ML School Board approves bond vote

MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake School Board on Thursday unanimously approved a resolution calling for a Feb. 14 vote on a 20-year, $135 million bond to build a new high school and elementary school, as well as renovations and improvements to Moses Lake High School.

“The bond is not about one, two, or four schools, but about space for our kids,” said school board member Oscar Ochoa.

The bond measure will require 60 percent of the voters in the Moses Lake School District to pass, and would need a minimum turnout of 40 percent of those who voted in the recent general election.

Overcrowding is a serious problem for the Moses Lake School district, and one it is struggling to deal with.

“We are completely out of space at six of our 10 elementary schools,” said District Superintendent Michelle Price.

Price said the district is considering creative solutions, such as more portable classrooms, and doubling up some classes and having them taught by two teachers. Several elementary schools have had their computer labs converted into classrooms. The district is even renting rooms from the Boys and Girls Club for extra space at Park Orchard Elementary.

Overcrowding even affects groundskeeping, slowing it down as lawn mowers are brought to a halt and turned off while kids are outside and on the move.

But they got some first-hand testimony to overcrowding from Garden Heights Elementary School Principal Abe Ramirez, who has seen his school’s enrollment rise by 11 kids to 522 since the beginning of this school year.

“We are extremely overcrowded,” Ramirez told the school board. “We’ve had at least one new enrollment each week since school started.”

Ramirez said that the Garden Heights building is old, and with so many students, it “takes a beating.”

“There is an odor, and we don’t know what it is,” he said.

Current kindergarten through fifth-grade enrollment in the Moses Lake School District stands at 4,135 students. Total enrollment in the Moses Lake schools through 12th grade is 8,350, though about 120 of those are students from other districts studying at Columbia Basic Technical Skills Center.

“I can’t believe how many kids are here in this district,” said school board member Vicki Groff. “It’s a good problem to have, it’s just overwhelming.”