MOSES LAKE — The Summit - Moses Lake School District’s program for learners with special needs - has a new home.

“I’m so excited,” said Joy McClendon who runs the program prior to the move. “I mean, I have 14 students and 11 desks.”

McClendon, who helped launch the program in 2017, said the small office suite MLSD had been renting to host the program was large enough when The Summit first began, but with growth things have gotten a bit cramped. Further, with anticipated enrollment for the 2022-23 school year, she expects the original space just won’t work any longer.

“Next year, potentially right now, I have 27 signed up,” McClendon said. She expected that number to increase after an open house and summer enrollment occur.

MLSD COO Jeremy O’Neil said the district’s administration knew the growth of the program would force a move eventually and had begun looking for solutions. Almost directly across from the old location at 1409 S Pioneer Way in Moses Lake is the new location - 1328 East Hunter Place. The program will go from a small office space to about 2,000 square feet of the new location’s total of about 4,000 square feet, O’Neil said.

That added space is much appreciated, McClendon said. The old space lacked a kitchen, separate men's and women's restrooms - a one-toilet restroom was available immediately off the classroom which hampered privacy - and several other features. The new space will have a kitchen, separate toilet facilities and more classroom space.

The other half of the space will be taken up by the Open Doors program operated by MLSD, O’Niel said.

For The Summit’s purposes though, the 5-year, $4,800 a month lease will be a godsend, McClendon said. In addition to more space, the new location will have laundry facilities, a kitchen and other things to both increase students’ quality of life and help McClendon and her paraeducator partners provide more life skills training - the heart of The Summit program.

McClendon said the program focuses on 18-21-year-olds who have a variety of needs either because of intellectual or developmental disabilities or other special circumstances that make it difficult for them to find a path in life. Cooking, cleaning, gardening, basic job skills, budgeting and other skills help those young men and women move forward as adults, she said.

“The one thing we didn’t get was a shower,” McClendon said.

That one checkbox missed didn’t dampen hers or the students’ excitement for the new facility, she said. She said she feels the new space will be good for the program and keep her and her staff motivated as they work to help students improve their lives.

“(It’s that) social and emotional piece where we just talk about how to take care of ourselves and kind of that, hunker down feeling, where you’re empowering them and kind of pouring back into them,” McClendon said.

R. Hans Miller may be reached at [email protected].