Latest news with #GroffElementary
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Groff litigation, improving finances addressed in MLSD board meeting
Apr. 4—MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake School Board met for a regular meeting April 3 and discussed litigation regarding Groff Elementary, adding public health information to the district website, protection of student information and heard a financial report from MLSD superintendent Carol Lewis. Groff Elementary The board unanimously approved resolution 2025-06 for MLSD to pursue legal action regarding the Groff Elementary school project against Fowler General Construction Inc. The resolution says the construction of Groff was not completed in accordance with the agreed project schedule including defects to the school's mechanical and electrical system, roofing system and stairs. MLSD Public Information Director Ryan Shannon said there will be further developments discussed during the press conference today in regard to the litigation. Public Health The board passed a resolution unanimously to update policy 4001 about community relations. The update will include public health information from the Department of Health regarding substance use trends, overdose symptoms and response, secure storage or prescriptions drugs and firearms. The district will keep the community informed on these topics and any other pressing public health topics. The district will post this information at least twice a year. Finances As of February 2025, the district had spent 46.16% of the budgeted expenditures, according to Lewis. In 2023 and 2024 it was 50.52% and 51.36%, respectively. "This is an awesome thing that expenditures are going down 5%, that is a big deal," Board Member Ryan Coulston said. By February in the past three years around $75,411,000, $78,310,000 and $62,610,000 had been spent, respectively. Revenues have remained pretty consistent throughout the past three years. Lewis also highlighted that travel costs are significantly less this year in comparison to previous years. This year as of February, the district has spent around $21,200. Last year, in the same time frame, the district spent around $237,900 and the year prior it had spent around $115,000. This is also the first year in the past three years where revenues have been over expenditures. In February 2025, the revenue is around $6.68 million over expenditures. In 2024, the expenditures were about $11.14 over revenue. In the year prior the expenses were around $9.53 million over the revenues. As of March, the actual fund balance is greater than the anticipated fund balance, according to Lewis's presentation. "We are very pleased that our fund balance is over $15 million right now," Lewis said. "The prediction was $5 million so we have done an amazing job, and we are getting closer to where we need to be." Student info The board unanimously adopted policy 3235, which ensures all negotiated contracts and online "terms of use" agreements align with the Student User Privacy in Education Rights Act.
Yahoo
07-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Groff Elem. to be closed remainder of school year
Mar. 7—MOSES LAKE — Groff Elementary will be closed for the remainder of the school year, according to Moses Lake School District Superintendent Carol Lewis at the March 6 regular school board meeting. "What has been done is lots of testing, lots of repairs," Lewis said. "We first have to figure out exactly what the problem is and then make the proper repairs to the building." Groff students have been attending classes from home all week after an electrical problem caused an unidentified person to be shocked on campus. The school was originally planned to be closed March 3 through March 7. "The staff at Groff was amazing. Robbie (Mason, executive director of secondary education) has been supporting them a ton, along with a lot of other people who are not in this room and in this room, and our kids at Groff have been learning from home," Lewis said. "The teachers have gotten materials for them, and that's going as well as could be expected." Students will continue to work from home until a plan is finalized to shift them into other MLSD campuses. Students will be kept in the same grade level and class as that plan is developed, according to Lewis. "Currently, the teachers are working to do remote learning with the kids," Lewis said. "Then plans are being made to relocate classrooms of teachers and students, intact, to other locations around the buildings." The district released a statement saying the details are being finalized with an eye toward transportation, staffing, classroom placements, support services and overall student well-being in mind. The district will have more details in coming days, staff said. Last April, a similar situation happened. MLSD Communications Director Ryan Shannon said the electrical problems are related to contractual issues the district has been working on with the Groff general contractor, Richland-based Fowler General Construction. The nearly $27 million school was paid for by a voter approved bond in 2017. The school opened in September 2021. "We have had some challenges at Groff elementary with an electrical issue, and people probably recall that we had a similar challenge last year, and some fixes were put in place, and it was believed that those were enough to prevent the issues from reoccurring," Lewis said during the meeting. "Well, recently, we had some electrical issues reoccur, and we needed to, for the safety of staff and students, close the building to try to do some more tests to try to figure out what's going on," Lewis said the announcement may be sudden and jarring; however, she thinks it's the most stable option for the students. "It's what we need to do in order to not go through a chaotic cycle that where we would say we'll open it and then we'll need to close it again, and potentially, if issues come about, we're just not certain enough about the safety of that building to have kids in there," Lewis said. "We need to get the construction folks in there to figure out what's going on and to be able to fix it adequately so that we can use the building as intended."
