MOSES LAKE - The Moses Lake School District recently completed site preparation work on 39 acres of district-owned property located along Yonezawa Boulevard.

The school district wants to have the land ready and available for future construction if a skill center is funded by the state, said Monte Redal, deputy superintendent, on Tuesday.

"There's no immediate plans to do anything," he commented. "We just wanted to be ready."

The skill center is not currently funded, he said.

The project is not listed in the governor's proposed capital budget.

The $22 million project was listed in the governor's proposed budget in 2009, but didn't receive funding, according to a 2009 Columbia Basin Herald article.

Skill centers are for high school juniors and seniors interested in the following programs: culinary arts, dental assisting, design and construction, manufacturing/welding tech, pre-engineering and pre-nursing.

Eleven school districts in the area signed on as participants.

Another possible use for the land would be a transportation building.

Even if the land was used for a skills center and transportation building, property would remain for a future high school expansion or branch campus, he explained.

The land must sit for six months so the soil can settle.