MOSES LAKE — Opening day at Vicki Groff Elementary School found the place full of kids and teachers, as well as a few electricians and landscapers putting the final touches on the new school.

“There’s still some fine tuning that they are doing in some areas,” said Groff Elementary School Principal Nikki Mackey. “With COVID, there were some delays with some materials and things, but everything we know is safe for kids and we’re ready to go.”

And they came, kids and their parents, with a handful of adults standing to watch as children were lined up by classroom behind their teachers and readied for a new day at a new school.

“You’ve got to support your babies,” said Lacey Cox, a mother of five with two — a first-grader and a third-grader — at Groff Elementary this fall. “It’s a little scary on the first day. It’s a new school, but it’s still a little scary.”

Groff Elementary, named after Vicki Groff, who served 30 years on the Moses Lake School Board, is the first of two schools planned under the $135 million school construction bond passed by voters in February 2017.

The grand opening of the Moses Lake School District’s newest elementary school at 1501 S. Moses Lake Ave., built for a cost of roughly $18 million, was celebrated early Tuesday morning by members of the Moses Lake School Board, acting superintendent Carole Meyer, Mackey, and members of the Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce. Groff was not at the ribbon cutting.

Construction of Groff Elementary started in June 2020.

“We are excited and we are ready to open this building up to about 400 kids,” Mackey said in the run-up to the ribbon-cutting. “I hope everyone has an amazing first day of school!”

“Go Gators!” she added, referring to the school’s mascot.

School Board President Vickey Melcher said both the design and low cost of construction — the school is designed to fit on all existing MLSD elementary school sites when older schools need to be replaced — were both the result of the hard work of outgoing board member Elliott Goodrich and former superintendent Josh Meek.

“They helped make this day happen,” Melcher said.

In her prepared remarks at the ribbon cutting, Mackey said learning how to build a school from scratch “was a whole new adventure” for her and that she’s learned a lot about construction.

“We do school. We know what to do with school when the kids get here,” Mackey said. “It’s been an adventure walking into an empty building and making it a reality.”

Mackey

later told the Columbia Basin Herald that there’s “a different level of excitement” among families and teachers because “everyone’s excited to be at the new school.”

It’s a sentiment felt by kindergarten teacher Candace Pitts, who came to Groff from North Elementary School.

“It’s exciting,” she said as she stood in a brand new empty classroom. “This is a new building, new school, new students.”

As kids came in, teachers and aides greeted each child as “friend” and directed them to the cafeteria, where they could have breakfast or go out and play before line-up.

“I just want kids to feel welcome, like they know someone here,” said Samantha Frohning, who oversees the special education resource room at Groff. “I say friend to all of them. I want them to see me as their friend and support person when they’re at school.”

Mackey said the outdoor line-up, which took a little longer and was a little more chaotic than expected, was an important way to connect kids to their teachers.

“We really tried to get everybody to their teacher so that they would start learning their routines,” Mackey said. “Kids don’t want to be left out on their first day.”

“We make sure everybody is safe and where they need to be,” Mackey added.

The February 2017 bond originally called for a second, 1,600-student high school and an 11th elementary school. However, the school board changed the construction program after a lawsuit and a series of public hearings in late 2018 and early 2019 to build a smaller, 700-900 student high school and up to two new elementary schools.

Currently, however, the MLSD has no plans to build another elementary school.

But construction began earlier this summer on the new high school, which has not yet been formally named and has been referred to since the project was launched as “Real World Academy.”

That school is expected to open its doors in time for the 2022-23 school year.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.