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District says levy failure would force $20 million in cuts, 213 positions at risk
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Summary
Superintendent briefed the board that the district has identified about $20 million in reductions it would need to implement if the April levy fails, listing program and staff reductions that would affect nearly every department and services to students.
Superintendent Shelley Whitten told the Battle Ground School Board on March 10 that the district has prepared a package of potential cuts totaling about $20 million if voters do not approve the district’s replacement levy in the April 22 election.
Whitten said the district has identified roughly 78 line-item reductions affecting 213 positions. “We are looking at the elimination of middle school sports, reductions to high school C teams, elimination of most security at middle schools, the loss of teacher librarians, instructional coaches, district teachers on special assignment and significant reductions in custodial, transportation and technology services,” the superintendent told the board. The district also plans to pause curriculum adoptions, cut building and department budgets by 25%, eliminate kindergarten jump-start, and remove district-funded crossing guards and several behavioral-support positions.
School officials said many of the line items are funded entirely by the levy and that personnel make up about 85% of the district’s budget; reducing services therefore translates into displacing positions across the district. The district described the interplay of seniority and staffing: cutting experienced staff typically displaces lower‑seniority employees, requiring deeper cuts to achieve budget targets.
Whitten said the district has compiled the list now so it can meet statutory and contractual deadlines if the levy fails. She told the board that if the levy is re-run and fails in April, state rules would prevent the district from running another replacement levy until February 2026; because levies are collected on a calendar-year basis, that gap would leave the district without levy revenue for two calendar years and could require similar cuts during the following year.
District staff described outreach plans: administrators said they would inform affected employees before public disclosure and would visit schools in the next two weeks to minimize surprises. Officials named specific programs, including Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs), Registered Behavior Technicians (RBTs), school-based SEL para support, LPN nursing staff, associate principals and several central-office directors as among positions that could be reduced or eliminated.
The board did not take any formal vote on the levy during the March 10 meeting; Whitten said the district hopes the levy will pass and that these steps would not be necessary if voters approve the replacement measure.
