Preschool will be moved to Grand Coulee site

The Grand Coulee Dam School District's preschool will move to the old middle school this fall, following a decision made at the school board meeting Monday night.

"The elementary school needs the classroom for its growing early grades," according to Superintendent Paul Turner, who stated his concerns last Thursday.

Earlier plans had called for the preschool to be moved to the former science classroom at the old high school, but costs to remodel the space had made this impossible, Turner said. Moving to the former middle school in Grand Coulee will save the district thousands of dollars of renovation, Turner explained.

Turner, who was on vacation Monday, said last week that the preschool would be moved to the annex area at the former middle school, a space that won't need a major overhaul. The school board concurred Monday night.

The space occupied by the preschool this past school year at Lake Roosevelt Elementary will be taken by a class of lower-grade students.

At the same time Monday night, the school board voted to allow Turner to hire an elementary teacher if the state Legislature funds smaller classroom sizes for the lower grades to 17 students.

This past year the district had 32 preschool students in three different sections. One section had 11 preschoolers, another had eight and the third had 13, all taught by the same teacher.