Vol 48 Iss 1 Oct 22 2019
Alutant Student Newspaper from Ellensburg High School. October 22nd 2019
Alutant Student Newspaper from Ellensburg High School. October 22nd 2019
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Alutant <strong>Oct</strong>ober <strong>22</strong>, <strong>2019</strong><br />
3<br />
What’s Up With the New School?<br />
A<br />
Why A New Elementary School Isn’t The Right Solution<br />
Lucy Altman-Coe<br />
Copy Editor<br />
Editorial<br />
Recently, Ellensburg School<br />
District discovered that the 29-acre<br />
plot of land just North of Mount<br />
Stuart Elementary, purchased for<br />
$750,000 in 2018, will be unusable<br />
for building a new elementary<br />
school. The land has been reclassified<br />
by the Department of Ecology<br />
as a flood zone area, and unable<br />
to support the weight of a school.<br />
Their new plan? Divide the<br />
land that Mount Stuart sits on<br />
into areas for two, adjacent elementary<br />
schools built on land that<br />
won’t be able to keep kids safe.<br />
Overcrowding has been an<br />
issue in Ellensburg School District<br />
for many years. However,<br />
the solution that the<br />
school district proposes-<br />
the building<br />
of a new elementary<br />
school- may be<br />
faulty in and of itself.<br />
Currently, all elementary<br />
schools in<br />
Ellensburg School<br />
District funnel into<br />
Morgan Middle<br />
School, whose remodel<br />
was finished<br />
last year. Nearby<br />
Damman Elementary<br />
School doesn’t provide<br />
a middle school<br />
education beyond 6th<br />
grade, leaving previous<br />
Damman School<br />
students few options<br />
other than beginning<br />
attendance at Morgan.<br />
Morgan currently has about<br />
750 attending students spread over<br />
grades 6, 7, and 8. The school is allowed,<br />
by a 2017 bill, to reach 800<br />
students before the school district<br />
considers the school overcrowded.<br />
Many people already consider<br />
Ellensburg High School overcrowded;<br />
class sizes are rising above 30,<br />
lockers are unavailable to some students,<br />
and bustling hallways, akin<br />
to the times of eighth graders at<br />
the high school, are now the norm.<br />
Almost every single student<br />
from Morgan Middle School<br />
chooses to attend Ellensburg High<br />
School. In addition, students from<br />
Ellensburg Christian School often<br />
move to the high school after<br />
they complete the curriculum<br />
that only reaches 8th grade.<br />
Last year, Ellensburg High<br />
School’s student population was<br />
approaching 1,000 people. The<br />
school, whose construction began<br />
in 2003, is built to accommodate<br />
no more than 1,050 students.<br />
Therefore, building a new elementary<br />
school is not the most<br />
practical solution for Ellensburg<br />
School District’s growing population.<br />
A new elementary school<br />
may be able to accommodate more<br />
K-5 students, but provides no answer<br />
to the growing populations<br />
that will attend the already overcrowded<br />
Morgan Middle School<br />
and Ellensburg High School.<br />
Perhaps there are better<br />
ways that the school district<br />
could have spent that money<br />
than on unusable land.<br />
Lincoln Elementary, another district elementary school, is overflowing with students.
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