KINGSTON — The hiring blitz that has taken the focus of 2006 for the North Kitsap School District continued as the NKSD board confirmed Christy Cole as planning principal of Kingston High School Thursday.

The former North Kitsap High School assistant principal and Polaris lead administrator Cole is excited and ready to step up to her first head principalship.

“I’m just thrilled! The future is lying there before us,” Cole said, noting the magnitude of the task in front of her and the district. “I think my experience in opening Polaris will position me well for opening a new building, but it’s going to be a big undertaking.”

But it is an undertaking that, for the district, has been in the making for more than five years.

Cole’s personal progression in education has taken her from teaching at Marcus Whitman Junior High School, to teaching at NKHS, then serving as dean of students at Marcus Whitman and back to NKHS as a teacher on special assignment — tackling tasks like a schoolwide self-accreditation study in 2000 and writing and securing planning and implementation grants for the district.

Cole has been instrumental in the score the NKSD has been composing over the past six years and that experience should lend a positive force to handle the upcoming challenges of the journey that is planned for NK schools.

In 2002, she was part of the KHS education specifications committee, which designed the elements of the $38 million schoolhouse that will serve 800 students in West Kingston.

With the opening of Kingston High School in 2007, the district will not only split into two high schools, it will also completely change its grade level configuration, moving forward with the goal of bringing the secondary guiding principles to fruition.

Cole spearheaded the NKSD secondary guiding principles action committee beginning in 2001 with the task of planning a process that could move North Kitsap High School toward the implementation of the guiding document.

“I feel very strongly that teachers need to be connected to one another and to their students; that strengthens the educational experience for everyone,” Cole said of the opportunities of the guiding principles and one aspect of them — small learning communities. “By creating systems where we can create those connections, that’s what can improve education for our students.”

Through the early years of the new millennium, Cole was a decisive leader in the revolution of NKHS’ first small learning community, Polaris, aiming to improve education through teacher collaboration. Serving as the school’s head administrator since its inception in 2004, Cole has also directed the small school’s program development.

“Polaris will continue at NKHS and will be continue to be a very strong and vibrant community,” Cole said. “It’s got great teacher leadership.”

As Cole steps out of her lead role at Polaris she is hoping to build a similar structure of teacher leadership and support within the walls of KHS. She said the first step in the process is forming a core leadership team that will begin making crucial decisions for the school right away.

“That will, of course, include teachers and staff, but we’d also like to include students, parents and (the) community as we start envisioning a future that starts now,” Cole said.