Two Moses Lake schools buy portables

Some students to attend Chief Moses instead of Frontier

MOSES LAKE - For the first time ever, students in Moses Lake's secondary schools will take classes in portables.

The school district acquired three doublewide portables for Chief Moses Middle School, and three doublewide portables for Moses Lake High School.

The costs of the portables were not available to the Columbia Basin Herald before deadline.

Because of growth in the district, some sixth grade students who would otherwise attend Frontier Middle School this fall will start school at Chief Moses Middle School. The new portables will accommodate new student growth, said Special Assistant to the Superintendent P.J. De Benedetti.

They are the first portables for secondary students in the district, De Benedetti said.

"We have more students than we have classroom space," he said.

Approximately 40 to 50 students, who would have otherwise attended Frontier, are attending Chief Moses next year, he said.

De Benedetti said both schools are full inside the buildings, and Frontier has limited outdoor space.

"The field at (Chief Moses) is much bigger," he said.

In addition, Frontier's hallways are narrower, De Benedetti said.

De Benedetti said the trend in growth is expected to continue a few years, and the only solutions are to build additional school space at Chief Moses or to build a new secondary school.

The school district will not qualify for matching funds from the state to construct a secondary school for four to five years, he said. Portables offer a solution and the state does not count the square footage of portables when calculating a district's need for more space, De Benedetti said.

Students will not be housed in portables all day, he said.

Names of potential Chief Moses students were selected from a random drawing. Parents had the option of sending their child to Chief Moses if their child's name was drawn.

"We wanted to make it voluntary instead of making it mandatory," De Benedetti said.