MLSD middle school options reviewed

MOSES LAKE - The decision to convert Columbia Basin Secondary School into a middle school won't solve the long term problem of middle school overcrowding, according to a report commissioned by the Moses Lake School Board.

The district hired NAC Architects, Spokane, to study the district's demographics and growth trajectory. The school board and district officials asked for some school population projections based on the information and some recommendations how the district might accommodate those kids.

The NAC representatives delivered their report at a recent school board workshop.

(The options for Moses Lake High School were detailed in a Columbia Basin Herald story Tuesday. The report's conclusions and recommendations about elementary schools will be covered in a subsequent story.)

Steve McNutt, the lead researcher, said the analysis indicated Grant County and Moses Lake will keep growing, at least for a while.

Even though the county's labor force has increased, unemployment dropped from 8.5 percent to 7.2 percent between August 2012 and August 2013. While the rate of growth slowed from 2008, the county kept growing, McNutt said.

The growth would have an impact on schools anyway, but kids ages 18 and younger are the largest age group in Grant County, McNutt said. They make up 30.7 percent of the population, as compared to 23 percent statewide.

School enrollment for K-12 is projected to increase by about 1.5 percent annually, McNutt said, based on information from the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. That's called the "cohort projection," and in 2005 it predicted the district would have 7,830 students in 2010, which was five kids short of the actual population, McNutt said.

By 2018 the cohort projection shows the district with 8,629 students, he said.

At the middle school level, that would mean 1,935 sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders, he said. Chief Moses and Frontier middle schools are designed to hold about 1,400 students between them.

Currently the two schools have 1,806 students, 1,016 at Chief Moses and 790 students at Frontier, he said. That puts them about 29 percent over their capacity, McNutt said. The converted CBSS will house about 229 students, which will reduce, but not eliminate, overcrowding at Chief Moses and Frontier, he said.

There would be a little room for growth, but if the cohort projections are right the three buildings would be about 19 percent over capacity by 2018, McNutt said.

A year-round schedule, with all three buildings in use, would leave the district with enough room for middle school students for about 10 years, according to best estimates, McNutt said. But without year-round school the three existing buildings would be about 27 percent over capacity in 10 years, he said.

Moving sixth graders back to the elementary schools would solve the middle school issue, but it would create a problem at the elementary schools, McNutt said. At current enrollment, that would mean shifting about 618 students back to the elementary schools, and require about 26 classrooms to house them. Right now there are 13 classrooms available in the elementary schools; projected K-5 growth will fill those, and that's without any state-mandated changes in class size for primary grades, which is currently under discussion by the Washington Legislature, he said.

Adding a third middle school, housing about 650 students, would solve the middle school space problem through about 2035 with current growth rates, he said. That would mean expanding CBSS to a 650-student capacity, or building an entirely new middle school, he said.

To be a full size middle school, CBSS would need about 20 to 25 more classrooms, McNutt said, and suggested a two-story addition to save space. Its site is not big enough to accommodate all extracurricular sports, he said. The existing cafeteria and gym would have to be enlarged to accommodate more kids, he said.

Expanding CBSS would cost about $34.8 million, McNutt said. A new middle school would cost $45.6 million.

A year-round middle school schedule would allow the existing student body to fit within the existing buildings, whether or not the elementary schools or high school went to year-round, he said.