Time running out for Moses Lake auto tech program

MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake School only has a few months to find a new home for its automobile repair and technology classes.

“We need to be in a different auto tech facility both for the high school and for CB Tech by next fall,” said Superintendent Josh Meek at a regular meeting of the Moses Lake School Board on Thursday.

The district currently rents space for its automotive repair program from Big Bend Community College. However, the buildings currently housing that program will be torn down once BBCC’s new technology center is finished.

The district has known about this problem for some time, but only after a meeting on Tuesday between officials from the school district and the college did the fierce urgency of the situation present itself.

“It’s time to start moving from exploring potential opportunities to really developing a coherent plan,” Meek said.

Currently, Moses Lake High School employs one full-time auto instructor who teaches around 100 students every semester. In addition, CB Tech’s auto program has an additional full-time teacher and one part-time instructor, and enrolls students from a number of surrounding school districts as well.

Meek said given the looming deadline — the program must be moved and up and running in nine months — they are likely looking at “repurposed space” somewhere within the district.

“Has anyone here looked at using part of the bus garage as instructional space?” asked board member Elliott Goodrich.

“We’re going to have to look under every stone of opportunity we have,” Meek said. “With the magnitude, seeing that many students, we’re going to have to get very creative.”

However, Meek also said the district cannot go out and simply rent a shuttered warehouse or abandoned garage, as state regulations governing “learning spaces” still apply.

“This will be an ongoing topic,” Meek said. “Over the next months, we’ll have to come up with the right plan.”

Meek said the district and the college also talked about how to make it easier for more MLSD to take college classes for high school credit or enroll in the state’s Running Start program, which allows high school students to complete basic college general education courses and graduate from high school with an associate’s degree as well.

“We are looking at what we can do to encourage it,” said board member Vicki Groff.

“Some of the Running Start hurdles are ours,” Meek said, noting that the district needs to review and revise which college courses count for which high school classes.

The superintendent also said he wanted to see more Moses Lake students participate the career and technical education portion of Running Start.

“We have three to five every year, and that’s a minimal number,” he said. “In a district like ours, it should be much higher than that.”