LONGVIEW — Shari Conditt’s AP Government class is the largest she has ever had. With 36 students in a classroom at Woodland High School meant to hold no more than 30, she has to rearrange seating and overhaul her teaching style to accommodate everyone.
Class sizes are just one of the reasons Woodland Public Schools administrators have put a levy on the ballot for the Feb. 13 special election.
“In a classroom that is all about discussion and engagement and participation, when we have large class sizes, I worry there is a detriment to the individual student because there are so many people in that space and the students are very polite,” she said. “They don’t want to trip on one another. They don’t want to jump in on each other’s conversations.”
Conditt is not the only teacher with unusually large classes this year — just one challenge facing the district after failures of educational programs and operations levy last February and April. The $3 million cut in funding resulted in staff losses, the elimination of middle school athletics and a number of other program cuts across the district.
“The impacts have been really very devastating to kids and their programs,” Woodland Superintendent Michael Green said.
Among the programs the district ended are an elementary school dual language program, and Early Start, a new program meant to help 4-year-olds prepare for kindergarten. Early Start was slated to expand to a second school during the 2023-24 school year.
More than 34 positions were cut and staff across the district saw hours cut.
The custodial staff is at about half its former size, Green said, and the reduced cleaning schedule has led some teachers to assist in cleaning classrooms. Fewer teachers and paraeducators are available, leading to large class sizes like Conditt’s.
Longtime athletic director Paul Huddleston left Woodland High School after his position was reduced to part time; the district didn’t hire a successor. Instead, the responsibility is being split by four current employees.
Additional budget cuts are expected for the 2024-25 school year. The district will lose access to emergency federal funds from the COVID-19 pandemic which it has been using to make up some of the budget deficit, Green said.
“If we have a second loss, it’ll be a ghost town around here,” Green said of the levy.
The new levy would be in effect 2025-2027, and has an estimated tax rate of $2.20 per $1,000 of assessed property value. The owner of a $400,000 home in the district would pay about $73 a month.
The 2024-25 school year will not be affected by whether or not the levy passes, because the funding needed to prevent those would have come from the 2023 levy.
What is basic education?
Schools in Washington operate on a combination of state and local funding. State funding is allocated based on factors such as the number of students in a district and is meant to cover basic education. Local funding, such as voter-approved levies, is meant to be used only for “enrichment purposes,” according to a bill passed in 2017 to help meet Washington’s requirement to fully fund basic education.
This was one of the arguments used by the committee campaigning against the levy last year in the February and April elections. Opponents said that the district should operate within its state-provided budget rather than ask taxpayers to pay for additional programs.
“Trimming the budget is common in the private sector and running a lean business equates to more profits,” opponent Donna Butler said in an email. “We hope the cuts would result in more focus on the basics, the three Rs and raised test scores, which is in the best interest of our students.”
While local funding is not intended to be required for schools to function, in practice almost every school district in Washington relies on levies, Green said.
Without the extracurricular activities and other programs paid for by Woodland’s levy, it’s difficult for it to compete against other districts in Clark and Cowlitz counties.
The lack of funding also creates an opportunity gap between children whose parents can afford to pay for activities outside school and those who can’t, he said. Athletic clubs, for example, often charge fees that a family living paycheck to paycheck would not be able to pay.
Historically, Woodland and other school districts in Cowlitz County have been supportive of levies, Green said.
Woodland’s double levy failure came as a surprise, and can be partially attributed to low voter turnout, Green said.
Voter turnout for the April attempt at passing the levy was just under 50 percent, according to Cowlitz County elections data— and it failed by only seven votes.
“People live under the idea that (their) vote doesn’t really count, but every vote does count,” Green said.
