Carson's Wind River Middle School closes without Secure Rural Schools payment, other factors

“We had a decision to make,” said Superintendent Ingrid Colvard. “Do we cut our programs and not offer our kids as many opportunities, or do we consolidate schools and hang on to as much as we can?”

Colvard and the district, with feedback from parents, chose consolidation, but they also still had to let things go: 10 full-time teachers and counselors, $75,000 from the athletics budget, a principal, eight classified employees and two administrative positions that were cut first. Having reopened the middle school in 2020 after an eight-year hiatus, Colvard didn’t think that would last forever, but the abruptness came as a shock.

“We wanted middle schoolers to have their own space. Developmentally, it’s good for them to have a space to be themselves and grow into that,” said Colvard.” The district could have had time to come up with a more gradual change, and that would have been better.”

In April 2024, the district received its last Secure Rural Schools payment, a program designed to offset the revenue lost from the federal government harvesting timber on public lands within county borders. Losing $830,000, albeit less than prior payments, in 2025 pushed Wind River Middle School over the edge; however, the district was already walking a very tight financial line.

Declining enrollment and lackluster state support

District enrollment never rebounded after the COVID-19 pandemic, and fewer students lower funding allocations from the state. The total number of students in 2020 was about 900, compared to less than 700 now, based on numbers from Oregon Public Broadcasting, and that was a primary factor undergirding Stevenson Elementary’s closure in 2024.

Colvard explained that Skamania County has seen an influx of second homeowners, retirees and vacation rentals, driving up the cost of housing. That, combined with a lack of living-wage jobs in the area, is pricing young families with kids out.

“What I hear from my high schoolers is that most of them don’t want to leave,” said Colvard. “Whether they’re going to get training for trades, or go they want to go to college or get right into the workforce, they want to live in their community — but they aren’t sure how.”

Then comes what are called materials, supplies and operating costs, or MSOCs. According to the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, the price of liability insurance for school districts has increased nearly 50% since 2019, and utility costs have jumped more than 30%. This year alone, Colvard said the district had to shell out $90,000 more in liability insurance.

With the passage of Senate Bill 5192 in May, Washington State tweaked the MSOC formula to provide $1,614 per student, but that came in lower than the office of superintendent’s recommendation of $1,715 per student to keep pace with inflation.

“MSOCs not being covered and not being even close to covered is really tanking school district budgets across the state,” said Colvard. “We’re all struggling hard with it, and so that’s already putting us in a hole.”

She added that the state constitution explicitly defines education as the state’s “paramount duty,” reinforced by the 2012 McCleary decision, where Washington’s Supreme Court mandated the full funding of K-12 basic education. According to the Washington Association of School Administrators, however, the state allocated about 52% of its general fund to K-12 education in 2019, but five years later, it had dropped to 43%.

Colvard said she wouldn’t be surprised if that state faces another McCleary-esque lawsuit in the near future.

Next steps for Secure Rural Schools, the district

When Congress originally established the Secure Rural Schools program in 2000, it wasn’t meant to be a permanent fix, but the reality of land ownership in Skamania County — where only 1.8% is taxable — presents few other options.

Between the Gifford Pinchot National Forest and the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, 849,000 of Skamania’s 1.1 million acres are federally owned, according to former county Commissioner Tom Lannen. State agencies and private timber companies hold most of the rest. Earlier in June, the Senate unanimously passed legislation reauthorizing Secure Rural Schools, but that bill has been held in the House since without a hearing.

“Frankly, folks in D.C. don’t know what it’s like to live in rural America or a timber community that has already faced decades of painful cuts to the basics,” said Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, who represents Washington’s 3rd Congressional District, in a statement. “We’re just urging our federal government to uphold its promise to our kids and to let us rebuild the self-sufficiency that comes with responsible stewardship of our woods.”

Gluesenkamp Perez has sent three letters to House Speaker Mike Johnson urging him to move the bill forward, but has received no response, based on reporting from the Washington State Standard.

For Colvard, Secure Rural Schools is a short-term patch, but given the volatility of reauthorization, the district and county and county need a more sustainable source of revenue. And there’s one obvious alternative: Revising forest management policy so the county can responsibly harvest more timber.

“They encumber so much of our land that there’s nothing to do with it,” said Colvard. “We’ve now closed two schools — I can’t close any more. That solution is gone, so now we’re cutting into opportunity, and I really don’t want that for our kids.”

In the meantime, students are adapting. Thankfully, Carson Elementary and Stevenson High School had enough space to accommodate the extra kids without impacting class size, and being in one place has actually given the young high schoolers access to more classes, like woods and construction technology.

“We’re trying to find a way to ride through it,” said Colvard.