Marie Gluesenkamp Perez addresses the audience during a press conference at Mt. Pleasant School in Washougal on Feb. 20. Gluesenkamp Perez was joined by Skamania Couty Sheriff Summer Scheyer, middle right, and Skamania County Commissioner Brian Nichols, far right.
Marie Gluesenkamp Perez addresses the audience during a press conference at Mt. Pleasant School in Washougal on Feb. 20. Gluesenkamp Perez was joined by Skamania Couty Sheriff Summer Scheyer, middle right, and Skamania County Commissioner Brian Nichols, far right.
SKAMANIA CO. — As President Donald Trump and the White House staff reportedly begin drafting an executive order that would dismantle the United States Department of Education, Washington’s 3rd District Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez joined a bipartisan effort to extend the Secure Rural Schools (SRS) program.
Administered by the United States Forest Service, the SRS program provides funds for infrastructure and schools in rural areas abundant with timber but lack taxable land. Last year and this past January, the House of Representatives did not vote on the reauthorization, thus putting pressure on lawmakers to decide quickly. According to the Forest Service, delays in payments are expected.
Gluesenkamp Perez cosponsored the bill that would reauthorize SRS funds through Fiscal Year 2026. In Skamania County, only 1.8% of land can generate revenue for public services, and SRS funding accounts for 5.1% of the county’s budget, she said.
On Feb. 20, Gluesenkamp Perez was joined by Skamania County Sheriff Summer Scheyer, Skamania County Commissioner Brian Nichols (District 1), former County Commissioner Tom Lannen, Stevenson-Carson School District Superintendent Ingrid Colvard and other officials for a press conference at Mt. Pleasant School in Washougal, Washington. Gluesenkamp spoke to the impact of the program and the need to reauthorize funds.
“Access to education, a level playing field for our kids, economic agency — these are all the things that SRS represents to us,” Gluesenkamp Perez said. “I live here in Skamania County with my husband and my young son — he would go to one of these schools if he were old enough to be in class.”
In 2023, Skamania County received $2.26 million through the program and Colvard said the school district relies on those funds. The district legally cannot reduce the number of teaching positions this year, but is still anticipating budget cuts between $500,000-$900,000 for the upcoming 2025-2026 school year.
Skamania County Sheriff Summer Scheyer addresses the audience during a press conference at Mt. Pleasant School in Washougal on Feb. 20.
Image courtesy Marie Gluesenkamp Perez
“Our children deserve an education that provides what they need to prepare for their futures. They deserve enough adult staff to safely supervise them at school. We are careful stewards of funds, but our students should not suffer because their community includes a significant amount of federal land,” Colvard said. The school was not alone in cutting personnel. Sheriff Scheyer said they were forced to cut two patrol deputies in 2025 due to the lack of SRS funds. In the past 15 years, they have been forced to remove animal control, a narcotics detective, detective sergeant, chief criminal deputy, telecommunicators and corrections officers.
“Without SRS funding, the future of Skamania County, and specifically public safety, is bleak,” Scheyer said. “If SRS funds are not reappropriated, public safety in Skamania County will not be sustainable as we currently operate. Further personnel cuts will be required, creating a detrimental reduction in patrol deputy response for criminal activity and traffic enforcement.”
Gluesenkamp Perez spent time at Stevenson High School and remarked that the SRS funds, in some cases, are the schools’ only source of funds keeping students in classrooms.
“Failing to reauthorize this SRS funding would devastate our schools, our jobs, their trade programs in these high schools, which are often the first thing to get cut. And here at Mt. Pleasant School, these funds keep the doors open,” she said. “The same goes for the Stevenson-Carson School District, where the budget is already set and they would have to make drastic cuts to staff and empty out funds for maintenance to old buildings.”
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