The Battle Ground School District board of directors heard updates Monday on levy outreach and a compressed budget timeline tied to a planned migration to a new financial software system.

Superintendent Chris Waters and Chief Financial Officer Michelle Scott told the board that levy ballots were mailed last week and that district-run levy forums drew about 175 attendees across 10 events. Scott said the district is working with volunteers from Battleground Citizens for Better Schools on voter outreach and that turnout was higher than recent capital-levy efforts.

The update keylined an operational change: the district will migrate its financial and accounting systems before next school year. Scott said the migration requires the district to prepare and export budget data about six to eight weeks earlier than usual, moving budget adoption from the district’s typical August timeline to a projected June adoption next year. She said training and security-group setup are underway and that auditors are scheduled to review the migration in February.

Board members pressed for clearer public information about how the district uses reserves and what deeper cuts would look like if the levy fails. Director Terry Tate and others asked whether staff could produce side-by-side “balanced” and “cuts” scenarios that show what programs or positions would be reduced if reserves could not be used. Scott and Waters said producing such alternate budgets is possible but is highly labor intensive; Scott estimated recent, large-scale budget reduction work required a month-and-a-half of staff time and said a half-year levy shortfall could require roughly $18 million to $20 million in cuts.

Waters and Scott described the use of reserves as uncommon and stressed that many district expenses are mandated by state law—examples cited included special education costs, transportation and maintenance, supplies and operations (MSOCs)—leaving personnel as the largest controllable category in any cuts scenario.

Board members and staff agreed to continue outreach and to make more budget-impact information available online. Scott said the district will run focused work sessions on the earlier schedule and bring budget materials to the board sooner than in prior years.

For now, the district’s immediate public-facing steps are voter outreach, continued levy forums and staff work on the migration and training plan; the district also plans waiver-day and recorded training for staff on the new system.

The board did not take a policy vote on the levy or the budget schedule in the meeting.