Battle Ground Public Schools

2020-21 Actuals

The district reports actual spending for each fiscal year to the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. This report, called the F-196, is available as a PDF. See the 2020-21 F-196 (PDF)

At the Nov. 22, 2021 School Board meeting, Chief Financial Officer Michelle Scott presented a 2020-21 Year-End Financial Report (PDF).

A few of the items highlighted during the presentation:

• Students began the year in remote learning and then moved to hybrid and finally full-time by the end of the year. Districts across the state experienced significant enrollment drops, which meant a drop in per-student state funding ($13 million loss in Battle Ground, requiring the district to reduce staffing and department budgets). All education models brought unbudgeted expenses, including for technology (during remote) and for safety supplies and procedures (during in-person learning).
• The legislature did not decide until the end of the school year to send enrollment and transportation stabilization funds to support districts’ unexpected drops in enrollment and to fund transportation.
• The Fund Balance increased $7.2 million.
  • Non-spendables increased $1.9 million.
  • The district didn’t use all of the one-time enrollment ($7.6 million) or transportation ($1.6 million) stabilization funds that the Legislature approved mid-year. The district assigned $4.1 million to the 2021-22 budget to offset revenue loss for the enrollment decline in the 2021-22 budget, which is the first budget in which enrollment was anticipated to be down.
  • The district’s Unassigned Fund Balance or “Rainy Day” fund is now at 6% of the district’s budget, which meets board policy for the first time in many years and puts the district in good financial standing.
• Audit, legal and election expenditures are included in the Board of Directors budget.

Superintendent Denny Waters said that reaching a 6% fund balance is a monumental achievement for BGPS that hasn’t happened in the last 50 years. He thanked voters for passing the district levy. In addition, he said, the district cinched its belts tight in the face of so many economic challenges and uncertainties, that it is in a good financial position that the district has never been in before. Waters said “It still doesn’t solve long-term funding problems, but in terms of being able to do significant, good things for kids and the community, this is a big step for us.”

2020-21 Budget

In August, the Battle Ground Public Schools Board of Directors approved the budget for the 2020-21 school year. The board held a work session and hosted a public hearing prior to approving the budget. The approval sets appropriations and fee schedules for the 2020-2021 school year. Appropriation levels include:

• A. General Fund $199,356,257
  • General Fund Transfers to Debt Service $350,000
  • General Fund Transfers to Capital Projects $3,000,000
• B. Capital Projects Fund $12,306,000
• C. Debt Service Fund $6,911,863
• D. Associated Student Body Fund $3,243,825

In accordance with state law (RCW 28A.505.040), the district has developed a four-year budget estimate (F195F) including a four-year enrollment projection.

In 2020-21, the district expects to receive about 78% of its funding from state appropriations, and about 14% from the local levy. Read more about how school levies and bonds affect property taxes.

Click on the images below to enlarge.

BGPS 2020-21 Budget Hearing presentation

The presentation (PDF) below is the material presented at the August 24, 2020 public budget hearing. The presentation outlines state appropriations and local levy funds,the purpose of each district fund, and revenues and expenditures. You can also see a comparison of local school district taxes on our taxes page.

2019-20 Actuals

The district reports actual spending for each fiscal year to the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. This report, called the F-196, is available as a PDF. See the 2019-20 F-196 (PDF)

2019-2020 Budget

The Battle Ground Public Schools Board of Directors approved the budget for the 2019-20 school year. The board held a work session and hosted a public hearing prior to approving the budget. The approval sets appropriations and fee schedules for the 2019-2020 school year. Read more about the budget on our News page. Appropriation levels include:

• A. General Fund $188,498,044
  • General Fund Transfers to Debt Service $350,000
• B. Capital Projects Fund $11,655,408
• C. Debt Service Fund $6,717,778
• D. Associated Student Body Fund $3,163,575

In accordance with state law (RCW 28A.505.040), the district has developed a four-year budget estimate (F195F) including a four-year enrollment projection.

Historically, the state provided about 74 percent of the Battle Ground district’s funding, and the local tax levy provided about 17 percent (federal dollars and local non-tax funds made up the rest). In 2019-20, when the new funding model is in full effect, the district expects to receive about 80 percent of its funding from state appropriations, and about 12 percent from the local levy. Read more about how school levies and bonds affect property taxes.

Click on the images below to enlarge.

BGPS 2019-20 Budget Hearing presentation

The presentation (PDF) below is the material presented at the August 12, 2019 public budget hearing. The presentation outlines the impact of changes to state appropriations and the decrease in local levy funds, a comparison of local school taxes, the purpose of each district fund, and revenues and expenditures.

2018-19 Actuals

The district reports actual spending for each fiscal year to the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. This report, called the F-196, is available as a PDF. See the 2018-19 F-196 (PDF)

2018-2019 Budget

Battle Ground Public Schools Board of Directors approved the 2018-2019 budget (F195) for Battle Ground Public Schools at its regular board meeting on August 13. The board held a work session and hosted a public hearing prior to approving the budget. The approval sets appropriations and fee schedules for the 2018-2019 school year. Appropriation levels include:

• A. General Fund $187,800,480
  • General Fund Transfers to Debt Service $350,000
• B. Capital Projects Fund $9,100,000
• C. Debt Service Fund $6,527,910
• D. Associated Student Body Fund $2,653,075

In accordance with state law (RCW 28A.505.040), the district has developed a four-year budget estimate (F195F) including a four-year enrollment projection.

Changes and taxes

2018-19 marks the beginning of significant changes to how K-12 education is funded in Washington state. In the past, both the state and local communities provided funds to schools in the form of property tax levies because of inadequate state funding for basic education. School districts used local levies to bridge the gap between state funds and staffing costs. Over the years, the use of local levies created inequity across the state, which led to the McCleary lawsuit. This lawsuit was recently settled, bringing attention to basic education funding in Washington.

To meet the State Supreme Court’s order to fully fund the staff needed for basic education in Washington, the state Legislature reduced the amount of local levy dollars districts can collect through property taxes and increased the amount that the state collects through property taxes to be redistributed to all schools. Essentially, property owners send fewer tax dollars directly to their local district and send more tax dollars to the state for all districts. This exchange of state and local property taxes has been described as a “levy swap.”

To complicate further, property taxes are assessed on the calendar year while school districts function on the school year. This means the 2018-19 school year is a transition year with local rates starting the year at whatever level voters locally approved, and then dropping in January of 2019. The property tax rates for Battle Ground are reflected in the table below:

Budget

For at least the last three years, the state provided about 74 percent of the Battle Ground district’s funding, and the local tax levy provided about 17 percent (federal dollars and local non-tax funds make up the rest). In 2019-20, when the new funding model is in full effect, the district expects to receive about 84 percent of its funding from state appropriations, and about 8 percent from the local levy.

Click on the images below to enlarge.

BGPS 2018-19 Budget Hearing presentation

The presentation below is the material presented at the July 23, 2018 board work session. The presentation outlines the impact of changes to state appropriations and the decrease in local levy funds, the purpose of each district fund, revenues, expenditures, and monitoring tools.

2017-18 Actuals

The district reports actual spending for each fiscal year to the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. This report, called the F-196, is available as a PDF. See the 2017-18 F-196 (PDF)

2017-2018 Budget

Battle Ground Public Schools Board of Directors approved the 2017-2018 budget for Battle Ground Public Schools at its regular board meeting on August 28. The board held a work session and hosted two public hearings prior to approving the budget. The approval sets appropriations and fee schedules for the 2017-2018 school year. Appropriation levels include:

• • A. General Fund $168,249,115

  General Fund Transfers to Debt Service $350,000

  • B. Capital Projects Fund $3,530,000
  • C. Debt Service Fund $6,332,000
  • D. Associated Student Body Fund $2,692,125
    Click on the images below to enlarge.
  

BGPS 2017-18 Budget Hearing presentation

2016-17 Actuals

The district reports actual spending for each fiscal year to the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. This report, called the F-196, is available as a PDF. See the 2016-17 F-196 (PDF)

2015-2016 Budget

Battle Ground Public Schools Board of Directors unanimously approved the 2015-2016 district budget at its meeting on August 24, 2015. The state requires school budgets to be approved and submitted by August 31. The district expects to receive $151.9 million in revenues for the year, an increase of 10 percent over last year’s budget. Board members approved allocations for four main buckets: day-to-day operations, including $500,000 for the general fund reserve; student activities; debt services (bonds), and facilities projects.

2015-2016 Budget Overview

The presentation below is from the 2015-2016 open budget hearings. The presentation outlines the purpose of each district fund, revenues, expenditures, impact of state budget, levy plan implementation, and monitoring tools.

2016-2017 Budget

Battle Ground Public Schools Board of Directors approved Resolution I-16: 2016-17 Budget Adoption on June 26, 2016. This approval sets appropriations and fee schedules for the 2016-20­17 school year. Appropriation levels include:

• • A. General Fund $155,690,200
    General Fund Transfers to Debt Service $337,000
  • B. Capital Projects Fund $5,699,999
  • C. Debt Service Fund $6,500,000
  • D. Associated Student Body Fund $2,838,020

The board hosted two public hearings for the proposed 2016-17 budget before approval. Click here to view a PDF of the presentation and an overview of the approved budget.

 

2015-16 Actuals

The district reports actual spending for each fiscal year to the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. This report, called the F-196, is available as a PDF. See the 2015-16 F-196 (PDF)

2015-2016 Budget

Battle Ground Public Schools Board of Directors unanimously approved the 2015-2016 district budget at its meeting on August 24, 2015. The state requires school budgets to be approved and submitted by August 31. The district expects to receive $151.9 million in revenues for the year, an increase of 10 percent over last year’s budget. Board members approved allocations for four main buckets: day-to-day operations, including $500,000 for the general fund reserve; student activities; debt services (bonds), and facilities projects.

2015-2016 Budget Overview

The presentation below is from the 2015-2016 open budget hearings. The presentation outlines the purpose of each district fund, revenues, expenditures, impact of state budget, levy plan implementation, and monitoring tools.

Google Presentation

The district receives about 71 percent of its revenues from state funding. The 2015-2016 budget takes into account estimates that the school district will receive up to $10.3 million more this year in state funding over last year; however, the majority of the funds are tied to cost of living adjustments (COLA) and benefit increases for state-funded staff. The legislature’s decision to increase the salaries of state-funded staff leaves a gap in funding. The district must match the 3 percent COLA and benefit increases for unfunded staff from other revenue sources. Currently 30.9 percent of basic education staff are unfunded (204 certificated and 136 classified) which makes up 41.1 percent of the budgeted amount for staff. Battle Ground Public Schools has the highest percentage of unfunded staff in the region. The costs to align unfunded staff with state funded staff reduces the amount of discretionary funds in the budget to $1.5 million. The chart below breaks down the additional state funding by category. (Note: This chart was presented at the Battle Ground Public Schools School Board Budget Work Session on August 10, 2015).

Click image to enlarge. 

K-3 Class Size & Full-Day Kindergarten
As noted in the chart above K-3 Class Size must be validated with actual enrollment before additional funding can be received. The district will be able to pull down additional funding if enrollment meets the state requirements. The state will base payments on actual enrollment starting in January 2016.

The state is also providing full-day kindergarten funding this year based on which schools have the highest percentage of students receiving free and reduced-price lunches. Eligible schools can get state funding for full-day kindergarten as long as they can accommodate a full-day program for all students. In other words, schools can only offer full-day kindergarten if they have the space to offer the full-day program to all incoming kindergartners attending the school.

Battle Ground Public Schools evaluated which schools in the district have the classroom space to support full-day kindergarten, and found that Maple Grove is currently the only school that has enough available classrooms to implement the program for all incoming kindergartners. Maple Grove also has the highest rate of free and reduced-price lunch in the district. You can read more about Full-Day Kindergarten in a recent online article.

Your Levy Dollars at Work
The four-year Replacement Maintenance and Operations Levy maintains daily operations and provides approximately $23 million, or 18% of total revenues in local funding for schools each year. Local funds are critical to bridge the gap between what the state pays for and what is actually costs to operate schools. The levy approved in 2013 maintains items such as health services, music and art classes, building safety, professional development, special education staffing, student and staff technology, curriculum, communications, transportation, asset preservation and staff salaries, allowing the district to maintain proper staffing levels in each building. Read more about local funding in the 2014-15 Accountability Report.

State Resources
The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction website “School Apportionment & Financial Services” publishes several financial reports including apportionment, staffing ratios, grants, and special education. Click the link to view the OSPI website and select “Battle Ground Public Schools” from the drop-down list to view reports from 1997 – 2015.