St. Rose Prep opens, and Ephrata Middle School gains eight part-time students
Updated
Hannah Pease organizers St. Rose Prep students in the school's new middle school classroom before their walk to EMS. Eight seventh graders make up the program's first class. Photos by Casey Devine
EPHRATA — At 12:50 each afternoon, eight seventh graders depart St. Rose of Lima Catholic School and walk several blocks down to Ephrata Middle School, where they take two periods of elective classes to end their day.
St. Rose Prep seventh graders Sawyer Hickok, left, and Lincoln Keenon arrive at Ephrata Middle School for afternoon electives.
They are the first class in St. Rose Preparatory, a new middle school program at the school. They are also the newest students in an arrangement Ephrata Middle School has been making for decades.
"We've always had kids at the middle school that come in a different way than 'inside the box,'" said Ephrata Middle School Principal Tina Mullings.
Some come only for sports. Some are homeschooled and want electives, others the core subjects instead. Some have medical concerns that keep them from being in the building full time. Each of these students registers like any other and builds a schedule around what the building has available and what works best for them.
Washington state law requires public school districts to enroll part-time students, including private school students taking courses their own school does not offer, and funds districts for the portion of the day those students are on campus. Two periods bring only a fraction of a full-time student's apportionment, Mullings said.
"Honestly, it's not the most advantageous funding position, but it's what's best for kids," she said.
Three years ago the Ephrata School District began a formal version of that idea for its own students. The Alternative Learning Experience program, or ALE, serves students who need to learn somewhere other than a classroom, often for medical reasons.
ALE enrolled 15 EMS students this fall, and no two schedules look alike. Some are fully online, taking up to six hour-long classes rather than the usual seven 45-minute periods in-person students take. Others spend some of the day in the building. All meet weekly with supervising teacher Ashley Hamlett, have their progress evaluated monthly, and come to campus for state testing.
St. Rose had been looking for that same flexibility, and had been trying for years.
The St. Rose seventh graders are not part of ALE program, but the Hamlett also serves as their adviser at the middle school.
Adding a middle school had been a goal for more than a decade, said Principal Amy Krautscheid, and earlier attempts had gone nowhere.
St. Rose Prep seventh graders search for current events articles during class. From left are Cason Ahmann, Kai Thompson, George Gruver and Hayden Hubbard.
"We researched adding a middle school in the past," Krautscheid said. "Each time, roadblocks seemed to stop our efforts. When we looked at adding middle school this year, doors opened in every direction."
A committee worked through the details over the 2025-26 school year. Krautscheid said she took the question to Ephrata School District Superintendent Ken Murray. Could St. Rose students move into Ephrata High School without losing ground?
That conversation pointed toward the hybrid arrangement the school settled on, and Krautscheid and Mullings coordinated on a schedule that would work for both.
What the school wanted was more years with its students. Until this fall, St. Rose ended at sixth grade, and families moved on just as their children reached adolescence.
"We send them away at their most formative early teenage years, when choices begin to matter long term," Krautscheid said.
She said the program lets the school offer a Christ-centered school day through the middle school years.
Knowing the St. Rose students were coming, Ephrata Middle School factored in the arrival as part of its master schedule to open seats in the last two elective periods. Robotics moved from morning to afternoon, and the high school prep elective class was split into a morning and an afternoon section.
At St. Rose, the seventh graders split their learning between two teachers. Stephanie Moore covers math and science. New teacher Hannah Pease, who has taught for 10 years and holds a master's degree in curriculum and instruction, teaches English language arts, history and religion.
Running shoes and a backpack sit ready in a St. Rose Preparatory School classroom. The seventh grader they belong to leaves at 12:50 for electives at Ephrata Middle School, where he also runs cross country.
Coursework at St. Rose still must satisfy state requirements. Washington state history, taught by Pease, is a graduation requirement.
The middle school classes meet in a modular building on the St. Rose campus that was refurbished over the summer almost entirely on donated labor and materials. A dedication ceremony was held this spring.
A parent who owns 17 Home Services offered to paint it, Krautscheid said, and Sherwin-Williams discounted the paint. Another parent, the owner of State Seamless Gutters, donated gutters and his time, then found Nova Roofing, which donated a new roof. Tommer Construction donated landscaping rock. St. Rose parent Eric Perez brought equipment to level the ground, along with topsoil and bricks for flower beds.
St. Rose of Lima Catholic School students and staff gather around a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary during the groundbreaking for the school's new prayer garden March 27, 2026. Plans for the garden include Stations of the Cross, an altar and an outdoor space for weddings.
The Columbia Basin Conservation District designed the desert landscaping through its Heritage Garden program, an anonymous donor paid for the plants, and a grandmother in the WSU Master Gardener program tends them. Maintenance worker Jaime Garcia handled the rest.
St. Rose plans to hire a second teacher and open eighth grade in fall 2027, but the school has no plans to go beyond eighth grade.
"We have a great high school in Ephrata," Krautscheid said, "and plan to continue to be part of the Ephrata school family."
From left, Rev. Cesar Izquierdo; Amy Krautscheid, St. Rose of Lima Catholic School Principal; Yakima Bishop Joseph Tyson; and the Rev. Ruben Meléndrez attended the dedication of a new middle school building on March 27, 2026. The modular structure was refurbished over the year on donated labor and materials from St. Rose families and local businesses.
When asked why the district goes to such effort for part-time students, Mullings said the alternative is losing students entirely. Families who needed something the middle school did not offer used to leave for online programs run from somewhere else, and did not come back.
"We all know research says that the best thing for kids is to be in the building and with their peers, not looking at a computer all the time," Mullings said. The goal, she said, is always to get them back there.
"We try to meet them where they're at, at the same time keeping their learning rigorous and having them be prepared for the future and ready for high school," she said.
"It would be easy for the St. Rose kids, if we didn't have a connection for them, to just come from their electives and leave and not really feel like they were part of the school," Mullings said. "But that's not ever my intention."
The eight from St. Rose are down the hill for two periods a day. Mullings counts them anyway.
"To us, they're still ours," she said. "Whether they're here for two classes or a whole day."
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St. Rose Prep opens, and Ephrata Middle School gains eight part-time students
EPHRATA — At 12:50 each afternoon, eight seventh graders depart St. Rose of Lima Catholic School and walk several blocks down to Ephrata Middle School, where they take two periods of elective classes to end their day.
They are the first class in St. Rose Preparatory, a new middle school program at the school. They are also the newest students in an arrangement Ephrata Middle School has been making for decades.
"We've always had kids at the middle school that come in a different way than 'inside the box,'" said Ephrata Middle School Principal Tina Mullings.
Some come only for sports. Some are homeschooled and want electives, others the core subjects instead. Some have medical concerns that keep them from being in the building full time. Each of these students registers like any other and builds a schedule around what the building has available and what works best for them.
Washington state law requires public school districts to enroll part-time students, including private school students taking courses their own school does not offer, and funds districts for the portion of the day those students are on campus. Two periods bring only a fraction of a full-time student's apportionment, Mullings said.
"Honestly, it's not the most advantageous funding position, but it's what's best for kids," she said.
Three years ago the Ephrata School District began a formal version of that idea for its own students. The Alternative Learning Experience program, or ALE, serves students who need to learn somewhere other than a classroom, often for medical reasons.
ALE enrolled 15 EMS students this fall, and no two schedules look alike. Some are fully online, taking up to six hour-long classes rather than the usual seven 45-minute periods in-person students take. Others spend some of the day in the building. All meet weekly with supervising teacher Ashley Hamlett, have their progress evaluated monthly, and come to campus for state testing.
St. Rose had been looking for that same flexibility, and had been trying for years.
The St. Rose seventh graders are not part of ALE program, but the Hamlett also serves as their adviser at the middle school.
Adding a middle school had been a goal for more than a decade, said Principal Amy Krautscheid, and earlier attempts had gone nowhere.
"We researched adding a middle school in the past," Krautscheid said. "Each time, roadblocks seemed to stop our efforts. When we looked at adding middle school this year, doors opened in every direction."
A committee worked through the details over the 2025-26 school year. Krautscheid said she took the question to Ephrata School District Superintendent Ken Murray. Could St. Rose students move into Ephrata High School without losing ground?
That conversation pointed toward the hybrid arrangement the school settled on, and Krautscheid and Mullings coordinated on a schedule that would work for both.
What the school wanted was more years with its students. Until this fall, St. Rose ended at sixth grade, and families moved on just as their children reached adolescence.
"We send them away at their most formative early teenage years, when choices begin to matter long term," Krautscheid said.
She said the program lets the school offer a Christ-centered school day through the middle school years.
Knowing the St. Rose students were coming, Ephrata Middle School factored in the arrival as part of its master schedule to open seats in the last two elective periods. Robotics moved from morning to afternoon, and the high school prep elective class was split into a morning and an afternoon section.
At St. Rose, the seventh graders split their learning between two teachers. Stephanie Moore covers math and science. New teacher Hannah Pease, who has taught for 10 years and holds a master's degree in curriculum and instruction, teaches English language arts, history and religion.
Coursework at St. Rose still must satisfy state requirements. Washington state history, taught by Pease, is a graduation requirement.
The middle school classes meet in a modular building on the St. Rose campus that was refurbished over the summer almost entirely on donated labor and materials. A dedication ceremony was held this spring.
A parent who owns 17 Home Services offered to paint it, Krautscheid said, and Sherwin-Williams discounted the paint. Another parent, the owner of State Seamless Gutters, donated gutters and his time, then found Nova Roofing, which donated a new roof. Tommer Construction donated landscaping rock. St. Rose parent Eric Perez brought equipment to level the ground, along with topsoil and bricks for flower beds.
The Columbia Basin Conservation District designed the desert landscaping through its Heritage Garden program, an anonymous donor paid for the plants, and a grandmother in the WSU Master Gardener program tends them. Maintenance worker Jaime Garcia handled the rest.
St. Rose plans to hire a second teacher and open eighth grade in fall 2027, but the school has no plans to go beyond eighth grade.
"We have a great high school in Ephrata," Krautscheid said, "and plan to continue to be part of the Ephrata school family."
When asked why the district goes to such effort for part-time students, Mullings said the alternative is losing students entirely. Families who needed something the middle school did not offer used to leave for online programs run from somewhere else, and did not come back.
"We all know research says that the best thing for kids is to be in the building and with their peers, not looking at a computer all the time," Mullings said. The goal, she said, is always to get them back there.
"We try to meet them where they're at, at the same time keeping their learning rigorous and having them be prepared for the future and ready for high school," she said.
"It would be easy for the St. Rose kids, if we didn't have a connection for them, to just come from their electives and leave and not really feel like they were part of the school," Mullings said. "But that's not ever my intention."
The eight from St. Rose are down the hill for two periods a day. Mullings counts them anyway.
"To us, they're still ours," she said. "Whether they're here for two classes or a whole day."