Schools

Battle Ground School District News and Schmooze

Submitted by Candid Eye of C... on Fri, 2010-03-12 10:45

Above: Cullen Swatosh (R) and Kody Erspamer from Battle Ground High School, students of Jim Drake, won top honors at “Skills USA” regional competition at Clark College, on Feb. 12, 2010. They will attend the state competition in Yakima, Wash., next month.

A recently released Battle Ground Public Schools’ quarterly report to district residents includes a Q&A about district finances, a story and photos about a couple of multitasking kindergarten teachers, a calendar of major public events in our schools between now and the end of the school year and a message by new School Board President Steve Pagel.

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Teachers do make a difference-let's "Award" them

Submitted by Candid Eye of C... on Wed, 2010-03-10 10:27

Battle Ground School District wants teachers who make a difference

The public and district employees are invited to nominate district teachers or other personnel who have made a substantial difference in the lives of students or in the lives of others. All district employees are eligible to be nominated for the annual “Teachers Make a difference” Awards.

What makes a good teacher?

The best teachers are the ones who teach to the whole child. Their vision of education is not limited to the tangibles of academic achievement but encompasses daily doses of compassion, flexibility, communication, humor, imagination, and the willingness to be open minded. Most importantly, a good teacher is someone who uses both his head and her heart in equal measure throughout the school day. Compassion is in understanding that a student may be frustrated, angry or just unable to focus on the academics at hand.

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Voters approve Vancouver school levy

Submitted by KATU Communitie... on Wed, 2010-02-10 13:44

If it’s not a record in the state of Washington, it’s got to be close.

Voters in Clark County have approved a maintenance and operations levy for Vancouver Public Schools for every year since 1964 and on Feb. 9, the latest school levy appears to have been passed by Clark County residents.

This levy will provide local support for basic education and services for the years 2011, 2012, and 2013. That will make 50 years of continuous support for Vancouver Public Schools.

According to preliminary results, the news was good for Clark County schools. The replacement levy was overwhelmingly approved, with 68 percent voting to approve in the first results released at 8:10 p.m. Feb. 9. In Washington, ballots may be postmarked as late as Election Day or ballots may be dropped off until 8 p.m. on Election Day, so some ballots still need to be tallied.

Check out the unofficial results.

Final election results will be certified by Feb.

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Battle Ground School District Passes Levy

Submitted by Candid Eye of C... on Wed, 2010-02-10 09:14

Battle Ground SD levy passes with 51.94

Bria thanks voters, lays plans for advisory panel

Battle Ground School District levy was described as “historic,” by Superintendent Shonny Bria. She thanked voters, employees and volunteers who worked for the levy and for the 13,000-plus children in the school district on Tuesday night.

She also announced plans to establish a fiscal advisory committee with representatives from private businesses and the non-profit sector to meet regularly with her and top district administrators to explore cost-saving, efficiency-producing ideas for the district.

Tuesday’s returns showed the three-year maintenance and operations levy passing with a 51.94 percent yes vote. Late incoming ballots will be counted late Wednesday afternoon. Those results will be posted at www.clarkvotes.org.The new levy will not take effect until 2011.

“I am extremely happy about Tuesday’s results.

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News
Schools

Make sure your vote counts in school levy measures

Submitted by KATU Communitie... on Tue, 2010-02-09 12:09

Mail ballots are due today for property tax levy measures proposed by eight Clark County school districts to replace their current expiring levies.

All ballots must be postmarked by the day's end or turned in at one of 36 ballot drop locations across the county. Elections workers will be present at these sites until 8 p.m.

Here's the full list of drop sites for your ballot.

Go to the Clark County elections page.

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Alice in Wonderland

Submitted by Candid Eye of C... on Tue, 2010-02-09 10:06

‘Alice in Wonderland’ coming to BGHS

‘Curiouser and curioser. . .’

“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn’t. And contrary-wise; what it is it wouldn’t be, and what it wouldn’t be, it would.

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Near complete Winco makes traffic safer

Submitted by Candid Eye of C... on Mon, 2010-02-08 09:00

New, safer, driveway to Prairie H.S. via 119th is open

The new Winco store nearing completion in Brush Prairie has drivers of 23 school buses serving Prairie High no longer waiting for a break in the traffic to get in and out of the school parking lot off Northeast 119th Street.

A new driveway into the school grounds opened this week. This one has a traffic signal which makes it a safer intersection. Winco paid for the traffic signal at the new intersection, where Winco has an entry to the north and the Prairie High entry is to the south.

The old egress had two lanes total; the new driveway has three – one for entry and two for exiting.

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Our district has been running on a half-tank of gas for many years

Submitted by Candid Eye of C... on Fri, 2010-02-05 09:00

Shonny Bria, BGSD Superintendent and Steve Pagel, School Board President

The state of Washington is not fulfilling its constitutional duty to fully pay for basic public education, a King County judge ruled Thursday.

The decision came after nearly two months of testimony last fall in a lawsuit brought by a coalition of school districts, parents, teachers and community leaders. The state was accused of failing its constitutional duty by leaving school districts to rely on local levies,

Superior Judge Erlick said he based his decision on a state Supreme Court ruling from 30 years ago which found the state must amply provide for basic education. Relying so heavily on local levies fails that standard, he said.

The state does not provide enough money to give every child a chance to meet the state’s essential learning requirements, the judge said.

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Battle Ground students rally for upcoming levy

Submitted by KATU Communitie... on Wed, 2010-02-03 13:20

High School students in the Battle Ground School District will rally in support of the Battle Ground School District Levy Wednesday.

Students will walk on the side of HWY 503 from Battle Ground High School and Prairie High School and meet at the corner of HWY 503 and Caples Rd in Brush Prairie shortly after 3:30 p.m.

Battle Ground High students will leave their school about 2:30 and walk south on HWY 503 and Prairie High students will leave their school at about 3:30 p.m. and walk north on HWY 503. They will meet up in a field at the northeast corner of Caples Rd. and HWY 503 to rally in support of the levy.

Students in the Battle Ground district have suffered through the effects of a school year without a levy and therefore want to let the voters know how much the students value their support. The students remember the difficulties in 2007 the most recent school year without a levy. The loss of levy dollars resulted in among other things larger class sizes due to teacher layoffs and increased fees for sports and some course materials.

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DVDs from BG ROTC to US Troops

Submitted by Candid Eye of C... on Fri, 2010-01-29 09:20

These Prairie High School ROTC students were leaders of the DVD-collection effort that resulted in donations of 411 DVDs that will go to U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. From left: Jessica Keenan, Kaylan Rude, Branden Savage, Gabriel Ramos, Gabriel Rule, James Hunter and Dallas Weiss. All are seniors.

DVDs from BG bound for U.S. troops

More than 400 DVDs collected by Prairie High School Air Force Junior ROTC students are headed for U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The DVDs were donated primarily by students and employees of the school district after Pat Wagner, the mother of a U.S. Marine, suggested in November that the ROTC program tackle the project. Her son Robert was in the Prairie ROTC program and graduated in 2008.

Initially, the drive was focused on Prairie High School students and staff. But one of the ROTC students, Amy Walker, a sophomore, pushed to involve the entire school district. With the support of the district office, all schools in the district were invited to participate. When the drive ended on Jan.

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