Proposed Battle Ground school bond doesn’t address needs

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Battle Ground High School is overcrowded, under funded and the teacher-to-student ratio above what the teachers can provide as an excellent education.

At my daughter’s Parent Teacher night the other night I had teachers tell me due to their class sizes they cannot meet every student’s needs. They cannot answer student questions above three to five questions per class. 

In addition, due to no middle school sports, our athletes are not competitively skilled. Look at our volleyball teams this past fall season. Our JV team won only a game or two and were in no way even in the same skill set as their competing teams. After speaking to a few of the coaches I learned that our school board does not consider middle school after school sports as a needed expenditure, although statistically it’s proven that kids that are involved in after school activities remain engaged positively.

After reading that the Battle Ground school district has set forth a bond to go to ballet in February 2018, for one moment, I became excited to see that the school board heard the parents’ concerns. That was until I went on to read that no monies will go to building a new high school to educate the northbound children such as Amboy and Yacolt. Nowhere in the bond does it address the middle school need of after school sports.



However, anyone can see how many apartment building have been built in the past two years. How many houses have been crammed onto small lots. As a homeowner I am concerned. As a parent I am livid. In addition to all of this I read on the city of Battle Ground website this past month that the number of sworn police officers has declined by 28 percent over the past eight years.

How is it that I seem to be the only one to see that this combination is not good. We are lacking in basic needs. I will not vote yes for this bond. It in no way helps our current situation. It is not good enough. It’s time for us all to speak up about our needs as a community. We must be heard.