MLSD outlines access plan for high school

Charles H. Featherstone/Columbia Basin Herald A group of fourth- and fifth-graders from Park Orchard elementary school sing for members of the Moses Lake School Board on Thursday.

by Charles H. Featherstone Staff Writer
| May 15, 2018 3:00 AM

MOSES LAKE — A draft “sketch” of possible vehicle access to Moses Lake High School has the school district acquiring two roughly half-acre parcels for access and additional parking.

According to Eric Johnson, the operations manager for the MLSD, the initial idea would require moving the modular classrooms and one softball field, but would provide a public entrance off Pilgrim, a drop-off area for parents and kids, and additional access for emergency services.

“This is just an initial sketch,” Johnson told members of the school board on Thursday. “It’s just informational at this point in time.

The two parcels, roughly 0.43 acres each, are each valued at around $89,500. However, one parcel, immediately south of BBSI Moses Lake, was last purchased by a Newport Beach, Calif. real estate investment fund in 2009 for $500,000.

Johnson said it would be fairly easy to move the portables, since they did not have water or sewer hookups, and all that would need to be moved would be electricity.

However, Johnson also told board members that proposed security and access work — including replacing doors and enclosing the high school with a fence — is on a “delicate timeline,” and board members would need to act soon if security work was to be finished by October.

The proposed security work at MLHS was separate from a discussion of the district’s long-term planning group, which is set to make its recommendations about the district’s future building needs — including how to use the $135.4 million construction bond passed by voters in February 2017, and recently upheld by the state courts — by mid-June.

“When will the board have a plan for building a second high school?” asked Larry Ledeboer, a regular attendee of school board meetings since last November’s board elections.

It wasn’t just a rhetorical question for Ledeboer.

“I’m interested in a response, if you have one,” he added as silence emanated from the school board.

A group of specialists and experts has been gathered to create a long-term plan for the district, and is meeting weekly, said board member Susan Freeman.

However, Ledeboer also wanted to know if the planning group would make information and findings available to the public, and if the public will be able to make suggestions.

“We do have scheduled a public hearing, similar to the one in December of last year,” said Superintendent Josh Meek. “I anticipate that will be sometime in late June or early July.”

However, school board members defended the closed nature of the group’s work.

“For one thing, the board is not there,” said board member Vicki Groff. “This is an elite group of people and by that I mean they have a background on some of this.”

Board member Elliott Goodrich echoed that, saying there is an expectation that those in the group will be prepared, and it is difficult to expect many people at a public hearing to be prepared to speak about something in depth.

“You will be as involved as we are in those meetings,” Goodrich said. “All we’re allowed to do is go and listen, and then only to one meeting (each).”

“We’re trusting these guys because they should be trusted,” Goodrich added.

Meek said all of the data the group reviews, as well as notes of its discussions, will be posted on a Google Drive site managed by the district after each of the planning group’s five meetings.

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