Meetings to address overcrowding in fall

MOSES LAKE - School district patrons are being invited to a series of meetings this fall and winter to discuss ways to address overcrowding in the district's secondary schools.

All meetings will be held at Moses Lake High School and will be from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Meeting dates are Sept. 20, Nov. 29, Jan. 17 and March 21.

On Feb. 14 district voters rejected a construction bond proposal to build a new high school and two new elementary schools, said district Superintendent Michele Price. The goal was to relieve overcrowding at Frontier and Chief Moses middle schools and Moses Lake High School, Price said.

If the bond had passed, district officials planned to move sixth grade students back to the elementary schools, along with building a new high school. The district was forced to go back to the drawing board in the wake of the rejection. So district officials decided to ask the community for ideas.

"I don't believe we have all the answers," Price said, and someone in the community may have solutions district officials haven't thought about.

In a letter mailed to district patrons, Price asked three questions, including what patrons think are the most important attributes of a high quality education, the skills necessary to prepare students for post-high school workforce or college, and how the existing facilities help students get there.

Price said the district could purchase additional portable classrooms, but they're running out of room use them. The high school currently has seven portable buildings, a total of 14 classes, with room for one more, she said. Chief Moses has maxed out its portable space and there's no room at Frontier unless district officials add buildings at the playfield. "We're landlocked in so many ways," Price said.

But even if there was room for more portables, the infrastructure (things like the lunchrooms) are not built for the number of kids anticipated, Price said.

Even if the bond had passed, the district would've been forced to deal with overcrowding, Price said, because all the new buildings would not have been ready for occupancy for about five years.

The schools could go to double shifts, Price said, or start a year-round school schedule. There may be other alternatives, she said, and that's what district officials are hoping to get from patrons.

The information gathered at the meetings will be used to prepare a recommendation for the Moses Lake School Board; whatever the board decides will be implemented for the 2013-14 school year.