Battle Ground Public Schools will welcome its students back on Aug. 31 amidst a slew of new changes expected for the school year.
BGPS Superintendent Denny Waters is ready to welcome the kids back and start anew after recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This time of year is always exciting,” Waters said last week. “There’s a lot of things going on right now, very busy, but we’re excited to welcome staff back next week and then the following week to get kids back.”
Waters said this will be “our first year in a while” where everyone comes back with “a focus really on the work that we signed up for.”
“The last two years, having to deal with the pandemic and COVID and everything that came with that made it very difficult, and now we get to refocus. That’s probably the biggest positive,” he said.
One of the changes to come is that the district will use its Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, or ESSER funds, to hire new security at the middle schools. The district also plans to expand its social-emotional learning rooms into the primary schools. The rooms were used exclusively in the middle and high schools prior to that. CAM Academy will also settle into its new home on the Lewisville Campus at Battle Ground High School.
Through collaboration with parents, staff, and the broader community, Waters said the district will unveil a new strategic plan which will address “high-quality instruction, a safe and caring environment for students, and good partnerships and relationships with parents and the community.”
Besides that, middle school sports will expand this year as well.
“We’ve been without (middle school sports) for many, many, many years, 40 years I believe,” Waters said. “So last year, we restarted it in the middle of the year because we were waiting for the levy results. This year, we’re going full-steam ahead and adding new sports like volleyball and track, so we’re really excited about that as well.”
Waters is excited to expand the sports, as he said the schools had “great success” last year. The district received “tremendous feedback” from students, parents, and staff on the return of sports, he said.
Waters recently attended a new educator orientation, where the district hired 80 new certificated staff that include teachers, counselors, psychologists, speech-language pathologists, and occupational therapists.
“We’ve got a lot of new staff coming in. That’s different from during the pandemic (when) we were able to hire maybe 15 or 20 new employees versus this year, we hired 80,” Waters said.
For kids who fell behind during the pandemic, he said the district has resources in place that focus on instructional strategies that will reach kids efficiently. He said they now have extra supports in place. Those include graduation coaches at the high schools, online learning to help students make up their credits, and extra counselors at the district’s larger campuses to support the academic end of the kids’ social-emotional needs.
“We continue to work through that. We know that’s probably going to be something we are dealing with for a few more years,” he said.
He noted summer school programs were also extended for the new year.
In addition to BGPS, the Ridgefield and La Center school districts will welcome students back on Aug. 31, while Woodland Public Schools will start its school year on Aug. 30.
