Parents offer overcrowding alternatives
Amy Kemper speaks to the Moses Lake School Board on the subject of closing Columbia Basin Secondary School during Thursday's school board meeting. Superintendent Michelle Price is seated to Kember's right.
MOSES LAKE - Overcrowding at the secondary level and what to do about it brought some district patrons to the school board's regular Thursday meeting.
The third of four community meetings to discuss overcrowding was held Jan. 17, and among the possible solutions to alleviate the problem at the middle schools was to convert Columbia Basin Secondary School to a middle school. The building is now for seventh and eighth graders and high school students.
Three people asked to address the board with alternative suggestions.
Amy Kemper said in her opinion moving sixth graders back to the 10 elementary schools would be a better option. That would get more students out of the middle schools than converting CBSS, Kemper said.
That probably would delay the plan to expand all-day kindergarten to all the district's elementary schools, she said, but in her opinion that isn't the greatest need right now.
Kim Smith said moving the 120 to 150 high school students currently at CBSS back to Moses Lake High School would just put more pressure on the high school. She said the Columbia Basin Skills Center was cited as one option for housing the high school students at CBSS. She asked if it would be an accredited high school. Superintendent Michelle Price said it could be. Smith asked if it would be; Price said it could be.
Jamie Clark said she works with at-risk youth and they need more attention than other kids to help them succeed. Students at CBSS have improved attitudes and fewer behavior problems than previously, she said. The program is successful and the district should not take that away, she said.
There are other options for reducing overcrowding, she said; there are empty buildings in town and the board might look at using some of them before converting the secondary school.
In other business, Johnson announced the district's contract with the Moses Lake Education Association will be open for negotiations this spring. The process will be complicated due to new rules that might be coming out of the legislature, he said.
Construction is proceeding on the district's new transportation center, Johnson said. The roof will be installed on the bus parking lot this week, he said.