Most of Pasco’s elementary schools short on space

The majority of Pasco’s elementary schools are holding more students than they are designed to, a consultant says.

Joe Clark, with MGT Consulting Group, presented the preliminary results of a survey of the district’s buildings during a recent board retreat.

The consulting firm is working on a 10- to 20-year facilities plan. After the district’s $69.5 million bond failed to garner enough votes to pass, officials are looking to the plan to shape what should be on the ballot in November.

An initial survey found most of the buildings are in good condition, but all but four of the elementary schools, one of the middle schools and Pasco and Chiawana high schools have more students than they should hold.

“There is no foregone conclusion here that this is going to be easy,” Clark said. “There are a variety of issues facing us that we’re going to further understand as we unpack this data.”

To determine how many students each building can hold, the consultants categorized the classrooms by how they are used. For instance, a high school classroom may normally hold 30 students, but the same-sized special education classroom may hold fewer.

The calculations are based on enrollment figures from 2015.

Portable classrooms were not considered in the capacity calculations, he said.

“When we put portables at a school, we don’t add bathrooms. We don’t increase the size of the cafeteria. We don’t add admin areas,” he said.

He cautioned the board that the numbers may seem simple, but capacity can be influenced by choices administrators make, as well as the number of students.

As an example, Curie and Franklin elementary schools have the same floor plan, but the consultants found Curie can hold 789 students and Franklin has space for 651.

Clark said numbers are likely going to change as they examine how the buildings are being used, but most of the crowding is likely due to having too many students in too small of an area.

The only elementary schools with populations not above their capacity are Curie, Longfellow, McClintock and Whittier, according to MGT’s preliminary results. The rest range from Franklin, at 113 percent of capacity, to Livingston, at 199 percent of capacity.

While McLoughlin Middle School holds roughly 200 more students than it is designed to, space is available at the other two middle schools.

Crowding at McLoughlin previously brought parents to school board meetings.

Board member Aaron Richardson questioned Clark’s figures concerning Ochoa and Stevens middle schools, both of which the initial results found are below capacity.

“Why do we have so many portables at Ochoa and Stevens?” Richardson asked. “That just makes no sense, so when we’re trying to portray this message to our community it’s extremely difficult to defend or back up our choices.”

Richardson said it’s important to ask about the experience of the students in the school.

School board President Scott Lehrman said the portables are at the schools because the middle schools used to house sixth graders.

“It wasn’t that the district just put portables there for fun. We were in a different situation,” he said.

The two high schools, Pasco and Chiawana, are each roughly at 130 percent of their capacity.

Community members can participate in the planning process by joining a work group, which will meet at least twice a month to help review the information from the board. The first meeting is planned for March 15 at 6 p.m.

To volunteer, call the district office at 509-543-6713.

This story was originally published March 4, 2017 at 8:09 PM with the headline "Most of Pasco’s elementary schools short on space."