Almost ready: Groff Elementary School to open in September
Workers put the final touches on the Moses Lake School District’s newest elementary school, Vicki I. Groff Elementary School, on Monday as the first day of school looms at the end of the week.
Charles H. Featherstone/Columbia Basin Herald
MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake School District is set to formally open its newest elementary school, Vicki I. Groff Elementary School, at a ribbon-cutting ceremony Sept. 7
The first full day of classes at the school is Sept. 7.
The ceremony begins at 8:15 a.m. in the new school’s courtyard at 1501 S. Moses Lake Ave., not far from the Moses Lake Christian Academy and the South Campus Athletic Club, and is expected to feature remarks from MLSD acting superintendent Carole Meyer, school board president Vickey Melcher and Groff Elementary School Principal Nikki Mackey.
Built at a cost of roughly $18.1 million, the 57,000-square-foot, 25-classroom school is “a prototype model” for future elementary schools in the district.
The school was named in honor of longtime school board member Vicki Groff, who served for 30 years on the Moses Lake School Board until she chose not to run again in 2019.
Groff Elementary is the first of two elementary schools authorized under the revised $135 million school construction bond passed by district voters in February 2017. While district officials do not know if the second elementary school will be built, the overall design of the school will allow it to be built on any of the district’s current elementary school sites.
Most of the district’s current elementary schools were built in the 1950s and 1960s by the Department of Defense as part of a program to assist military communities.
Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.
(This article has been updated with the correct date of the first day of classes.)