Battle Ground Public Schools preparing for if bond measure fails again

As Battle Ground school administrators hope for the upcoming school bond measure to pass, they are also preparing for the possibility that it won’t.

Battle Ground Public Schools will host a work session today discussing its contingency plan should its upcoming $224.9 million bond measure fail for a second time. Chief among the school board’s ideas is redrawing school attendance boundaries, which could result in students being reassigned from their current school to another within the district.

District spokeswoman Rita Sanders said boundary decisions could influence staffing levels, and the district needs to plan for the logistics associated with possible changes.

“It’s getting really late in the year where we need to make decisions about what we’re going to do,” Sanders said. “We want to be prepared.”

In February, district voters gave 58.68 percent approval to the bond measure, just short of the required 60 percent supermajority.

The district, in its three recent bond campaigns, cites overcrowding at its southern campuses among the chief causes of concern for the district. The bond, if approved, would pay for the following projects:

• Replace Glenwood Heights Primary School, Laurin Middle School and Pleasant Valley Primary and Middle schools.

• Build a new primary and middle school campus at the southern end of the district.

• Develop an Alternative Learning Experience school — the district’s CAM Academy — on district-owned land.

• Replace some buildings at Prairie High School.

• Renovate one building and the gym at Amboy Middle School.

• Replace flooring and improve student recreation at some campuses.

• Improve technology access.

• Improve security and safety at all campuses.

The Pleasant Valley schools were built to accommodate 993 students, but as of May there were 1,135 between the two schools, according to the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Glenwood Heights Primary and Laurin Middle School, meanwhile, were built for up to 1,084 students. But their population in May was 1,387 students, according to OSPI. More growth is expected as housing developments are completed in the area, according to a report by Vancouver consultant group E.D. Hovee and Company.

Ballots were mailed to registered voters in the school district on Friday; the deadline to return them or mail them is April 24.

The last time Battle Ground Public Schools shifted attendance boundaries was for the 2012-2013 school year, when Maple Grove Primary School failed to meet federal reading test standards set by No Child Left Behind. The decision blended the primary and middle school campus into one K-8 school, and the district had to allow parents to send their children to neighborhood schools with better test scores. As a function, Tukes Valley Primary and Middle School’s boundaries changed to absorb some of that movement.

The district that year also shifted Glenwood-Laurin’s boundaries to alleviate overcrowding at the campus. Some students were redistricted to the Pleasant Valley Primary and Middle campus to the west.

The school board will meet for its work session at 5 p.m. at the Lewisville Campus at 406 NW Fifth Ave., Battle Ground. The meeting is only a discussion of possible changes, and board members will not vote on boundary changes tonight.

“They’re going to be prepared for both ‘what-ifs’: What if it passes and what if it doesn’t?” Sanders said. “We have to be prepared. It’s a situation we’re in.”