Class size rules could prompt elementary expansion

MOSES LAKE - The Moses Lake School District has almost enough room in its elementary schools to accommodate growth through 2018, but that could change if rules governing class sizes change. That was one of the conclusions from a report commissioned by the Moses Lake School Board and delivered to the board recently.

The board hired NAC Architects, Spokane, to study growth and demographic trends and their impact on the district. The study found that growth in Grant County probably is going to continue, and will keep impacting the school district.

(The conclusions of the report regarding elementary schools are covered in this story. The impacts and recommendations for the middle school and high school were covered in previous reports.)

Grant County as a whole has more kids than the statewide average, Steve McNutt, the study's lead author, said. In fact, kids ages 18 and younger make up 30.7 percent of county population, as opposed to the statewide average of 23 percent. Kids ages 18 and younger are the largest segment of the county's population.

School district growth is projected to be about 1.5 percent annually, according to data from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, McNutt said. It's called the "cohort projection," and in 2005 it projected the district would have the equivalent of 7,830 students in 2010. That estimate was five kids short, McNutt said.

For 2018 the cohort projection is 8,629 students in K-12 district-wide, he said. Growth at the elementary level was projected to be 350 students by then, and "under ordinary circumstances there is sufficient unused K-5 space that could almost accommodate the forecast increase," McNutt wrote. Currently there are 13 empty classrooms among the 10 elementary schools, he said.

However, the state has changed class size requirements for kindergarten and first grade, starting with the 2014-15 school year. That, and the anticipated growth, will eat up 11 of the classrooms, he said.

The Washington Legislature is considering more changes to class sizes for kindergarten through third grade. By 2018, with the additional growth, that would leave the district needing space for about 60 classes. That works out to about two and a half new elementary schools about the size of Sage Point and Park Orchard, he said.

If the mandate doesn't happen, with just projected growth, the district would need room for about 16 classes by 2018, he said.

District officials asked McNutt to look at portable classrooms as a solution. The problem, he said, is that a number of elementary schools already are using portables. While there may be room for more portables at some schools, it might not be possible to accommodate all the kids in the gyms, cafeterias, libraries and other common spaces, he said.

It would cost about $13 million to buy enough portable classrooms to meet the anticipated class size mandates, he said. Enough portables to meet projected growth would cost $3 million to $4 million.

Permanent classrooms rather than portables at the existing elementary schools might require work on water and sewer systems to accommodate them, he said. Some schools may suffer from site restrictions as well, he said, or the best sites might already be occupied by portables. He estimated that if they're feasible, the additions would cost $28.6 million.

Another alternative, assuming the class size mandates are approved, would be two new elementary schools and additions (six classrooms each) at four existing schools. That would cost $48.1 million if the additions were permanent buildings and $42.1 million with portable classrooms.

Three new elementary schools would cost about $56.2 million, McNutt said, with the district eligible for about $1.6 million in state construction funds.

Going to a year-round schedule would reduce the school population by about 25 percent at any given time, he said. That probably would alleviate the need for elementary school expansion through 2018, McNutt said. But if growth continues at the present rate, another 20 classrooms would be necessary by 2023, even with year-round school, he said.