The North Kitsap School District has its work cut out for it, which is a bad thing and a good thing. It’s a bad thing in that determining library and counseling staff levels at the schools it represents is an ominous chore. It’s a good thing because apparently NKSD’s budget is so tight, officials there lack the funding to purchase the scissors needed to cut out their own work in the first place.

Eleven school libraries, 10 librarians. You don’t need Bill Hobaugh to do the math on that one. Counselors face a similar a problem, albeit to a somewhat lesser degree.

But with the addition of Kingston High School next year and an actual decline in students, the NKSD’s funds will be stretched even further with no relief from the state in sight. The state doles out funds, to some degree, based on how many students are being served — not how many schools there are.

So while KHS is a huge step for the community, the fact that the district was planning ahead for the future is actually working against it right now.

That’s a shame because a new high school has been needed for years and a few months before it opens to better serve students here, it comes to light that there will be a budget balancing act on Stage One first.

Shuffling counselors around might not seem like as large an issue as say missing a librarian or two but if the last few years in North Kitsap has taught us anything, it should be that kids these days need all the support they can get. These have been extremely difficult lessons to learn.

NKSD is in a tough spot right now, no question. It’s greatest minds will be needed to find the best way out and while it works to extricate itself, some difficult decisions will have to be made.

Libraries and counseling services are vital to students after all, and are the basic types of support that — in a perfect world — should never be marginalized, even slightly.

KHS should be viewed by residents as a triumph not a problem that needs to be solved but it seems to have fallen into the latter category as far as this staffing conundrum goes. It’s too bad when a great idea with the best of intentions is put in such a position. Hopefully, the means exist and will be found to ensure it doesn’t remain there much longer.