MLSD addresses contract, assessments, snow and payroll

MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake School District met for its normal meeting Nov. 21 to discuss a construction agreement with Absher Construction, state assessment data, snow removal and the finances surrounding payroll.  

Absher Construction agreement 

The proposed construction agreement is between Moses Lake School District and the construction company working on Vanguard Academy. The board awarded the $48.9 million contract during the April 8, 2021, meeting.  

The agreement was worked upon by the district, attorneys and the construction company. Then it was passed 4-1 by the board in 2021, but completion of the Vanguard campus has not been realized yet and the district is looking to resolve any outstanding work.

“Basically, what you have there is working through the process that we have to the steps we need to take in a contractual component,” Construction Consultant Brian Sewell of Palouse Hills Consulting said. “And the district is still within all the contractual targets of this project. There are some steps that we've outlined there where we can take a more aggressive approach if things aren't followed through, but we have all the articles of the contract still available to us.” 

The proposal’s first step is asking the MLSD board to pass a plan so subsequent steps can be continued. 

The second step will give Absher Construction a comprehensive completion list by Dec. 6. Then the week of Dec. 9, there will be a joint walk-through with MLSD and the construction company. By Jan. 6 the construction company is asked to address all items on the list.  

Sewell was called during the board meeting to discuss the contract with the board. When he was asked how the company had been handling its contractual performance, he said that would be a conversation for the executive session.  

“It's been a disappointment, obviously, with trying to get things accomplished and address some of the major concerns we have in this perimeter of stuff within the project and the operation of the facility,” Sewell said.  

MLSD will inform Absher by Jan. 22 whether they feel the contract has been met and if Absher's response to their concerns is unworkable. At that point, MLSD could elect to discontinue negotiations to reach contract completion with its contractor and look at alternative actions for satisfaction. 

If both parties agree to proceed with the previous step, there will be a meeting Jan. 28 to create a detailed schedule to complete the project.  

“We want to remind that it shouldn’t be considered an agreement,” MSLD Director of Public Relations Ryan Shannon said in an email to the Columbia Basin Herald. “The board approved a preliminary agreement that simply addresses next steps. It is not a final agreement. The district continues to deal within the contract structure.” 

State assessments

Superintendent Carol Lewis, who was appointed from her previous interim superintendent role at the last school board meeting, gave her superintendent report to the board, including data surrounding the state assessments, which had a positive increase this school year.  

“This is under the teaching and learning part state assessment data every year, students in grades three, four, five, six, seven, eight, 10 and 11 take some assessments that are state assessments, and so those are always a good benchmark, just to kind of see how are we doing as a whole as a school district,” Carol Lewis said. “They're not assessments that are necessarily meant to really get deep into how an individual student is doing, but it gives us a big picture of how the district is doing as a whole.” 

The percentage of students meeting college or career readiness standards increased from 2023 to 2024 in all three subjects — English language arts, math and science. 

English language arts saw an improvement of 0.6% increase from 2023 from 36.80% to 37.40%. Math has a larger increase of 1.6% with 2023 at 36.80% and 2024 at 29.80%. Science had the greatest increase improving from 24.90% to 34.90% from 2023 to 2024 — which is a 10% increase. 

“It's not great news because our scores, the amount of students that are meeting standard, are maybe a little lower than we would like it to be,” Lewis said. “But the good news is we're seeing some growth and improvement in how many students are meeting the standard.” 

There was also an improvement in student growth percentiles between 2023 and 2024 with English language arts and math. The growth percentiles represent students who showed improvement from last year to the current one. 

“Then we can also think about student growth, which I like to think of as a ladder,” Lewis said. “You have that high-tech bar that's fixed for everyone, and then you have more like a ladder when you think about growth, regardless of where somebody starts out, we always want to make sure that we're having a positive effect.” 

In English language arts there was an improvement from 42 in 2023 to 26 in 2024. Math saw a similar improvement from 46 to 50 between the two years.  

Snow removal 

The MLSD will do its own snow removal this year instead of contracting a service to save the district some money. The district rented snowplows, and the maintenance teams will oversee snow removal for the upcoming winter. However, because the maintenance team has never had to do a full snow removal, Lewis said schools will be closed for the first snowfall for the team to figure out the amount of time it will take.  

“At the first snowfall if it's significant and if it's on a school day, we will need to close school that day because we don't know how long it's going to take,” Lewis said. “I spoke with Rachel Shea, our head of maintenance, today, and she and her team are really committed to working out a plan, if at all possible, to make sure that we're not closing school and having half days whenever possible.” 

Payroll 

Lewis concluded her presentation with information on payroll finances and how much the district has saved in comparison between 2023 and 2024.  

“This is a sign of progress in our effort to reduce our expenditures in our school district, which we know we have to do, we are doing,” Lewis said. “I just wanted to start to do some comparisons month to month and so, the one that I have available today is payroll.” 

In September 2023, the district paid around $7.3 million for payroll and this year it was at almost $6.2 million which means the district has saved roughly $1.1 million in just the month of Sept. 

Overall, in 2023 the months of September, October and November the district paid nearly $23.4 million. For the same months in 2024, the district has paid almost $19.8 million. Therefore, the district has saved nearly $3.6 million this school year on payroll alone. 

    Moses Lake School District board met for its normal meeting Nov. 21. The board passed a proposed agreement for Absher construction regarding Vanguard Academy. During closing comments all of the board members wished the community a Happy Thanksgiving. From left to right is board member Amy Breitenstein, board member Carla Urias, board chair Kirryn Jensen, Superintendent Carol Lewis, board member Paul Hill and board member Ryan Coulston.