As Battle Ground Public Schools prepares to ask voters to approve a replacement educational programs and operations (EP&O) levy in November, Superintendent Shelly Whitten said district leaders have significantly reduced the request while trying to preserve the programs and services they consider essential to operating schools.
The district shortened the proposal from four years to three years and lowered the amount after months of community feedback, Whitten said during an interview with The Reflector on Wednesday, July 29.
"We reduced our ask a bit down to really just the things that we know we have to have moving forward," Whitten said. "We have selected a three-year versus a four-year. The rationale behind doing a three-year versus a four-year is we want the opportunity to put some things in place that align with our strategic plan."
The school district has made over $34 million in budget cuts the last two years. The district is trimming down to a request of $1.76 per $1,000 of assessed property value with Proposition 11. The previous levy run that failed in February was an ask of $1.99 per $1,000.
Whitten said district leaders also want to demonstrate accountability before returning to voters again.
"We want to be able to monitor those and report those out directly to our community, and then we want to be able to come back and say ‘here's what has happened with the money that you invested in the schools,’" she said. "We kind of see it as our opportunity to kind of prove what it is that we can do with the money that our community is investing in the schools."
The revised proposal follows months of listening sessions, surveys and community engagement as the district worked through deep budget reductions after previous levy failures.
"The listening sessions have been really powerful," Whitten said. "Using the balancing act and the thought exchange when we made our budget cuts have been very helpful to us. We intend to continue to use those types of formats to get feedback from the community."
According to Whitten, residents made it clear they wanted the district to preserve as many student opportunities as possible.
"It was clear to us still in June when we had the listening session that people didn't want us to completely annihilate programs that we could possibly save," she said.
The district does not plan to restore middle school athletics if the levy passes but could expand high school athletic offerings and continue exploring community partnerships to provide activities for younger students.
Whitten stressed that, despite the state's description of educational levies as enrichment funding, Battle Ground Public Schools now depend on local levy dollars to maintain basic operations.
"There really isn't a question," she said. "While the state still identifies levies as an enrichment levy, it's pretty clear that we have to lean into a levy in order to be solvent as a district."
She added that both the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction and the regional Educational Service District have acknowledged how lean the district already operates.
"What we put forward is really just the bare bones of being able to make sure that we're running our schools safely, that we have the curriculum that we need in order to support reading and math goals, that we can replace some of the things that are being impacted this year in our CTE programs," Whitten said.
Without additional funding, Whitten said families will begin seeing the effects of the district's budget reductions this school year.
"The big hits this year obviously are going to be felt in the classroom," she said. "I anticipate it will be more surprising to our community when there's certain courses that can't be offered, and they see how much we have to lean in for some of the student activities into parents to support some of those things."
Larger class sizes and reduced staffing will also affect how quickly parents receive responses from schools, she said.
"More students per class means that the teacher doesn't have as much time available to individual students, plus they don't have the ability to get back to parents as quickly," Whitten said. "That's going to be felt in the office staff, it's going to be felt at the principal, assistant principal level."
The district eliminated assistant principal positions but retained principals.
One area receiving temporary relief is school safety at Battle Ground High School.
Whitten said the district and the city of Battle Ground are finalizing a memorandum of understanding that would keep the school's resource officer in place if the levy passes. If voters reject the levy, the city would cover the full cost for one year instead of sharing expenses with the district, she said.
"We're hopeful that that will be able to give us some continuity of service," Whitten said.
Prairie High School took a different approach, choosing to preserve its school resource officer by making reductions elsewhere.
"They reduced a security officer," Whitten said. "Battle Ground couldn't do that because what happens at Battle Ground is when it hits lunchtime, kids go every direction. If you have less people to monitor that, we can't use an SRO for that. SROs, the scope of what they can do is way different than what a security officer can do."
Athletics have also undergone significant restructuring. Instead of individual athletic directors at each high school, the district now has one districtwide athletic director. Whitten acknowledged the workload will be substantial but said additional administrative support will be available.
Community donations have also helped soften some of the reductions.
Whitten said the nonprofit Foundry10 recently donated up to $31,000 to help cover facility rental costs for sports including bowling, golf, swimming and gymnastics.
"Word is getting out, which is really helpful, and certainly anybody who wants to help, we want to find a way to have them support our kids," she said.
Still, Whitten cautioned that charitable support cannot replace stable funding.
"It is a struggle because what a lot of times people forget is while there's the funding of the program that goes directly to that, there's still people that have to administer the program," she said.
Looking ahead to November, Whitten said the district has few remaining options if voters reject the levy again.
"I'll be real honest with you. I don't know what Battle Ground Public Schools looks like if the levy fails again," she said.
Whitten said district officials have already consulted with OSPI and the Educational Service District, but neither has identified meaningful additional reductions because the district already operates with minimal spending.
"It would probably mean that we would be not only going to financial oversight, but we might even be going directly into binding conditions," she said. "Certainly we would be in financial oversight at least in the year 27-28."
The district estimates the levy would cost about $95 per month for the owner of a home assessed at roughly $650,000, down from the previous proposal. Whitten said district officials are focusing on what taxpayers receive in return rather than emphasizing the levy rate.
"In our minds, the question is, what does that money pay for?" she said. "To me, that $100 a month essentially is paying for all of the services that people are going to be providing within our own community."
As the election approaches, Whitten encouraged residents to ask questions and seek information directly from the district.
"If there are any questions, just people to reach out, ask the questions, make sure that they have the information," she said. "We'll try and make sure that we're covering every question that we hear so that the information is available."
For more information on Proposition 11, visit battlegroundps.org/page/levy-faq.
