Just like that, Clark County’s shortened summer vacation is coming to a close. It’s back to class for local students, as most schools across the area reopen next week.
The Ridgefield School District will be the first to welcome back students this school year, as students in first though seventh grades and ninth-graders will start classes Tuesday. That day is also Assurance Day at View Ridge Middle School and Freshman Camp at Ridgefield High School, where seventh-graders and ninth-graders will be welcomed to their respective new schools while learning tips for success at the middle and high school levels. Eighth-graders and students in grades 10-12 will start school on Wednesday, while kindergarten students start Friday.
Wednesday will be the first day of classes for students in Clark County’s largest districts — Evergreen, Vancouver and Battle Ground — as well as in the La Center School District and the Green Mountain School District.
Evergreen Public Schools will continue its later start time announced last year. Families with new kindergartners in Evergreen elementary schools should check with their child’s school about start times, according to the district website.
Both Battle Ground and Evergreen districts will welcome new superintendents — Mark Ross and John Steach, respectively — in addition to their new students.
The rest of the small city school districts all return after Labor Day. The first day of school for the Camas School District and Woodland Public Schools will be Sept. 5.
The two latest starting school districts this year, Hockinson School District and Washougal School District, will both open new schools.
Hockinson, which starts on Sept. 6, will open a replacement Hockinson Middle School at the start of the school year. The $27.3 middle school project was funded mostly from the district’s $39.9 million bond that voters approved in February 2015, with the state adding $7.7 million in capital construction money. The new middle school will feature updated science labs, enhanced technology, spaces for career and technical programs and improved parking and student drop-off/pick-up areas.
Washougal, where classes start Sept. 7, will see a new K-8 campus featuring the new Columbia River Gorge Elementary School and a replacement Jemtegaard Middle School. The $47 million campus was part of a $57.7 million capital improvement bond Washougal voters passed in 2015. To accommodate students at the new 550-student elementary school and 600-student middle school, the district had to redraw boundaries and change start times and bus routes heading into this school year.
