision.

Though the exact wording of the vision statement is not yet finalized, Cole said KHS will be a place where all students will experience a rigorous education.

In its planned course offerings — released Jan. 26 and subject to change — the school is slated to offer a total of 10 total AP courses, mirroring North — two in English, three in history and social sciences, two in math, two in science and one in visual and performing arts.

“Both North and Kingston are increasing the number and availability of those (AP) courses,” Cole said.

Each school is also setting up an advisory period for next year, which will provide students with focused class time to work on their culminating projects — a new graduation requirement beginning with the class of 2008.

“We’re really looking at how we’re going to be structuring our day and our delivery of programs,” Cole said.

Kingston High School’s educational delivery is set up to be different from the norm, simply by the way the school is constructed. First, its classrooms are clustered in four distinct groups on two different floors. Second, two administrative offices — for either assistant principals or counselors — are located between each cluster, “closer to the students,” Cole said.

The Buccaneers are also planning to team up their teachers and students.

“The students will be teamed with a group of teachers in their core classes,” Cole said. “For their electives, they’ll be going out into the rest of the school, for the most part.”

Right now, there are just two 400-student teams planned — one for each floor. There may be subdivisions of those groupings, but details are still being worked out, Cole said.

“It’s really a function of scheduling, too,” she said. “We haven’t done the registration process yet, once we do, the exact teams will be defined at that time.”

Cole and the KHS counselors will discuss registration with students March 5 and 6 at Kingston Junior High and March 21 at North Kitsap High.