Parents talk school overcrowding

MOSES LAKE - Making Columbia Basin Secondary School a middle school generated protest from students, their parents and other district patrons at a recent community meeting.

It is one of four options the Moses Lake School Board proposed to alleviate overcrowding at Moses Lake's secondary schools.

District patron Constance Glencoe wrote a letter to the board, saying that at the January meeting she believed district officials manipulated the audience to reach a predetermined outcome.

"The survey that had been conducted was set up to reflect the predetermined outcome desired and when the public made suggestions for other options, those options were disregarded. The only options presented involved doing away with CBSS as a secondary school," Glencoe wrote.

At Thursday's meeting a woman who said her son was a CBSS student said she didn't think her children's needs would be met at Moses Lake High School due to its size, and broke down in tears.

"That school is like New Orleans. It's the place for second chances," said the mother of a CBSS student who identified herself as Terry. The teachers at CBSS are invested in the students' success, she said. "The teachers out there care for the kids as if they were their own."

A number of people spoke in support of the status quo, one mom saying it gave district officials time for further study of the available options. Another participant said district officials should think about the effects of controversial policies on future bond and maintenance and operations levy requests.

The status quo is the only option that wouldn't affect after-school activities, another participant said. A mom with kids in the junior high said she didn't think an extended schedule would alleviate overcrowding, because kids who travel some distance to school, especially if they ride the bus, would have to stay on campus when they weren't in class.

But a man who said he had children attending elementary school said he didn't think the status quo would work, and favored some combination of the second and third options. The high school is one of the few in the state with a four-period day, he said, and thought the six period day would give kids more options.

A participant asked about utilizing space available around town. But Mark Johnson, the district's executive director of business and operations, said the cost of remodeling to meet required education standards would be prohibitive.

A parent said year-round school was the only option that reduced the number of kids in the classroom by 25 percent. But another participant asked what would happen if a family moved to another part of town with a different school track.

A teacher asked about bad weather makeup days. Currently they are made up at the end of the school year, if necessary. She asked how that would fit in year-round school. Johnson said that hasn't been addressed yet. In answer to a question about the makeup of an extended schedule, Johnson said that hadn't been determined yet either, and those would be among the questions turned over to a transition team, which would deliver a detailed report to the school board by December. Any changes would not be implemented until the 2014-15 school year.