Have you seen the email the Battle Ground Superintendent sent out on March 2nd 2018 at 3:08pm titled “School security is top of mind”?
I received it from several parents who did. Since I don’t have a child in the school system I didn’t get it (and neither would you unless you had a child/ren in the system).
Those who shared it with me pointed to the 3rd paragraph:
“Since the Parkland shooting, we have received many comments, questions and concerns about safety and security. Some of it is likely because our bond did not pass last month. It fell short of the required 60 percent supermajority by a couple hundred votes. The bond would have replaced our four oldest primary and middle schools that lack modern security features, and would have provided for improvements such as internal classroom door locks and card-controlled entrances at our other schools.” (Italics, color and quotes are for emphasis and not the original format)
The rest of the memo seems reasonable as an attempt to address any questions the district may have received.
The problem? Using the high school shooting in Florida as a vehicle to talk about the local bond and it’s failures. Personally, I am appalled at this blatant use of a tragedy as a way to tell parents that the bond barely failed and implying that if they want better safety the bond needs to pass on its 3rd attempt. I emailed my thoughts to the School Board and Superintendent. From my perspective the fact that they used a tragedy to call attention to the local bond is wrong. It’s clear that their hope is that more people will vote yes for safety/security reasons.
Another question: Since the Superintendent specifically talks about replacement of the four older schools that lack modern security features…do all the other schools in the district already have “modern security features”? The wording suggests that only the replacement schools have outdated security?
Judge for yourself as to whether it bothers you. If you want to share your thoughts with the School Board here’s a link to the page with the Directors names and email addresses: http://www.battlegroundps.org/home/director-information
The Board President is Ken Root. The VP is Monty Anderson.
Original email: BGSD Email to parents regarding florida shooting and safety Mar32018-text
Dick Rylander
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