Latest news with #MidwayElementary
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Website launched for Moses Lake seal coat project
May 2—MOSES LAKE — Moses Lake city officials have started a website with information on a proposed chip seal project that could mean major changes to West Third, West Fourth and West Fifth avenues downtown, along with East Wheeler Road and East Hill Avenue. Levi Bisnett, city design engineer, said the website includes a timeline and a page of frequently asked questions. The website is Moses Lake/Downtown Chip Seal & Restriping Project — 2025. (Link: Bisnett said that most people who have seen the plan so far have liked it, but that most of the respondents have been business owners or people who live in nearby neighborhoods. Planners would like to hear from more residents. "We know people drive in Moses Lake. We'd like to hear their opinions," he said. Jeff Holm, design engineer of the city of Moses Lake, said contractors are scheduled to start work in mid-July. Bisnett said the goal is to have as much of the chip-sealing done around Frontier Middle School and the access roads to Midway Elementary before the 2025-26 school year starts. "The contractor will select streets strategically," Bisnett said. Total project cost is about $1.2 million, with $1 million of that from the state Transportation Improvement Board, Holm said. Seal coating is planned for sections of West Third, Fourth and Fifth avenues, as well as the cross streets from Holly to Chestnut. West Ivy Avenue is not part of the project. East Hill Avenue from State Route 17 to South Division Street get a seal coat also. So will East Wheeler Road from Pioneer Way to State Route 17 and from SR 17 to Road N Northeast. The option under consideration would convert West Third, West Fourth and West Fifth Avenues from two lanes in each direction to one lane in each direction. A left turn lane would be added, with bike lanes along some sections. Bisnett said reconfiguring to one lane in each direction would reduce the possibility of traffic crashes and make those streets safer for pedestrians. "Four lanes have relatively higher crash rates," he said. One lane in each direction also makes it easier for drivers to see pedestrians, he said. Angled parking would be added in some sections, such as West Fourth Avenue around McCosh Park. Not only is the Surf 'n Slide water park a popular summer destination, but there a lot of activities in the park, from summer concerts to the Moses Lake Farmers Market. "We're trying to increase parking around Surf 'n Slide and some of those other destinations," Bisnett said. Additional parking spaces would also come in handy during events at Lions Field, he said, and downtown business owner have asked for more parking. East Wheeler Road between Pioneer Way and SR 17 would be converted to one lane in each direction, a left turn lane and bike lanes in each direction. East of SR 17, East Wheeler would have one lane in each direction, a left turn lane and wider shoulders to Road N Northeast. Whatever the road configuration, a roundabout will be installed at East Wheeler and Road L Northeast. Known as a "modular compact roundabout," the structure can be installed on top of the existing asphalt, Holm said in an earlier interview. That's funded separately from the chip sealing, with a total cost of about $465,000. It will be built to allow easier left turns for trucks. "Basically, smooth and steady (traffic flow) is what we're trying to get with the roundabout," Bisnett said. Hill Street would also be reconfigured to one lane each way and a left turn lane. City engineers will update Moses Lake City Council members at the May 13 meeting and have a study session with the council May 22. Some parts of the proposal, like adding angled parking, would have to be approved by the council, Bisnett said.
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Shreveport students learn about international cultures during school festival
SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS)—Midway Elementary School is bringing the world to its campus with a unique celebration of diversity in its first-ever food and culture festival. Students get the chance to experience different countries through food, music, and traditions. 'Jamaica and we have Japan, Italy, Palestine, Nigeria, England,' said Lashonda Diouf, Principal at Midway Elementary. Midway Elementary is transforming during its food and culture festival, during which grades pre-K through 5th selected a different country to study and present. 'So we just wanted to introduce kids to different cultures around the world. We know a lot of people don't get to travel or haven't traveled yet, so we decided to bring different countries to the children.' Midway 4th-grade math teacher Darius Swift said. More Education News 'Japan taught me that Super Mario Bros. first originated in Japan, and the famous dragon is also known in Japan,' said 5th grader Ariana Bell. Students get a world tour while sharing knowledge they've acquired with family and friends. 'It's important for them to learn about different cultures, about the foods that they eat, about their traditions, the clothes that they wear, because if they can understand different cultures, then they may want to experience them, and then they can educate others. President of Delta-Sigma Theta Shreveport Alumni Chapter, Brittany Bass-Arvi, said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
MLSD board determines no civil rights infringement
Feb. 26—MOSES LAKE — In the Feb. 20 meeting of the Moses Lake School Board, the issue of equity in physical education resurfaced, spurred by a civil rights complaint submitted by Larry Dagnon, a teacher at North Elementary which he presented at the previous Feb. 6 meeting. The complaint claims the district has disproportionately impacted minority students with reduced physical education resources. "I cannot stress to you enough the impact that the discrimination has on the kids," Dagnon said. "They are sad; they want things to go back to normal. When I was listening to the student representatives hearing kids want school to go back to normal ... What gets kids to school? PE is one of the big ones." School board member Ryan Coulston made a motion saying no civil right violations have taken place. School board vice-chair Carla Urias seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously by the board. During the Feb. 6 board meeting, Dagnon presented his concerns regarding the allocation of physical education teachers across the district's 11 elementary schools. According to previous meetings from the Moses Lake School District, Garden Heights Elementary, Lakeview Elementary, Larson Heights Elementary and North Elementary all receive one 30-minute period once a week for physical education. Other schools are on a weekly ABC rotation, meaning they have gym every third day, resulting in some weeks where students get PE once a week and some weeks they get it twice a week. Groff Elementary has PE once or twice a week for either 30 or 35 minutes. Longview Elementary gets one or two 40-minute gym sessions. Park Orchard Elementary and Peninsula Elementary get one or two 30-minute sessions a week. Sage Point Elementary gets one to two 40-to-45-minute sessions a week. Knolls Vista Elementary gets two physical education periods weekly for 30 minutes. Then, Midway Elementary gets two or three sessions of 35 minutes each, depending on the semester. According to RCW 28A.230.040, students in elementary schools must receive at least 100 minutes of physical education every week. However, right now, the only school within MLSD that is fulfilling that requirement is Midway Elementary for one of its two semesters. With budget cuts caused by the district's recent financial crisis, there are only seven full-time elementary school physical education teachers. Four of the elementary schools share two PE teachers. Garden Heights and Lakeview share a teacher. North Elementary and Larson Height Elementary share another teacher. "What that looks like right now is in our school, you could have as many as 35 minutes a week, but a lot of the time it's zero minutes," Dagnon said during the Feb. 6 meeting. "My own classroom has only had it once a month where they've had PE. You're supposed to have 100 minutes per week." He said students in schools with mostly-minority populations are the ones most affected by the situation, causing unfair treatment of those students. Those campuses include North and Larson Heights which have a high percentage of minority students. Dagnon accused the school district of using misleading data to downplay the issue, saying the district's response failed to accurately reflect the racial composition and needs of the affected schools. He said the district presented percentages of minority populations at various schools without giving a complete picture of how these populations are impacted by reduced programming. "When I got a response from the district, you had pulled up the percentage of minority population for the entire schools of the elementaries," Dagnon said. "That doesn't show in an honest way really what's happening." In response to the complaint, Michelle Musso, the district's HR director and civil rights coordinator, expressed appreciation for Dagnon's concerns but defended the district's actions. "I also want to state that as a district we have repeatedly said we understand that reduced PE programming is not equitable across schools. We are clear and we know that," Musso said. However, she maintained that the data analysis concluded no formal discrimination occurred. "White students are receiving 81,812 minutes of PE programming per year, and minority students are receiving 79,799 minutes... The difference of 13 minutes annually is not significant and does not indicate discrimination," she said. A critical point of contention was the methodology used to measure the impact of the cuts. Dagnon said that the analysis overlooked the realities faced by students in schools with significant minority populations. He said a redistribution model could more equitably allocate PE resources based on need, arguing that "this is discrimination, and there's no other way to look at it." During the meeting, board members sought clarity on the factors influencing the district's decision to limit PE resources at certain schools. MLSD Superintendent Carol Lewis said the decisions were made based on a combination of school size, available resources and staff availability. "We had to allocate the resources as best we could... The decision was made to keep full-time counselors at all of those schools," Lewis said, indicating that resource distribution was complicated by budgetary constraints. She also noted that if counselors had been let go to keep PE teachers, the conversation would be about a lack of counsellors instead. During the Feb. 20 board meeting, community members expressed concerns about access to PE or lack thereof. Andrea Carrillo, a parent health advocate, said, "Denying equitable access to PE is yet another example of how our most vulnerable students are left behind." Guadalupe Collazo, another community member, echoed similar sentiments, highlighting that existing disparities reflect a broader inequity in the district's treatment of minority students. When asked whether changing the current scheduling to address these inequities would be feasible mid-year, principals expressed concern over the potential impacts on other programs and services, especially for students with disabilities. "Changing the schedule in March changes life skills schedules... It would change literally every teacher's schedule," explained one principal during the meeting, stressing the logistical challenges that such a move could entail. As of now, according to MLSD Director of Public Relations Ryan Shannon, the district has passed the resolution saying no civil rights violations have taken place with no planned action in the future. However, Shannon said that if those who filed the specific civil rights complaint wish to continue, they could bring the cause directly to the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction for further investigation. Shannon said he is unaware of that action taking place. "In some schools, they have more, in some schools, they have less, and we have presented that extensively to the board," Lewis said. "We've talked about it quite a lot, and that's one of the very first things that we want to fix if we have levy money and even if we don't have levy money, we need to even it out across our district. ... We know we will do that going forward into the next school year, one way or another." PE time by campus: Amount of physical education time each school receives weekly according to MLSD: Washington State Requirement: 100 to 150 minutes Garden Heights Elementary: 30 minutes Groff Elementary: 30 to 70 minutes Knolls Vista Elementary: 60 minutes Lakeview Elementary: 30 minutes Larson Heights Elementary: 30 minutes Longview Elementary: 40 to 80 minutes Midway Elementary: 70 to 105 minutes North Elementary: 30 minutes Park Orchard Elementary: 35 to 70 minutes Peninsula Elementary: 30 to 60 minutes Sage Point Elementary: 40 to 90 minutes
