Discussions to replace Battle Ground Public Schools’ oldest buildings are back on the table, years after the district unsuccessfully tried to pass a construction bond.
During an April 24 work session, members of the BGPS Board of Directors heard from district Superintendent Denny Waters about the potential of running another bond measure.
Bond and building history
The last time the district successfully passed a construction bond was in 2005. The $55 million bond allowed for the construction of seven schools in the district, Waters said.
More recently, BGPS had three unsuccessful attempts at passing a bond. In November 2016, a bond measure received about 55.4% of the vote, while in February 2018, a $220 million bond garnered about 58.7% approval, coming within 200 votes short of passing the measure, which requires a 60% supermajority approval, Waters said.
Two months later, a second attempt at the bond garnered about 53.9% in favor of the measure.
“That was a clear indication that we had given it the good college try and we weren’t going to get it passed,” Waters said.
He referred to a “facilities improvement team” formed before the 2016 bond that put together a document assessing capital needs. The team recommended a number of building replacements, including Glenwood Heights Primary School, Laurin Middle School, Pleasant Valley primary and middle schools, Prairie High School’s 500 through 900 buildings, and the district’s operations building.
The recommendations largely focused on aging buildings. Built in 1956, Glenwood Heights is the oldest building in the district, Waters said.
Laurin Middle School was built in the late 1960s and the Pleasant Valley campus was constructed in the 1970s. Battle Ground High School is also an older building, though it underwent a significant renovation in the 1990s, Waters said.
Waters noted the district operations building replacement is already in the works. He added the improvement team’s initial work shows more growth in the district than what was experienced in the intervening years.
“At the time … the word was that we were going to grow significantly. As it turned out, most of that growth stayed toward the Ridgefield side,” Waters said.
More recently, the district formed a “citizens advisory committee” to address building needs.
The committee prioritized Laurin as the top building for replacement. Even though it is newer than Glenwood Heights, its design merited being placed on the list, Waters said.
Beyond those two buildings, replacement of the Pleasant Valley campus is next, Waters said. The committee had other suggestions, but they could end up costing the district a prohibitively expensive half a billion dollars.
Bond support and concerns
David Lindner, one of the citizens advisory committee leaders, said during a meeting of the committee, free from influence of district administration, 19 out of 20 members believed BGPS should run a bond measure.
Waters also relayed the support of Battle Ground Citizens for Better Schools, the campaign committee for BGPS-related ballot measures, for running a bond.
The replacement of buildings would allow for greater capacity. Based on a recently-completed enrollment study, BGPS is expected to grow from 12,235 students this year to 14,467 in the 2032-33 school year, a roughly 18% increase.
“That is significant and we have to be prepared for that,” Waters said.
That growth will be specific to age group and geographic location, he said.
“We’re talking about a lot of growth in the southern end of the district and we’re talking about a lot of growth in the primary school groupings,” Waters said.
Waters said he often hears from residents of the northern reaches of the district who have advocated for a high school in that area. Based on where the district population is projected to grow, and what cohort of that population is growing age-wise, it doesn’t make sense, he said.
“Not for the long term, not for at least 10 years, probably more like 15 to 20 years, there is no need for an additional high school in Battle Ground Public Schools, because we have plenty of room at Prairie High School and we have plenty of room at Battle Ground High School,” Waters said.
Acknowledging those improvements would be focused on the south end of the district, Waters said the citizens committee members from the north end are still in support of a bond, if the district prioritizes what it would be funding.
“They’d rather see what we need versus what we want,” Waters said.
Though there’s support for a bond, the superintendent noted a ballot measure would have to win over district voters.
In a public perception poll conducted by the district, responses were split about evenly on whether or not the district needed additional funding for capital needs, Waters said. In order for a successful bond, the district would need a 60% supermajority, meaning public perception would need to change more in favor of the measure.
The poll also showed more than half of those who participated felt taxes are too high. Nearly two thirds of the respondents were in favor of remodeling or renovating aging schools as opposed to full replacements of the buildings
Although tax sensitivity and general controversy about public schools nationwide will be factors in a bond’s success, Waters noted rising construction costs also play into the timing of running a bond.
“Nothing is getting cheaper, nor will it get cheaper,” Waters said.
The cost could be higher than what district property owners are already paying. The district’s current bond for 44 cents per $1,000 of assessed value will sunset at the end of the year, Waters said.
Replacement of the four schools as proposed would require a bond in the $248 million range, Waters said. That would translate to about 70 cents per $1,000, Waters said.
Waters proposed bringing the formal question of running a bond to the board’s last meeting in May. That way, the district’s bond committee could start activating its efforts this summer.
Apart from construction costs affecting the timing, when a bond runs also plays into its success. If the district ran a bond in 2024, it would have to come back to renew its levy the following year, Waters noted.
“The problem we have is there’s never going to be a good time,” Waters said.
