Planning continues for skills center

Gene Sharratt could be hired as consultant

MOSES LAKE - Organizers of the Grant County Skills Center continue to plan for the facility after receiving design funding from the legislature.

Moses Lake School District Superintendent Steve Chestnut told the school board Thursday there are plans to hire Gene Sharratt, who conducts program assessments and evaluations and serves as director of the Washington State University Superintendent Training Program.

The legislature provided $927,000 in capital funds for the center's architectural design.

"We can also use those funds to hire additional consultants as needed to make this project work," Chestnut said. "And so we are planning to hire Gene to assist us, and he's really quite good at keeping all 11 school districts on board, and he knows all the people a lot better than I do."

Chestnut said Sharratt can keep superintendents, principals and vocational directors at school districts in Grant County and Othello in Adams County involved in the process, satisfied and supported.

"I think we really need that to take this thing further," Chestnut said.

He said he believes all the school districts need a unanimous voice.

A "kick-off meeting" of superintendents and principals is planned for April 22 at Big Bend Community College, Chestnut said.

"We thought it was important to have it on neutral ground," Chestnut said. "We could have used this room, but we felt like, it's a Grant County Skills Center. We didn't want to make this look like a Moses Lake School District Skills Center."

Even though the Moses Lake School District is acting as a fiscal agent, the effort to build a skills center is a countywide and regional effort, Chestnut said.