School board pushes forward on building plans

MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake School Board has committed itself to starting construction on an eleventh elementary school as soon as possible, and to a June deadline for determining the future projects — including additional high school space — it will undertake to deal with overcrowding.

During a regular meeting on Thursday, board members reviewed the current situation of state aid for school construction — particularly high school construction — and unanimously voted to end the halt on all construction spending passed last December.

“In the original time frame (for the new elementary school), we’d go to bid this month or next. The design is ready to go, we just need to push a switch, we’re only several months behind,” said Superintendent Josh Meek.

“We need to get that project moving,” Meek added.

Meek said the district is now planning on being able to use at least some of the $135.4 million in construction bonds approved by voters in February, 2017, to begin construction on the new elementary school.

The validity of the bond election has been held up in court for the last year, and on Thursday, the Washington State Third District Court of Appeals upheld the election results and dismissed a challenge brought by six school district voters.

Meek said construction should be able to start quickly given that everything was in place except for the funding. However, there was some suggestion from Assistant Superintendent Carole Meyer that changing locations for the new elementary school would further delay the project.

Meyer later said there were no plans to relocate the elementary school, currently slated to be built next to the Columbia Basin Technical Skills Center on Yonezawa Boulevard.

Meek also told the board that if the district goes ahead and builds a full-sized second high school, it will most certainly forfeit over $30 million in state construction aid for the high school alone over the next 10 years.

Under current state rules, Meek said Moses Lake is set to receive $42.7 million to modernize Moses Lake High School in 2028 as the school hits 30 years since its previous refurbishing. However, if the district goes ahead and builds a new full-sized high school, Meek said the additional capacity at the second school would be withheld, and the district would receive only $14.7 million for high school reconstruction aid in 2028.

In addition, the district would also forfeit all new construction assistance in 2028 if it built a new high school now.

“When you build beyond (student) capacity, they take the excess square footage out,” Meek said.

If it seems like districts are always playing catch-up and schools are always overcrowded, Meek said that’s just how it is, because the state doesn’t want to pay for unused school space.

“Overbuilding at any grade level jeopardizes any future state aid,” Meek said.

Meek said the district could maximize state assistance if it added 85,000 square feet of new high school space now, still getting the maximum in state new construction assistance of $15.9 million while still keeping the 2028 reconstruction assistance at $42.7 million.

“This is how it should be,” said Board Member Elliott Goodrich. “You come up with what your needs are, and what your limitations are, and then you get professionals to give you what you need.”

Goodrich campaigned against overbuilding high school space last fall when he unseated former School Board President Kevin Donovan, saying Moses Lake wouldn’t fill up a 1,600-student-full high school for at least 20 years.

“I just want your support in getting started on this tomorrow,” Meek said.

The board unanimously committed itself to having a final plan for future construction in place by mid-June, with a series of public hearings scheduled for late May.

“I just want y’all to know that this is a great process, and a tough nut to crack,” said Board President Eric Stones. “The court case gave us pause to step back, analyze things a little more closely.”

“This is really going to turn out OK in the end,” he said.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached via email at countygvt@columbiabasinherald.com.