MOSES LAKE – Members of the Moses Lake Educators Alliance, Wenatchee School District employees and residents picketed before Thursday evening’s school board meeting. The group of over 200 chanted down Yonezawa Boulevard, in front of CB Tech, asking for the reinstatement of an additional 30 minutes of instructional time in elementary schools and calling for a fair contract.  

“We want the district and the school board to restore the elementary schedule and also to finalize our negotiations for the association's collective bargaining agreement,” MLEA President Heather Whittall said in an interview with the Columbia Basin Herald.  

The protest was part of the teachers' union, also known as MLEA, negotiating a new contract with the Moses Lake School District. Teachers and community members have been asking for an additional 30 minutes of instructional time, restoration or establishment of state-standard physical education times and other program restorations after the district's recent financial crisis. District officials have said the timing is too soon to implement those measures, though they are planned for next school year. After a budget crisis caused by accounting errors was discovered, MLSD's reserve funding was completely eliminated. While some of that has been restored, it has not been recharged enough to warrant a return to normal spending. The district's Reserve Fund needs to be reestablished sufficiently to handle payroll, emergencies and cash flow management first.

After lining the street, the group, adorned with red shirts and signs saying “fair contract now” and “MLSD restore elementary programs,” walked down the sidewalks to the MLSD transportation building, where school board meetings are held. The group circled the sidewalk.  

“We worked hard to get the levy passed, and we were told the programs were coming back, and we still don't have the programs back,” Whittall said. “We are really concerned about the lack of time in the daily elementary schedule for our youngest, most vulnerable learners. That is really a compounding thing, not just last year 90 hours, but now again, this year.”  

Whittall said she would like the district to tap into its reserves to bring back the thirty minutes.  

“When we see that their reserves are very healthy and it's feasible to spend the money, it should be the priority,” Whittall said. “We just want to encourage them to make the right choice. Make students the priority.” 

The rally lasted for around an hour, with shadows of protesters seen through the windows at the beginning of the meeting. A handful came inside with two speaking during public comment. 

Public comment 

Shannon Hyer, a parent of three students at Groff Elementary, said she has been both impressed and disappointed with the cuts the district has had to make because of the budget. 

“These kids are more than numbers on a spreadsheet, or a statistic on a graph, they are our community's future doctors, lawyers, farmers, teachers and business owners,” Hyer said. “They are our future, and they are the future of our community, and they deserve to be invested in.”  

Hyer said that with the district cutting elementary time, it is jeopardizing the students' chances to be successful. 

Larry Ledeboer, a grandfather of two MLSD students, said he believes students need music, physical education and a librarian at each school. He also asked for the board to restore the full instruction time, adding back the 30 minutes in the morning, for the elementary students.

District response 

Superintendent Carol Lewis began her board presentation by talking about the four ideologies she follows and encourages her staff to follow as well. This includes telling the truth, working hard at the job you signed up for, owning mistakes and taking responsibility for them and keeping your promises. With that, maintaining the planned budget for the current school year and reintroducing the items requested by educators and the community is slated for next school year.

Lewis explained she had promised the public they would do zero-based budgeting, which means the district will only spend what it has and account for everything.  

“The financial crisis that we were in,” Lewis said. “We're coming out of it, but we're still coming out of it. We are not, we're not out of it yet, and so we always knew it was going to take two years. So, the fund balance is there to ensure that cash flow needs are met.”  

She said if the district were to reinstate the 30 minutes to elementary schedules, it would have to do so with around $2 to $3 million from the reserve fund balance.  

“If we added our elementary schedule without any concessions, then it would cause us to overspend our projected revenue,” Lewis said. “I want everybody to know that we want to add to our elementary programming, and we will add to our elementary programming. We have always been planning on doing that next school year, which is now just a few short months away.”  

She has also previously said that maintaining an appropriate fund balance is vital for ensuring payroll is met, emergency funding is available and cash flows are maintained to support district operations.

Lewis reiterated that the district will be adding the 30 minutes back to the schedule in the 2026-27 school year. She also explained that the district held a survey asking the community where they would like to see levy funds used last year, in the questionnaire, only one person mentioned elementary start times.  

“I want to acknowledge that, but we also want to acknowledge that we knew that the no levy would be a two-year problem,” Lewis said. “If the board would choose to say, ’Hey, yeah, we're going to spend some fund balance on this.’ It would just move the problem down the road, and then we have to take some of that levy money that we get in 26-27 and put it back into the fund balance. So those are kind of some of our reasons for needing to continue to take it slow.”  

    Moses Lake School District Superintendent Carol Lewis said it is not feasible to bring back the elementary start time this year without tapping into the district’s reserves. She said she promised the district would do a zero-based budgeting system where it did not spend more than it was bringing in.
  

    People, adorned in red, came to CB Tech to protest the ongoing contract negotiation, asking for elementary start times to return to 9 a.m. instead of 9:30 a.m.
  

    Moses Lake Educators Association Heather Whittall addresses the crowd before walking out to Yonezawa Boulevard and looping up to the Moses Lake School District transportation building.