Mark Ross, superintendent of Battle Ground Public Schools, center, and others refresh screens to keep up with election results at a restaurant in Battle Ground on Tuesday night. (Natalie Behring for the Columbian) Photo Gallery
BATTLE GROUND — It’s another “no” from Battle Ground Public Schools voters as the district, for the third time since 2016, failed Tuesday to pick up enough votes to approve a school facilities bond.
First returns showed the $224.9 million bond measure failing with about 52.1 percent support, 7.9 percent below the 60 percent supermajority required to approve school bonds. Turnout hovered at 36.1 percent, though more ballots will be counted over the coming days.
The mood turned at once at Mill Creek Pub — where Battle Ground school officials were gathered to await the count — from nervous energy to sadness as the results were released.
Superintendent Mark Ross thanked staff and volunteers for their work pushing for the bond issue, which would have replaced the district’s overcrowded southern campuses and made other improvements districtwide.
“We need to just move on and do what we can to help the kids,” Ross told the crowd.
This is the third time since November 2016 the north Clark County school district has run a school facilities spending package, citing overcrowding at southern schools and aging facilities. In February, district voters gave 58.7 percent approval to the bond measure, just a couple of hundred votes short of the required supermajority.
“We’ve done this exactly the way we’re supposed to,” said Cathy Golik, co-chair of bond advocacy group Battle Ground Citizens for Better Schools. “Door to door, phone calls.”
Added Golik: “It’s just nuts.”
While other neighboring districts have passed bond measures in recent years, Battle Ground has consistently struggled to find similar support in the largely rural, north Clark County district. Voters rejected this same bond package in February, as well as an $80 million bond measure in 2016. By state law, school districts can run bond measures only twice in one year.
While still largely rural, the north Clark County district is swiftly becoming more suburban as housing developments and apartments come online in the district’s south end.
The Glenwood-Laurin campus has been particularly affected by that growth. As of March, Glenwood Heights Elementary School had 801 students, and Laurin Middle School had 706, according to the district. That’s a total of 1,507 students in a campus that was originally built to serve 1,084 students.
A district-commissioned report by E.D. Hovee & Co. Economic and Development Services suggests Glenwood Heights Primary could see an additional 378 to 445 students over the next decade, while Laurin Middle is expected to add 381 to 442 students in that same period.
The district will continue to add portable classrooms to some campuses, Ross said, but concern remains over how to provide students with adequate libraries, gymnasiums and other key facilities.
“The board will just have to make a decision about the short and long term,” he said.
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