Battle Ground Public Schools residents will be voting on a capital levy on their special election ballots at the end of the month.
If approved, the school levy will follow a bond that ended in 2023. The previous rate of $0.44 per $1,000 assessed property value will remain the same for property owners, however. The proposed levy will last three years, beginning in 2025.
“Families’ budgets are a little bit tighter. If we were to go for a bond, we’re looking at $330 million to replace four schools,” Battle Ground Superintendent Denny Waters said. “And that burden on our taxpayers is probably more than we want to do right now, and so this is a way for us to operate, safe, warm and dry.”
The plans include every school in Battle Ground Public Schools receiving repairs and updates. Many of the school properties in need of repairs and upgrades are almost or already over half a century old.
“For a lack of a better analogy, we are driving around with the 2004 car. When you reach a certain age, you just start to have more and more issues in the buildings,” Waters said. “We are committed to keeping our kids and our staff safe, warm, and dry, and that’s what this levy would allow us to do.”
Levy projects
The majority of projects listed in the levy are needs, not wants, Waters said. District-wide needs that would be addressed are secure entries, lighting upgrades, network infrastructure upgrades, enhanced security systems and classroom technology replacements. Most building roofs need to be recoated. A few need new heating and cooling roof units.
A few projects included in the plan would also benefit the community. The district wants to expand and enhance career and technical education programs at both Prairie and Battle Ground high schools. If the levy is approved, both schools would receive commercial-grade kitchens for a restaurant feel in culinary classes and upgrades to the health sciences spaces at both schools. The district would also like to build a new construction trades building at Battle Ground High School as the students currently work on their projects in a fenced area of parking lot with two construction containers serving as storage.
“The CTE programs that we chose were strategic,” Waters said. “If you look at Clark County and their economic website, the three major job areas in the county right now are construction trades, food service and health services.”
The culinary programs at both high schools are currently operating out of old classrooms where the environment does not compare at all to commercial kitchen atmospheres.
“We need to upgrade our kitchens for our culinary programs because, right now, they are operating out of our old home-ec rooms,” Waters said. “And what we found is that puts our students at a major disadvantage when they go out for jobs because they don’t have any familiarity with a commercial kitchen and the equipment that’s in a commercial kitchen.”
What’s at stake
If voters do not approve the levy, the district would not be able to implement those plans, including the planned upgrades for student programs.
“So if the levy is turned down, then we’re not going to be able to do all of those projects, and that’s easy to say up front, right,” Waters said, adding that isn’t the entire story. “Obviously if our levy doesn’t pass, but then the HVAC system at one of our schools goes out, you can’t say, ‘Well, sorry, the levy didn’t pass, we’re not going to do that project.’ So what you have to do is find the money somewhere else. And when you find the money somewhere else, there’s not an infinite amount of money. You have a budget.”
Some projects, like replacing an HVAC system or a cooling tower are costly — upwards of $800,000 — and other programs and staffing could be impacted as the district searches for emergency project funding.
The Battle Ground Public Schools capital levy — Proposition No. 7 — will appear on the Feb. 13 special election ballot. The district will host an informational presentation from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 25 at the Lewisville Campus in room C-26, 406 NW Fifth Ave. in Battle Ground. For more information, including a complete list of projects by school included in levy plans, visit bat tlegroundps.org/capital-levy/.
