POULSBO — The final project billed for the North Kitsap School District’s Capital programs bond was sketched into place July 13 as the NKSD board approved the education specifications process for the North Kitsap High School modernization, phase II.

Though the school remodel is far from implementation — construction is envisioned to begin at the end of the 2006-2007 school year — the conceptual work that has produced the vision for the project has been formulated into a rough draft that will be refined over the course of the upcoming year.

“This is the second biggest capital project next to Kingston (High School),” NKSD capital programs manager Dennis Burch said of the upcoming remodel.

This final modernization project will be the capstone to the NKSD Capital Program, which has revitalized Poulsbo and Suquamish Elementary schools as well as Poulsbo Junior High School while also beginning construction of the new Kingston High School, Burch noted.

When construction is completed at NKHS it too may very well look like a brand new school, at least as far as the campus’ main building is concerned.

When it begins, construction will be centered around the NKHS main building, including the school commons, library, administrative offices and three classroom wings — all will be completely remodeled, Burch said.

“I like that throughout here the word ‘flexibility’ was used,” said school board president Catherine Ahl at the latest board meeting. “In 10 years, it will probably be something else because that’s how we do in education, it has to be flexible.”

“What we are planning for is delivering education in whatever form that may be, trying to make flexibility the paramount goal,” Burch said. “We’re going to utilize the square footage in an optimum way.”

With cries of overcrowding from NKHS students and staff being heard loud and clear, Burch along with Bob Harthorne of the NKSD contract Harthorne Hagen Architects — which will sketch the project’s master plan — also gathered input from the various outlets of NKHS including administrators, teachers, classified and support staff. Then they took to the conference room with an ed spec committee tasked with defining the purpose and process of the remodel.

It all begins in the classroom.

“From our perspective, that’s where the rubber meets the road,” Harthorne said.

Each of NKHS’ three main building classroom wings will be remodeled with the intent of allowing for optimum efficiency while at the same time providing the structure for communication, Harthorne noted.

Science classrooms will be upgraded but left in their current location at the west end of the NKHS main building, and all other classrooms will be upgraded to a standard that should be flexible enough to use for any subject matter, Burch said.

Student and teacher restrooms, a teacher planning room with adjacent conference room and two administrative offices are also planned for each classroom wing, creating somewhat of a classroom community.

Controversy arose during the ed spec process over using the language “small learning community” to describe each classroom wing, however, as Supt. Gene Medina said, “these are just the walls.”

“It hasn’t changed the rooms, it’s changed the mindset and what you call those spaces,” Burch said. “The efficiency of use of these spaces has to always be considered.”

Efficiency will also be a top priority during construction, Burch said. As, if and when the project is approved and bid upon — likely March 2007 — construction crews will begin work on the heart of the school, the commons/library/administration area.

Typically that centralized work, which will affect the entire building, would be completed during the summer, however the scale of work planned for this project is too large to complete in that time period, Burch said.

For the remainder of construction done during the school year, NK students and staff will be forced into a game of “musical classrooms” when the classroom wings will be renovated one at a time as the heart of the school is remodeled.