Terry Dotson is relentless when it comes to advocating for the Battle Ground Public Schools. This week the 78-year-old crisscrossed a neighborhood of large homes with well-groomed lawns, knocking on doors to make his pitch for why voters should finally approve a school levy similar to the ones they have rejected in each of the last three elections.

It was Dotson’s second neighborhood of the day.

“You get a lot of steps in doing this,” he said, wearing a wide straw hat and a T-shirt with Battle Ground Citizens for Better Schools printed across the back.

On Nov. 3, voters in this north Clark County community will decide whether to raise property taxes to send about $38 million per year to Battle Ground Public Schools. It’s one of many school districts across Washington state in a precarious financial situation because of ballooning costs and flat or declining student enrollment.

The district cut $34 million from its budget over the past two years after a previous levy expired. About 270 staff positions were cut.

In recent special elections, levies for the district have failed, once by as little as 66 votes. Now, Dotson and a dozen other volunteers are using a more targeted approach in hopes of reaching a few thousand moderate Democratic voters who could swing the outcome the other way.

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He knocked at a gray house and Alex Barkume opened the door. Dotson went through his pitch, closing with: “Can I count on you to vote yes for Battle Ground Schools?”

“Depends on how much,” Barkume responded with a chuckle. “How much it’s going to cost me in taxes?”

For a home valued at $650,000, the tax rate of $1.76 per $1,000 of assessed value works out to $95 per month.

At the end of their exchange, Barkume said he was sympathetic to the levy. “I will probably vote for it this time,” he said. “But I do have concerns, because it is a chunk of change.”

Critics of the levy, like Richard Rylander, argue that Clark County residents are suffering from “tax fatigue,” and that as districts keep asking for money, student performance has gotten worse.

“Continuing to pump money that people don’t have into a system that isn’t producing improvement and results is an issue,” Rylander said. The Clark County resident writes a blog about education in Southwest Washington and authored the statement opposing the levy in the 2026 voter’s guide.

As the state legislature creates more requirements for schools — like paying benefits to bus drivers, special education costs, and energy efficiency standards for buildings — Rylander said, local taxpayers end up picking up the tab. “If we don’t act, then it just continues the way it has for years. And that’s not a solution,” he said.

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Battle Ground, which has 19 schools and about 12,800 students, is on risky financial ground. After a previous levy expired at the end of 2025, the district started dipping into its reserves to continue paying for student services and to cover those state requirements, according to T.J. Kelly, the chief financial officer at the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.

The district’s fund balance shrank from $38 million in 2024 to an anticipated $11.5 million at the end of this year. A continued decrease could mean the state eventually steps in to help manage the district’s budget.

“We definitely have an eye on Battle Ground,” Kelly said.

Changing K-12 instructional models or learning outcomes is like “turning an aircraft carrier,” according to Kelly. If residents want to change statutes and redefine curriculum standards, they should talk to school boards and legislators, rather than reject levies, he said.

Battle Ground is the only district in Clark County without this kind of education tax, according to district officials, who have said the proposed levy is far less than similar taxes in other nearby districts.

After the failed levy attempts in recent years, the school district lowered the cost of this proposal, which would pay for campus security, student behavioral health needs, and smaller class sizes, among other things.

The failed levy proposals also fell on special elections when voter turnout is typically low.

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Dotson’s group hopes a boost in turnout during the midterms will give them an edge. Levy proponents fundraised three times as much on this campaign as they did for the previous one.

A portion of that money went toward buying data on 64,000 voters. That number was ultimately pared down to 3,500 residences targeting mostly moderate Democrats who voted during the past three general elections.

As Dotson walked through the neighborhood, he chose which houses to visit by scanning an app on his phone called MiniVAN that’s used by political campaigns.

The sun was setting when Dotson decided it was time to stop for the day. So far, everyone he’d talked to said they supported the levy. Dotson was tired and hungry, but still excited to be talking to residents face-to-face this year, instead of just leaving door hangers.

“It just makes such a difference to be able to talk to these folks and have a good conversation and dispel any misinformation that’s out there,” he said.

An open house about the levy will be held on Thursday, Oct. 8 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Battle Ground High School.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/10/07/battle-ground-school-levy-activists/