City’s choice for site doesn’t sit well with school officials

MOSES LAKE — Members of the Moses Lake School Board said Thursday evening they were confident that a better location can be found for the city’s proposed homeless camp, better than 638 feet away from Longview Elementary School.

“I reached out to the city, and I wish they’d taken our concern into consideration earlier,” said School Board President Elliott Goodrich during the board’s regular meeting. “I’m hopeful we are able to work with the city and come up with a better long-term solution.”

The site chosen by the city was one of several topics during the school board meeting.

Goodrich said he spoke with Moses Lake City Manager Allison Williams after the council voted Tuesday to create a semi-permanent homeless encampment at the intersection of Kinder Road Northeast and Longview Street Northeast, not far from Longview Elementary School, and told her the district is willing to help the city relocate the camp on district-owned land that is not so close to an elementary school.

“I’m optimistic a better path can be forged,” he said.

Earlier Thursday, the school district released a letter to students, teachers and parents in the district saying that the district did not approve of the site and was not involved in its selection.

“There is some belief the district was co-involved, and that is not true,” Superintendent Josh Meek said during the Thursday meeting. “We were notified late last week. We are not supportive of this as a district, and our concern is the proximity to the elementary school.”

In his letter, Meek noted that the homeless in Moses Lake do need help as well as access to food, clean water, and social services, and that “not all people battling homelessness are criminals, substance impaired, mentally ill, or sex offenders.”

However, School Board Member Bryce McPartland said such problems are the exact reasons many people find themselves homeless.

“A fair number of them do have several issues, it’s why they find themselves in the situation they are in,” he said. “This burdens the district and puts students at risk, and it has to get moved so it’s not adjacent to a school.”

Meek also told board members it is time to begin thinking about finding a proper name for the district’s next high school, which has been informally called “The Real World Academy.”

“‘Real World Academy’ needs to go away,” the superintendent said. “It was intended to be a project name, and it’s time to give the school a more proper identity.”

Meek said he would like to start getting nominations so that the community can begin to give its next high school “some life.”

Goodrich said he believes the new school should be named after former President Ronald Reagan, who “won the Cold War” and inaugurated “the greatest period of economic prosperity” the world has ever known.

“I’m excited to see if anyone can come up with a better name,” he said.

McPartland, who has long opposed the project, saying it isn’t really a new high school, suggested naming it Hooper Fleming, after Joe Hooper and James Fleming, both Medal of Honor recipients who graduated from Moses Lake High School and fought in Vietnam.

Finally, on Thursday, the district opened construction bids for Groff Elementary School. Six construction firms — Fowler General Construction of Richland, Garco Construction of Spokane, Ginno Construction of Coeur d’Alene, Jackson Contractor Group of Walla Walla, Lydig Construction of Spokane Valley and TW Clark Construction of Spokane Valley — submitted bids in the $16 million to $18 million range.

“Six bids was a great number to have,” Meek said.

District officials will evaluate the bids and are expected to award the contract to build the district’s next elementary school at its next meeting on May 28.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at [email protected].