Columbia Basin Secondary School could close

MOSES LAKE - The appearance of concrete proposals to address overcrowding at Moses Lake secondary schools prompted an agitated, sometimes raucous, occasionally tearful community meeting Thursday evening.

Most of the discussion centered around a proposal to turn Columbia Basin Secondary School (CBSS), the Moses Lake School District's 7-12 alternative school, into a middle school. A proposal for an extended schedule at the high school also came under scrutiny. The proposals turned out a crowd, so big that the meeting had to be moved to the Moses Lake High School theater.

District officials sponsored two earlier meetings to come up with ideas for alleviating overcrowding at the high school and Frontier and Chief Moses middle schools. The district also posted a survey on its website, detailing some of the conclusions from the first two meetings, which received about 1,000 responses.

Moderator Gene Sharratt talked about some of the information, and the conclusions drawn from it, during Thursday's meeting.

Participants in the meetings and the survey were asked to rate three options, including year-round school, the extended school day or running two shifts at the high school. Respondents rated the high school extended schedule as the best option of the three. Year-round school was the second most popular option. Respondents didn't like the idea of double-shifts.

District officials prepared proposals addressing the two most popular options. Sharratt said everything in the proposals is subject to revision. The example for an extended high school schedule had 10 periods, each about an hour, with classes from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. In that example students picked seven classes, but some time periods were restricted to designated grade levels. But, said Superintendent Michelle Price, an extended schedule at the high school would not help with middle school overcrowding. To address that, district officials proposed converting CBSS into a middle school. The new middle school could be a magnet school, offering instruction in specific classes, or it could be a regular middle school with a designated attendance area. A third option for middle school overcrowding was to move some sixth graders back to elementary schools where there is room, and to redistrict Chief Moses and Frontier. The idea of converting the secondary school prompted vociferous protest from some students at CBSS former students and some parents. "They need this school," one mom said, adding that her children struggled in non-alternative school but were getting good grades and participating in activities at CBSS.

Another mother, a CBSS alumni, said she thought she would've been a high school dropout without it. "I'm not just saying that. I'm serious," she said. Her daughter attends CBSS now and has had success there, she said. In her opinion CBSS already is a magnet school; it's an "instant family," she said.

Another mother said she thinks teachers and administrators at the high school care about the kids, but that MLHS is too big for some kids to get the attention they need. She cited her daughter as an example; she's a successful student at CBSS after struggling at the high school.

Sharratt said that while the CBSS building might be converted, the alternative school program could be moved elsewhere.

The current year-round school proposal would be instituted at all elementary schools as well as the middle and high schools, to accommodate families with children at different stages of schooling. Children would attend school 45 days (nine weeks) at a time, followed by 15 days (three weeks) off. There would be no school the last week of August, the week of Thanksgiving and two weeks at Christmas.

Four different schedules would be established, and kids would attend school according to the neighborhood where they lived. Sharratt said his research indicated Washington districts that adopted year-round school did so because they had to, not because they wanted to. The extended schedule came in for scrutiny during breakout sessions. One mother said she didn't want her son, a freshman, attending classes at 5 or 6 p.m. The discussion moderator said the proposal was only a proposal, and could be adapted. Other participants expressed concern about extracurricular activities, and whether the schedule could accommodate students involved in sports or music, among others.

One participant asked if all the available space was really being utilized, citing the example of converting gyms into classrooms. Another participant said partitions in the gym would be less than ideal, and asked if parents would really like their kids in those conditions. But another participant said it was preferable to having freshmen and sophomores going to school at 5 and 6 p.m.

One participant suggested moving sixth graders back to the elementary schools, even if it required buying extra portables. That might be a better use of the district's money than revamping the schedules, she said.