Moses Lake talks new high school

MOSES LAKE - Moses Lake School District is looking to generate $115 million for a new high school and two elementary schools.

Board members fielded questions from the community at a public forum held Tuesday at Longview Elementary.

School board members Lew Mason and Vicki Groff answered questions, mostly about the bond and levy the district plans to take to voters in a special election Feb. 14.

Building two new elementary schools would allow the district to move sixth grade students from Moses Lake's crowded middle schools, she said.

The district would likely use the design plans for Sage Point and Park Orchard elementary schools for the new school buildings to save money, she added.

The district could receive more state matching funds for elementary schools than for middle schools, said Mason.

Elementary schools would also be cheaper to build, costing about $15 million each as opposed to about $45 million for a middle school, said Groff.

Sixth graders would receive the same age-appropriate curriculum at the elementary schools they received at the middle schools, she added.

Moses Lake High School is overcrowded. It was designed to accommodate 1,700 students, but is now home to about 2,200 students, he said.

The district does not yet know where they will put the new schools, he said. The district already had land for Sage Point and Park Orchard elementary schools. The bond includes money for purchasing land.

The proposed levy would pay for operating and maintenance expenses not funded by the state, said Groff. The school board will determine the amount of the levy in a special board meeting.

The levy would also replace $5.7 million the district anticipates in state cuts, including the elimination of levy equalization assistance from the state, Mason noted.

The district's cash reserve fund was expected to be between $5 million and $6 million at the end of last year, but due to state budget cuts, is forecast to be $900,000 at the end of this year, said Mason.

"We've used most of our reserve to get us through this point without doing drastic things to our education and our kids and our budget," he said. "We worked really hard to not have to cut teachers, bump class sizes up, and all the other stuff that if we hadn't had that reserve, we would probably have had to do."

For many reasons, now is the perfect time to pass a bond and levy, said Mason.

The bond Moses Lake voters passed in 1990 expires in 2012, he said. If the new bond passes, the net effect to property owners would be an estimated $2.50 increase per $1,000 of assessed property value, he said.

Groff pointed out that a better bidding climate could be a beneficial side effect of the struggling economy.

"When the economy is down in other places, people are very eager to work and that sometimes equates to a really good bid climate," she said.

For example, the district saved almost $2 million in architectural fees when it built Park Orchard Elementary, she said.

Every registered voter within the school district boundary can vote on the levy and bond, said Mason.

"We really need your support on both the levy and the bond," he said. "There are two things that I think I was elected to do. One of them is to take care of your kids and the other is to take care of your money. I really think that we are doing a pretty good job of both of them."