ML school board swears in members, struggles with bond
Charles H. Featherstone/Columbia Basin Herald The Moses Lake School Board (from left): Elliott Goodrich, Vicki Groff, Eric Stones, Susan Freeman, and Vickey Melcher.
MOSES LAKE — The two newest directors on the Moses Lake School board were sworn in Thursday evening, and the board quickly got down to the contentious work of trying to find common ground about last February’s $135 million school construction bond.
Elliott Goodrich, who defeated two-term incumbent Kevin Donovan, and Vickey Melcher, who defeated one-term member Oscar Ochoa, were sworn in by Superintendent Joshua Meek. The board then elected current members Eric Stones as its president and Susan Freeman as vice president for the next year.
“Welcome Vickey and Elliott. I’m glad you ran and I’m glad you are serving,” Stones said to welcome the two new board members.
Goodrich began the first day of his first term with proposals to repeal the board resolution authorizing the sale of bonds, suspend all payments for new design and construction related work on the proposed new schools, and withdraw the school board’s amicus brief on behalf of Grant County’s defense of the county auditor in the suit over the certification of last February’s school construction bond vote.
“We’re in a bit of an interesting situation,” Goodrich said. “I’m going to ask that we suspend all spending on construction pending our agreement as a board moving forward.”
“We have contracts,” Freeman responded. “We need to put this by legal counsel before we get into breach of contract stuff.”
Meek told the board that it has the power to put “a pause on the whole process,” but added the board would receive payment requests for costs already incurred but not yet paid for.
In asking for the repeal of the April board resolution authorizing the sale of the construction bonds, Goodrich noted it would be an appropriate action given that no bonds can be sold until the court challenges are settled.
“We can’t sell the bonds anyway,” he said.
“When the original measure was approved, it was tied up in court,” Meek said. “There was no intent to act on the resolution, and it’s currently suspended.”
Goodrich also said the board “needs to make sure we are absolutely honest with the community” about the overcrowding situation in the district’s schools.
“We need to align with reality. The board filed an amicus brief that was inaccurate regarding numbers,” Goodrich said. “We don’t have 2,600 students at our high school.”
“We should withdraw our amicus brief and adopt a position of neutrality,” regarding the lawsuit, Goodrich said.
A group of school district residents filed suit following the February school bond election, claiming County Auditor Michelle Jaderlund failed to follow the law in dealing with disputed or missing signatures on ballots. After Superior Court Judge John Antosz ruled the auditor was in “substantial compliance” with state election law, the plaintiffs appealed, and the fate of the February bond measure still awaits a ruling from the state’s Third District Court of Appeals.
While the school district is not a party to the dispute, it has filed an amicus brief with the appellate court in support of the county auditor.
Only two of Goodrich’s three proposals were on the board’s published agenda, a fact that made two other school board members uneasy.
“I understand your enthusiasm,” said longtime board member Vicki Groff. “Instead of doing something at 9 p.m., we need time to process. This is a discussion. Not everything we say has to have a motion with it.”
Freeman noted that the bond was approved, and those voters expect the district to build a second high school.
All three of Goodrich’s proposals were tabled for later consideration. The board, which meets again next Thursday, also scheduled a four-hour study session for Saturday morning to try and come to a common position on the bond and the proposed new schools.
“Every dollar we spend now is a dollar we can’t spend later,” Goodrich said. “If we don’t have a plan, I will make the same motion.”
The board also struggled with procedure and civility, with Stones at several points reminding board members to “direct your comments to the chair, and not at each other.”
“I hope the community appreciates we’re all pretty new on this board,” Stones said.
Charles H. Featherstone can be reached via email at countygvt@columbiabasinherald.com
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