The Battle Ground Public Schools district already has a looming Education Programs & Operations (EP&O) levy proposal that has been turned down by voters multiple times, and now, adding unfunded and underfunded mandates courtesy of the state legislature jams up the budget even more.
If a levy passes, or fails, no matter what, those state mandates of annual costs, one-time costs and major capital obligations will cloud over any school district in the Evergreen State. According to LegiScan, in the Washington State Legislature for 2025-2026 to date, proposed bills for just about anything have reached 3,157, with 563 having been completed. Compared to a neighboring state like Idaho, 1,385 bills were introduced in 2025, with 337 signed into law, according to an end-of-2025 session report from the Idaho Legislature.
Battle Ground Public Schools Superintendent Shelly Whitten mentioned a statistic that the Washington Business Association relayed to the school district regarding the impact of state legislation.
“If you take all 50 states and you add up all of the legislation in those areas in employment and labor laws, you divide it by 50, the average is 6,900 labor and employment regulations across the states,” Whitten said. “In the state of Washington, we have 46,000 regulations in just labor and employment. So in our state, we love to make new rules and new laws. And what that does to government and the way schools run and the government agencies and city agencies, what that does is when you have more and more regulation, sometimes those things fight against each other and they cause issues within your ability to implement things.”
Whitten painted the picture of the struggles with the state legislature as a school district, especially one currently without an EP&O levy.
“Every legislative session, it seems like we get a new mandate of some kind,” Whitten said. “And when new mandates come in, what we realize is that those things are going to impact us. They're either going to impact us directly in money that we need to spend, either because they’re unfunded or underfunded, or they’re going to impact us in time, and time for us is also money. But people don’t often realize that.”
While being without a levy supporting the costs of education and programs that go unfunded by the state, the school district made $20 million in cuts, but were ultimately able to bring back around $6 million in funds tied mainly to safety and security by dipping into one-time use savings. The ability to do that again would be heavily limited if the Feb. 10 levy proposal is once again checked “No” by voters.
The large school district in Clark County currently operates 19 schools, educating 13,000 students. From 2021-2025, the school district had a funding gap of $66.72 million between state funding and the cost to operate safety and security, substitute requirements, special education, sports and other extracurricular activities.
The district asked voters to approve a levy at $1.95 per $1,000 of assessed property value, but it was rejected twice. An EP&O levy began at $1.99 in 2022 and has expired at a rate of $1.68 in 2025. The next year will see no EP&O levy rate charges on assessed property values after the double levy failure.
The district will seek an initial estimated rate of $1.99 for a replacement levy that would begin collecting in 2027 and run through 2030, though actual rates could be lower, as they are affected by the amount of new construction within district boundaries. By law, the district can’t collect more than the amount voters approve, even if property values increase, according to the district website.
Taking away funds the school district could use for staff, security, sports, and other programs that improve student life is an unfunded mandate. When stacking up annual costs, one-time startup costs and the Clean Buildings Act, an estimated one-year total for the Battle Ground Public Schools district to spend reaches $17.30 to $29.68 million.
Whitten provided an example of an unfunded mandate for which the school district is on the hook for $2 million.
“House Bill 1248, which is about benefits for contracted bus service, which we have contracted bus service,” she said. “We’re in an open contract and the open contract will require us to pay for the benefits for those employees. Well, in that bill, it basically says that the state will send the apportionment to pay for it, and it’ll just basically be a pass-through. OK, we had no issue. We didn’t fight against that because they said they were going to fund it and we said, ‘OK, if you think that’s what’s best, then go for it.’”
Despite the bill language, Whitten illustrated the “however” moment for the school district.
“What happened is they didn’t apportion the money, and so we are still legally on the hook to pay that $2 million,” she added. “They’re not sending us the money for it, and the only way for us to make that up is with levy dollars. And so that’s a $2 million hit that we learned about this fall after we had our budget adopted.”
The list of unfunded or underfunded mandates has grown to more than 20 for the Battle Ground Public Schools district. The levy that was once on a ballot as a renewal item to a prior one that voters approved has been designed to assist in funding the operations that the state does not fully cover.
Without an EP&O levy, the district would have to divert career and technical education (CTE) dollars to cover basic education costs, Whitten said. In 2024, voters approved a three-year capital levy that, among other things, funded a new construction trades building on the Battle Ground High School campus. Currently, design and planning phases are underway for the project. But if the school district were to divert CTE dollars, there would be no staff for the classes slated to occur in the new building.
Whitten said the school district and school board is actively working with local legislators to see what can be done to ease the burden of unfunded and underfunded mandates.
In preparation for the school district’s worst-case scenario, Whitten said they have identified about $12 million in cuts if voters turn down this levy proposal.
“Many of those things are awful,” she said. “There are things that will transform what education looks like for our students.”
If the Feb. 10 levy proposal does not pass, Whitten said the school district would not go for a levy bid in April, but instead would play their hand in the November election. If February’s run does not pass, the district will have to identify the cuts necessary for the 2027 year, Whitten said. She added that if a November run were to pass after those budget cuts were made, then the district and school board would craft a budget once the levy is implemented in April of 2027, which is the same timeline if the February bid is approved by voters.
Whitten said the district may still have to make a few additional cuts due to unfunded mandates, noting that roughly 20 new mandates hit school districts each year.
Battle Ground Public Schools Communications Manager Amanda Richter added that with mail-in voting this time around, it is important to mail ballots a week prior to the Feb. 10 date due to postal changes. If it is not mailed a week before election day, Richter, relaying information from the Secretary of State’s office, said it is recommended to drop off the ballot in a ballot dropbox.
For more information on the school levy, visit battlegroundps.org/page/educational-levy.
