School district discusses growth

MOSES LAKE — Moses Lake School District employees put together a long-range planning committee to discuss enrollment growth.

“We wanted to put a committee together to talk about the continued growth in our school district and what we can do to keep up with that growth facility-wise,” said Monte Redal, deputy superintendent.

District superintendent Michelle Price is committee chairman to a group of 30 people. Committee members include district employees, school staff and community members.

“We wanted to have a group that was equally balanced with staff and community members,” Redal said. “We didn’t want it to just be school district people coming together to talk and make decisions. We wanted all kinds of individuals to participate so we could get all different kinds of opinions.”

The group met for the first time last week to talk about overcrowding in schools.

“We talked about numerous issues at the first meeting and decided we needed to do a lot of research before we come together again,” Redal said. “Our whole purpose is to take everything into consideration when discussing enrollment growth.”

Coming up with a solution for overcrowding at the Moses Lake School District is a top priority. The long-range committee needs to consider the economic climate, requirements needing to be met to receive state matching funds and academic effects of rate configurations.

“We have a big decision to make when talking about what to do with the high school,” Redal said. “We have to decide if we are going to build onto the current facility, build a separate campus or build another high school.”

The solutions for problems discussed in the committee may not happen for a couple years.

“Nothing is imminent, we are just starting to work on everything so we can be ahead of the curve,” Redal said. “We figure we have a year to plan, a year to start working on what to do and so forth. We assume the process will take us a couple of years.”

The district is waiting until the latest bond issue expires in 2012 to run another bond issue for a new high school.

“We can’t afford to move forward until we qualify for state-matched funding,” Redal said. “We expect we will qualify in a couple of years as the high school enrollment continues to grow. We will just have to hope the economic situation we are in does not affect state funding.”

If interested in participating in the long-range committee, people are asked to call Michelle Price at 509-766-2650.