Residents discuss four options to solve overcrowding dilemma

MOSES LAKE - School district patrons were given a preview, and engaged in a wide-ranging discussion of four options that will be presented to the Moses Lake School Board to alleviate secondary overcrowding.

The crowd overflowed the auditorium Thursday at the Moses Lake Civic Center to hear Mark Johnson, a district director, lay out the options. Any changes approved by the board would not go into effect until the 2014-15 school year.

The first option, Johnson said, is to do nothing, and continue using the methods administrators have been using to cope with the overcrowding. Those have included portable classrooms, teachers moving from room to room, redistricting the middle schools and converting rooms that haven't been classrooms to instruction space.

The second option would expand the high school schedule past the current school day, coupled with converting Columbia Basin Secondary School (CBSS), the district's current 7-12 alternative school, into a middle school. The new middle school would enroll students who live in the area. The secondary school is located on Patton Boulevard.

That option proposes abandonment of the four-period day at Moses Lake High School, and that current CBSS students, except juniors and seniors, would be integrated into the high school and junior highs. No freshmen or sophomores would be accepted at CBSS.

The third option would move sixth graders back to the district's 10 elementary schools. District officials have been converting afternoon and morning kindergarten classes to all day, but the district would go back to two sessions. District Superintendent Michelle Price said that's the only option that would eliminate the shift to all-day kindergarten.

Elementary students would be bused, if necessary, to schools that had room, and district lines for elementary schools and junior highs would be redrawn. The high school would still go to an extended day.

The fourth option is year-round school rather than the traditional summer break. Students would still attend school for 180 days, but not everyone would be in school at the same time. The school attendance schedule would be determined by the elementary attendance area.

Johnson said the information collected at the meeting would be presented to the school board either at the March 28 meeting or the April 11 meeting. Anyone who wants to comment on the options has until March 28, Johnson said.

Administrators have been talking about overcrowding and collecting community opinion since September, including the four district patron meetings. All of the suggestions received from the community were evaluated according to a set of criteria, Johnson said.

Those included cost, educational effectiveness, whether there's room in the existing facilities and whether the suggestions meet needs expressed by district patrons, students and staff.

Many people in the crowd opposed converting CBSS, one woman saying that the community needs the program. Many kids attending the secondary school, both from in and out of the district, find success there, and if the program goes away that chance at success goes away, she said.

A woman who identified herself as the mom of a CBSS student said she didn't understand why district officials were contemplating eliminating the program. In her opinion those kids would not get the attention they need at the Moses Lake High School, she said.

A woman who said her kids aren't in high school yet, but will be, asked about the extended schedule, and exactly how many class periods are contemplated. At previous meetings the example used was 11 periods, from about 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Johnson said district officials haven't decided yet. That will be part of the job of a "transition team," who would report to the board in December.

A number of people spoke in support of doing nothing, at least in the 2014-15 school year. One parent said that would give district officials time to do more research on the options available. She knows the high school is overcrowded, she said, but she was uncomfortable with the idea of upsetting the entire system for an experiment.

Year-round school had both supporters and detractors, but more of the latter. A second grade teacher said shorter vacations would reduce the amount of information kids forget over the summer, and reduce the time needed to relearn it all. The mother of a special education student said shorter vacations would reduce the trouble her daughter has adjusting.

A parent disputed the idea that year-round school would mean less teacher and student burnout; actually it would mean more, she said. Another parent said she thought it would reduce the elective classes available at the high school.

Johnson said people who have suggestions or opinions can submit them by email to Price, mprice@mlsd.wednet.edu, or leave them at the district office, at 920 W. Ivy Ave.