Don't crowd out new solutions

The Moses Lake School Board is grappling with some tough decisions to alleviate overcrowding at Moses Lake High School and Chief Moses and Frontier middle schools.

Last year, a $115 million bond that would have prevented middle school crowding, paid for a new high school and two new grade schools failed to receive enough voter support. A bond committee is forming in March to consider forming a new bond proposal.

In the meantime, some proposals include converting the district's alternative school, Columbia Basin Secondary School, into a middle school. Other options are offering high school year round, having an extended high school day and running two shifts at the high school (also known as double shifting, which is an option that came out early in the community input process). No decisions have been made.

Some consider the ideas punishment for not passing the bond. We view it as consequences of not solving the problem.

The district did reach out to patrons in a survey asking them for solutions and moved forward with some alternatives they thought participants wanted. The options presented in the survey came out of overcrowding meetings last year that were largely attended by people already interested in school matters, including teachers and aides.

Supporters of keeping the alternative school created a Facebook page titled "Save Columbia Basin Secondary School." A mom wrote her daughter wouldn't have finished high school without CBSS. Another mom commented her son's attitude and grades did a complete turnaround when he started attending the alternative school. It appears a smaller, more personalized environment did wonders for the students. We hope the alternative school can remain open.

But we do not support drastic changes to the high school schedule. Offering high school throughout the year and having two shifts of classes is a disruption of families' work schedules and home lives. Not all parents have flexible jobs where they can pull away from work and pick up their child from school anytime. Such demands put some parents' jobs in jeopardy. We also wonder when parents would have a chance to see their kids.

Making school year round hurts high school students' chance of earning money for college during the summer months.

We hope the building of the Columbia Basin Technical Skills Center will help alleviate some of the overcrowding in the high school. It is expected the skills center construction will be done in the next 12 to 14 months.

The Columbia Basin Herald's readers posted their ideas to lessen overcrowding on the paper's Facebook page in December. We encourage the school board to read the ideas, which include moving sixth graders back to the grade school to leave enough room to move ninth graders into the middle school. Former school board member Vern Sandman told the Columbia Basin Herald he thought the idea could be pulled off by purchasing three new portable classrooms.

Another idea Sandman heard was moving sixth graders back to the grade schools and designating Frontier Middle School for ninth grade only and moving seventh and eighth graders to Chief Moses Middle School. This is a good idea, but the numbers don't work out because there are currently 150 more ninth-graders than sixth-graders.

Some readers still suggested building a new high school. We agree a new high school is needed and the district would be wise in taking advantage of today's lower construction prices.

We don't disagree with the value of the alternative school or the current plight of the school district. But we are asking the school board to consider other solutions in the current economic environment.

~ Editorial Board