Final meeting on school crowding to be held Thursday

MOSES LAKE - Moses Lake School District patrons are being invited to the last of four meetings to discuss overcrowding at the high school and middle schools on Thursday. The meeting is scheduled from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the auditorium at the Moses Lake Civic Center, 401 South Balsam St.

District officials present four options to alleviate overcrowding at the meeting, wrote district superintendent Michelle Price in a letter sent to district patrons.

Price detailed the process district officials have used to gather information and some of the techniques that have been used already to alleviate overcrowding.

"Solutions that have already been implemented include adding portables, adding online options, modifying schedules, redrawing middle school boundaries, offsite rentals and teachers with all teaching materials on carts moving to open classrooms every period. Classroom space continues to be challenging but the larger issue is the infrastructure (the cafeterias, libraries, hallways and bathrooms)," the letter said.

One proposal, first put forward at the Jan. 17 meeting, was to convert Columbia Basin Secondary School (CBSS) into a third middle school, whether as a magnet school or with a designated attendance area. That prompted vociferous protest from some CBSS students and parents.

Community meetings were held in September, November and January, and district officials published a survey on the district's website. Patrons also met individually with district officials upon request.

All of that information has been collected and is available on the district's website. Price said any solutions implemented must meet the district's criteria, which include educational effectiveness and cost, as well as meet the needs expressed by the community and staff.

Price said district officials don't want to have to address the problem again in a couple of years, so any solutions must address the problem for at least five years, she said.

The options to be presented Thursday were developed with reference to the district criteria and "are responsive to the community input and survey data," Price said.

"We know that none of these solutions are ideal or 'fix' the crowding but do provide for some relief," Price said. The meetings will produce a set of recommendations that will be presented to the Moses Lake School Board in April. The board will make the final decisions, and district officials plan to implement them in the 2014-15 school year, Price said.