The Battle Ground school board got a taste Monday night of possible options for shifting district boundaries to address overcrowded schools.
The Battle Ground Public Schools board of directors heard from the district’s Overcrowding Committee, a 29-member board of parents, community members and district staff that developed four proposals for boundary changes over the course of six weeks.
The district faces continued crowding at the Glenwood-Laurin and Pleasant Valley campuses toward the district’s suburban south end, and an electorate that has thus far been unwilling to support school construction bonds that would alleviate stretched schools.
“We recognize that boundary changes are hard,” Deputy Superintendent Denny Waters said, noting students, families and staff will likely feel frustrated on leaving their neighborhood schools.
Continued Waters, “We believe given the circumstances, however, changes need to be made.”
The school board could accept one of the Overcrowding Committee’s four proposals, or consider other alternatives. Here’s a summary of the options:
• Shift the Pleasant Valley and Glenwood-Laurin campuses, redistributing some of those students to the Tukes Valley, Daybreak and Maple Grove campuses.
• Convert the Maple Grove School to a kindergarten through fourth-grade campus, absorbing some of Glenwood Heights’ students to that campus. Fifth- through eighth-graders from Maple Grove would move to other schools.
• Redraw school boundaries at all primary and middle schools, redistributing kindergarten through eighth-grade students throughout the entire district.
• Shift students from Maple Grove School, the Daybreak campus and the Tukes Valley campus, and move students from a densely crowded southeast part of the district and send them to Maple Grove.
Growth at the district’s south end, particularly within the Glenwood-Laurin campus limits, is straining those schools beyond capacity. According to the school district, Glenwood Heights Primary School had 810 students effective Oct. 1, while Laurin Middle School had 690 students.
That’s 1,500 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 school board will discuss the proposed options at a Nov. 19 work session, then schedule community forums to collect more input. District leadership plans to make a decision before Jan. 20, the day kindergarten enrollment opens.
“We can have the decision made, we can inform parents, and we can look at the possibility of moving staff around,” Superintendent Mark Ross said.
Community feedback
Battle Ground this summer conducted a community survey, seeking feedback on how to address overcrowding and possible boundary changes in the district’s southern campuses. The results of the summer’s survey show clear frustration from families and community members, many of whom said the district needs to build additional schools.
“Build another school,” one survey taker wrote. “Overcrowding is only going to increase in the next few years. A temporary fix wouldn’t be a good choice. We need another choice.”
“Those who are opposed to the Bond are pretty adamant about their view,” wrote another. “We need to educate not only our children, but our communities, too.”
But Battle Ground Public Schools has tried, and failed, time and time again to run bond measures that would replace aging campuses and build a new school. Its latest attempt at the $224.9 million bond failed in April with 52.1 percent support.
Bonds require a 60 percent supermajority to pass, another point of contention among survey takers.
“Get rid of the supermajority requirement!” someone within the Laurin Middle School boundaries wrote. “This is the most ridiculous thing! Had it been a simple normal majority wins, we would not be in this discussion. Who can lobby the state to change?”
It would, as the survey taker suggests, take state intervention to overturn the supermajority requirement in the form of a constitutional amendment.
In its report to the district, the Overcrowding Committee noted the importance of passing a bond, saying the proposed recommendations could only be temporary given the expected growth in the district.
The group also recommended the district should run smaller bonds focused on specific projects as opposed to more significant project proposals.
“The committee recognizes that there is a significant population in the district that is averse to increased taxes, or that may not benefit from school improvements,” they wrote in the report. “Building relationships throughout the entire district will be necessary to pass a bond.”
