It’s with full credit and appreciation to Bob Dylan for his 1964 song with the same title that I point out these thoughts on the Battle Ground School District – “The times they are a changin.’’’
On Thursday evening, the Battle Ground Education Association (BGEA) announced that its membership had voted not to participate in the one-day walkout planned for May 13 to protest the Washington State Legislature’s failure to fulfill its promise to make adequate progress toward funding public education as outlined in its response to the 2012 Washington State Supreme Court McCleary decision.
It’s my hope members of the Battle Ground community take a moment to grasp the context in which this collective decision was made as well as its considerable significance.
I applaud the nearly-800 members of the BGEA for their decision, which took a significant amount of courage. I also applaud the teachers from the La Center and Ridgefield school districts who also decided not to participate in the walkout. I am continually impressed by the quality of those two districts and the education they provide to their communities.
Teachers from the Evergreen, Camas and Washougal school districts recently voted to join more than 20 other school districts around the state to conduct the one-day walkout. That is considerable pressure for the teachers in a district the size of Battle Ground to join in the demonstration.
And, it also needs to be noted that teachers are fighting mad at the legislators in this state right now, and with good reason. I know this column will likely evoke some dissenting opinions, but it’s pretty clear to me that the educators have been handed more than enough reasons to want to send a statement to Olympia.
Remember, it was the legislature who responded to the Supreme Court with its own plan to respond to the McCleary Decision and the lawmakers’ own timeline was to fully fund education by 2017. It’s now 2015, and they haven’t made adequate progress and their failure to get anything done during the recently-completed legislative session was further proof of that.
“The legislature did not make adequate progress in the last several years,’’ said Mark Hottowe, superintendent of Battle Ground Public Schools. “In fact, the slope to full funding has been nearly flat. Where we needed billions (of dollars), they barely gave millions.
“I think one can understand why not only the Battle Ground Education Association but other associations in other cities and folks like me, as a superintendent of schools, also share a fairly emotional response for the lack of adequate movement by the legislature,’’ Hottowe said. “We’re tired of the political rhetoric, excuses and other reasons they’ve given for not doing the work they defined for the (Washington State) Supreme Court in their response to the McCleary Decision.’’
In order to express more emotion than he did, Hottowe would have had to violently break something in my presence when he expressed to me his support for his district’s teachers, and educators in general, and also his frustrations with Washington’s lawmakers.
Hottowe, in his first year as superintendent of Battle Ground Public Schools, expressed a different kind of emotion when he received the news that the members of the BGEA had voted not to walk out on May 13. Hottowe said when he got off the phone after getting the news, he actually shed a few tears of joy and appreciation.
“I had talked with several of the (BGEA) leaders last week when they told me they had made the decision to take the issue to a vote,’’ Hottowe said. “They asked me for my endorsement. I told them I couldn’t endorse or approve a walkout because of the impact it would have on our community. They understood what that impact would be.
“They said they respected my views and would make sure my opinion as to why this would not be a good idea was expressed (to the membership) so this would be a fair conversation,’’ Hottowe said. “While I held out hope that they would see the wisdom in not going along, I knew they would be under great pressure to participate in this event because many of the districts in southwest Washington were participating.
“When I found out the vote last night, I was affirmed in our belief that our teachers will always do the right thing even when it is challenging or difficult in the face of pressure from other groups and people,’’ Hottowe said. “I’m very thankful they understand we are not the communities that surround us. The Battle Ground community is unique.’’
I’m not going to go into detail about how sharp of a contrast between the current culture that exists in the Battle Ground School District and the one that existed just two or three years ago. If you don’t know the sordid details of the past, or weren’t paying attention, be thankful. I will spare you at this time.
The bottom line is this. There is considerable evidence that the leadership change that has taken place in the Battle Ground Public Schools has been a remarkably positive one and that is just one of the many positive changes taking place in the district. I believe that is one of the key reasons why the members of the BGEA made the courageous decision that they made and I applaud them for that decision.
Ken Vance
Editor
