MLSD revisits choice of high school’s name

MOSES LAKE — So the Moses Lake School District’s next high school will not be named after the late President Ronald Reagan.

At least not yet.

During a meeting of the Moses Lake School Board Thursday, School Board President Vickey Melcher found the motion naming the school after the United States’ 40th president was not formally on the agenda and thus the vote was a violation of state law and board policy.

“It was a violation of board procedures on the naming of the school,” Melcher said. “No motion is in order that conflicts with state laws and the bylaws (of the district), so it was null and void.”

The motion to name the school after Reagan, who was first elected in 1980 and re-elected in a landslide in 1984, was approved at the board’s April 22 meeting in a 3-2 vote, with Melcher and board member Shannon Hintz voting against.

Board member Elliott Goodrich, who proposed naming the new high school after the late president, said the way he read state law about public meetings, the board can post an agenda, but has the ability to take action — including votes — on anything of importance before the community.

Goodrich noted the pertinent section of state law requires governing bodies like a school board to post agendas online 24 hours in advance, but the law also allows for modification of published agendas or other “legal action taken at a meeting.”

Besides, as Goodrich noted, the naming of the Vicki Groff Elementary School, which is set to open this fall, also did not follow the board’s written procedure for naming schools. And if the board held itself to the standard Melcher articulated at the meeting, Goodrich added little of the board’s work in the last two years — including the revised construction plan — would be valid.

“Nothing prohibits what we did,” Goodrich said. “The agenda was posted and the meeting was properly scheduled. The meeting adhered to the law and so was the agenda.”

Goodrich said he put the proposal forward because the district’s naming committee has been working for more than a year to get possible names for the new school — which is still informally known as the Real World academy — without showing much progress.

“It would take some burden off the team,” Goodrich said.

The board then tasked the committee with getting three to five names — including Reagan’s — to the school board sometime soon.

School board members also approved in a 4-0 vote (board member Bryce McPartland was not present at the meeting) a three-year, $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed property value replacement levy to go before district voters on the August 3 election. The levy, which will replace the current local school funding levy, which expires at the end of 2020, is expected to raise $7.1 million in 2022, $7.7 million in 2023, and $8.1 in 2024, and needs only 50% plus one vote approval to pass.

Local levies fund programs state money doesn’t fully cover or pay for at all, like athletics, music, technology, security, counselors and nurses.

Goodrich, who voted in favor of the levy, wondered if it was necessary given the federal COVID-19 aid the school district has received.

However, MLSD Chief Operations Officer Joe Connolly said the aid, which will total roughly $22.3 million in the 2022-24 period, is both targeted and “one-time” aid the district cannot use on regular costs covered locally, like school nurses and sports. In fact, at least 20% of the aid needs to be used to address learning gaps caused by pandemic-related school closures and the switch to remote learning, Connolly added.

“We’re still looking at what it can be used for,” he said.