With another round of deep budget reductions ahead, Battle Ground Public Schools invited the community to weigh in on what should be protected for students.
The district hosted the first of two listening sessions Wednesday, March 4, at Battle Ground High School, asking parents, students and residents to help prioritize programs and services as officials prepare to cut roughly $20 million from next year’s budget.
More than 100 people filled the school’s library for the meeting, where district leaders explained the financial situation and gathered feedback from attendees. Community members later broke into small groups at tables around the room to discuss what programs, services or outcomes should be preserved.
The input will be shared with the district’s board of directors as it works toward approving reductions by April 27.
The district’s financial strain follows the failure of a replacement education programs and operations levy. After voters rejected the levy last year, the district cut $13 million, eliminating all middle school sports and coaching positions, free school supplies for primary grades, Kindergarten Jump Start, instructional coaches and teacher librarians. The district also reduced crossing guard shifts, nursing and mental health roles, consolidated bus routes, delayed curriculum purchases and scaled back the ASPIRE magnet program by removing its third-grade cohort.
District leaders must now identify another $20 million in reductions following a third levy failure last February. The district will have one more opportunity to place a levy before voters later this year, though waiting until November could still mean some reductions affect the start of the 2026-27 school year.
About 85% of the district’s budget is tied to staffing, with the remainder covering operations. Battle Ground Public Schools operates 19 schools and serves roughly 13,000 students. Between 2021 and 2025, district leaders say they faced a $66.72 million gap between state funding and the actual costs of services such as safety, substitute coverage, special education, sports and other extracurricular programs.
Washington Association of School Administrators Executive Director Jeff Snell, who has served as superintendent for local school districts in Southwest Washington, opened the meeting and outlined the goal of the evening.
“I wish it was under different circumstances but still there's something to be in space with each other, to get to learn from each other's perspectives and kind of hear about what people's priorities are moving forward,” he said.
Snell said the evening would focus primarily on listening, with the district gathering community feedback to help inform the board’s decisions.
Superintendent Shelly Whitten then walked attendees through the district’s financial outlook, including the impact of state funding gaps and mandates that districts must meet without full funding.
“This is a huge unfunded mandate or a state gap across every single school district across the state of Washington,” she said.
Whitten noted that districts must still fund services such as special education, safety requirements and extracurricular programs even when the state does not fully cover those costs. Readers can find a previous article about state-unfunded mandates the district faces at shorturl.at/FQzxh.
Community discussions focus on budget priorities
Following the presentations, attendees spent time in table discussions with district facilitators who recorded feedback. Participants were asked a central question: “Given that the district must reduce its budget by about $20 million, which programs, services or outcomes are most essential to protect for students?”
The room was filled with small-group conversations as parents, students and community members weighed tradeoffs and shared concerns about how cuts could affect students.
One of the attendees, Rye Dilley, a seventh grader at Tukes Valley Middle School, said reductions to support staff would directly affect student safety and well-being.
“Literally today, while I was getting on the bus to go home, there was a fight and, already with the new staff, our assistant principal was the one who broke it up and the teachers were the ones who … deal with the impact of it,” Dilley said. “We're not going to have the same level of assistant principals this year. We already know that about seven positions are currently gone and with security guards also on the line, as well as nurses and counselors, as a student, those are our main support.”
Dilley added those roles are often the first place students turn when they need help.
“And so my biggest concern is already with the reductions that we've seen, if I need something, there are four people I go to: an assistant principal, a counselor, a nurse, or a security guard all 4 of those are gone,” Dilley said. “We have 500 students at Tukes. We have one principal and an assistant principal who might be splitting K-8. Then that's gonna be a huge worry because what if I am sick or I need mental health support or I need physical support, but also 20 other students who are given priority? This isn't just numbers on a spreadsheet. This is really a human issue, and in the end, we're still gonna hurt because of this.”
After the discussions, district leaders shared some of the themes they heard while moving between tables. Chief Financial Officer Michelle Scott said many participants emphasized safety, class sizes and key student supports.
“Also, nurses who are really important, we have a lot of students with a lot of those who are medically fragile, have a lot of needs, and those needs have been growing… for nurses and nursing support, so again, part of our ‘safe and caring environment’ (priority),” she said.
Whitten added that many attendees emphasized maintaining programs that keep students engaged and on track for life after high school.
“Class size, of course, I heard quite a bit about that and individual programs that are keeping students engaged in school, heard that over and over and over again, followed up by the comment, ‘Is it possible if those things do need to be impacted, if they could be reduced instead of eliminated?’” she said.
“I heard multiple times people say that they were just really concerned that if certain programs were impacted it could impact students' ability to graduate and be ready for whatever their next step was, and I think that's a huge worry for all of us is that any time that you cut anything that is supporting students in their next step, that means that if they can't get it here they, one may look elsewhere, or two, they may not have it,” she added.
Online tools allow community to test budget choices
District leaders also introduced ways residents can provide feedback online.
One tool, called “A Balancing Act,” allows users to simulate budget decisions and see how reductions affect different parts of the district’s finances. The tool shows which areas can be adjusted and which are locked due to legal or contractual requirements.
For example, transportation costs totaling about $15.3 million cannot be reduced overall because they are part of a contracted service. However, users can explore smaller reductions within that category, such as eliminating roughly $25,000 by cutting athletic and activity bus routes and shifting transportation responsibility to families.
Other areas are fully locked. Nutrition services, which cost about $5.1 million, and special education, totaling about $38.7 million, cannot be reduced because they are driven by state requirements and student needs.
In total, more than $204 million of the district’s budget cannot be adjusted due to state or federally required restrictions.
The district can also draw up to $4 million from its fund balance reserves under board policy, which requires maintaining a minimum reserve between 4% and 6% of expenditures. Using $4 million would bring the district’s fund balance to roughly 4%.
Revenue increases are also limited. The district could double preschool tuition and fees, increasing revenue by about $161,050. Raising community education fees by up to 20 percent could increase revenue from $536,000 to $572,000. Facility rental fees could increase revenue from $100,000 to $120,000. Even combined, those changes would generate only about $217,050, a small fraction of the $20 million gap.
Community members can also provide direct feedback through an online ThoughtExchange survey answering the same question discussed during the meeting: “Given that the district must reduce its budget by about $20 million, which programs, services or outcomes are most essential to protect for students?”
Both tools are available on the district’s website at battlegroundps.org/o/bgps/page/budget-cuts.
Residents have until March 18 to submit online feedback. The second in-person listening session is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 11, at Prairie High School.
