Battle Ground resident Rye Dilley shares thoughts about Battle Ground schools
Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are those of the author alone and do not reflect the editorial position of ClarkCountyToday.com
I have a question, what happens to a community when its schools fall apart? Right now we are at a crossroads. In just over a week, Battle Ground voters will make the final decision on if we are going to figure out the answer to that question, first-hand.
My name is Rye Dilley and I am a student at Tukes Valley Middle School. I am here this evening as a student, speaking in support of the EP&O levy. This address is for the community, for undecided and against voters who don’t understand how important this is. Because we are a future worth voting for.
What do I mean by this? The levy pays for what students like myself need daily. According to the proposed budget if the levy were to fail – slashes to safety, academic instruction, instructional support, student enrichment, and district operations are to total over 20 millions dollars going into next school year. We are looking at reductions in counselors, elimination of crossing guards, resource officers and middle school security guards — Reductions in teachers and AP courses, elimination of all teacher-librarians, the ASPIRE program, middle school sports, and the list goes on. With all this in mind, one cannot stand against this levy and still claim to have the best interests of the students at heart.
But it’s not just students affected, this involves you too. The whole community loses if the levy fails.
As best explained by a realtor from Ohio, a state with a near-identical school levy system.
Well-supported schools bring families into an area, reducing housing inventory and keeping prices up while stabilizing the local economy. On the contrary, underfunded schools drive away people interested in the area, reducing demand and increasing inventory – which drops property value and destabilizes the local economy. The TL;DR, your property is worth less, and the Battle Ground economy is less stable.
All for what? I understand people are struggling, and the idea of willingly accepting a new tax doesn’t resonate with people. Except this isn’t a new tax, the replacement levy is simply that, a replacement to an expiring levy you already approved in 2021. Even with the tax rate raising from $2.14 to $2.42 per 1,000 dollars of assessed property value, Battle Ground will still have the lowest of any K-12 school district in Clark County. That’s dollars behind the likes of Evergreen, Vancouver, Washougal, and Camas. Prices have raised for school districts too, We’re not asking for more, we’re asking to survive.
Need I stress this again, If this levy fails, it is the students – your children – who will suffer the most. If this motion fails, the next chance students may have to see levy dollars will be in late 2026. We can’t go through nearly two years of even more overcrowded classrooms, eliminated extracurriculars, reduced support services for those in need, and erased opportunities offered by other districts.
I am urging you to vote yes, to invest in the students as these are our schools. We are the future of this community and the future of this world. Need this be the last time we have to fight, and fight, and fight while sitting on the edge of our seats, waiting to see if the adults will decide to do what’s right. There are problems with the education system, and you can be upset with our district and our board. But you don’t fix a struggling system by starving it. Vote yes, and in the next school board election, vote for somebody who you think will make the best decisions for how the district should be run. Today is not the day to make a political statement, it’s the day to stand up and do what’s right for the students – the community, yourself, and the future.
Rye Dilley
Battle Ground
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