Following are statements from the Pro committee that will appear in the voters pamphlet. We have included more in depth details and information than allowed in the 75 word rebuttal. Why? Because there is far more to this than appears on the surface.
Pro Statement
Overcrowding is impacting every school in our district, with a 47% increase in student population since the last bond in 2017. The overcrowding in our intermediate and middle schools deprives students of crucial opportunities, like participating in sports due to limited team spaces. Gyms have been converted into makeshift classrooms, and students are forced to travel off-campus for classes, sacrificing precious learning time. This overcrowding not only jeopardizes safety but also undermines the quality of education for our students.
Ridgefield students need our help.
Building on the urgent projects addressed by Proposition 10, Proposition 11 will allow Ridgefield to move from playing catch-up to getting back on-track to meet the current facility needs of our students. Proposition 11 will provide additional classroom space and facilities for 5th through 8th graders with a new combined intermediate and middle school. Proposition 11 also includes projects at the high school like upgrading the band room, an addition for the wrestling room, and track maintenance. These projects provide opportunities for students to be involved in extracurricular activities, which contribute to greater academic success and character development.
The challenges facing our schools are not going away and the costs to address them will only increase as construction costs rise and existing buildings continue to deteriorate. This is about more than constructing buildings. We are uniting as a community to solve an important problem.
Now is the time to come together to address our overcrowded schools. Please vote “Yes” on both Proposition 10 and 11.
Statement For and Rebuttal of Statement Against
Submitted by:
Zach Smith, Chair
Amy Watt
citizensforridgefieldschools.com
citizens4rs@gmail.com
Detailed Rebuttal
You deserve to hear the entire argument and rebuttal. We won’t take comments out of context or just share a sentence or sentence fragment. You can only understand if you get both sides.
Claim: Overcrowding is impacting every school in our district, with a 47% increase in student population since the last bond in 2017. The overcrowding in our intermediate and middle schools deprives students of crucial opportunities, like participating in sports due to limited team spaces. Gyms have been converted into makeshift classrooms, and students are forced to travel off-campus for classes, sacrificing precious learning time. This overcrowding not only jeopardizes safety but also undermines the quality of education for our students.
Response: Is the problem how many students were added or how much space is needed?
We come up with a 41% increase after backing out the early learning and online learning students. They have very nice facilities built with the last bond for early learning and since the last bond for online learning and aren’t in the brick and mortar K-12 schools that are being planned for.
We won’t get wrapped around the axel about the 41% vs. 47%. Rather, lets talk about how many students vs. capacity. According to OSPI, there are 1,253 students vs. capacity of 1,157. So, the argument is we need to build a school for 1,000 students because the current school is overcapacity by 96? Is that really overcrowding?
The original plans for the View Ridge/Sunset Ridge building included the ability to expand from 1,200 students to 1,500 students. But, they didn’t build a facility for 1,200 students. They traded land with the City so the City had better land without a wetland to build the RORC. As a result, expansion wasn’t possible. It also meant that there wasn’t room for modular classrooms. Solutions were available and they put the kibosh on them. Why?
They want to talk about space for sports. Sports are great! Kids learn to work together and develop strategic and leadership skills. But the sports they are talking about are community sports. As part of the last bond, the District decided to take on the responsibility of building facilities and hiring people to perform the function that city parks and recreation departments normally perform.
Shouldn’t we be more concerned that the District is diverting its focus from education and is asking tax payer money to pay for a function that should be performed by the City of Ridgefield? People who live in unincorporated Clark County are paying twice for this. Once to Clark County parks and once to the District. Is that fair to taxpayers? Why not complain to the City that it isn’t doing its job providing for civic life?
With so few students beyond capacity, why is there such a massive issue with overcrowding at View Ridge/Sunset Ridge? There are eight modular classrooms. At 25 students per classroom, that would be 200 students vs. the 96 beyond permanent capacity. Something else must be impacting the situation. What and why?
Which gyms have been converted to class rooms? We’ve heard the oft repeated wrestling room story. A temporary classroom that has since been returned to a wrestling room. Is that it? How many students must travel and how much time is lost to what evidence of detriment? We think this might be a reference to a health class being taught the RORC. We’re still not sure why that is happening as there should be sufficient space. However, is the argument that losing 9 minutes of health class, students aren’t getting a quality education?
Where is there an ounce of evidence that the quality of education has declined? How is safety risk increased? Is there even one incident they can cite or are they playing to your fear?
For all the money and high taxes graduation rates have continue to decline:
What about English Language test score changes over time? Massive declines!
And yet class sizes and student to teacher ratios seem adequate and not overcrowded.
Further, the District included the following comparison to schools in the region showing class sizes generally consistent with other schools in the region.
Claim: Proposition 11 will provide additional classroom space and facilities for 5th through 8th graders with a new combined intermediate and middle school. Proposition 11 also includes projects at the high school like upgrading the band room, an addition for the wrestling room, and track maintenance. These projects provide opportunities for students to be involved in extracurricular activities, which contribute to greater academic success and character development.
Response: The 5th through 8th grade expansion will take 36 years to fill based on student population growth data (as noted in the appendix). Even if they spread the population between the two schools, the math doesn’t change. It is too early to build this school. Given that neighboring school districts are losing students and laying off teachers how long before it affects Ridgefield? Vancouver, Evergreen and Battle Ground have collectively lost thousands of students in the past 4 years.
It’s great to upgrade the band room. In fact, our understanding is that the noise levels are too high and need to be addressed. As much as we’ve heard about safety, why don’t they care about the hearing of instructors and kids in band class. This should be addressed now, not in a bond. They easily find money for things they want to do, why not this?
We get it. It isn’t fair that the 5-8 kids got a dedicated wrestling room. But didn’t the District create that problem? Yes, we’ve heard kids sweat when they wrestle and mats need to be aired out so they don’t get fungus. But haven’t they figured out how to handle this for decades without a dedicated wrestling room? Maybe for all the controversy the space is creating, it should be converted to actual classrooms.
Capital campaigns were designed exactly for the type of project like the dedicated wrestling room at the high school. If people think it is very important to have a dedicated space for wrestling, then convince donors that they should support it.
We’re told the wrestling room and locker rooms will cost $11 million, but we don’t know how much of that is for the wrestling room. If the most avid supporters don’t think that cost is worth it and they can share gyms, why lump it in with a school that is also not needed?
The real need (again based on the data at OSPI) is classrooms for the high school…that are shown where? Nowhere!
Given that the past bond promises were not met what would make us think they would be this time? Track maintenance should be out of levy funds. Why did the school district put land into the sport complex and why are they paying 40% of the costs rather than taking care of district needs? The voters never approved the redirection of money.
The district has caused a number of issues and exacerbated others. Funds planned for certain uses didn’t get done or only partially so. Trust is critical and, based on past outcomes, must give pause and concern. How can the district be trusted given their past missteps and actions?
Summary
> Money is precious
> Spending on nice to have’s rather than need to have’s makes no sense
> This proposition is poorly planned
> It’s time to send this back to the drawing board and tell the district to be open and transparent.
> Plan for a new elementary with room to expand with modulars if needed
> Plan for changes at the high school for more classrooms
There are needs…we just need a much better plan with focus on school first.
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