Jacob Dimond / jake@yelmonline.com
Chelsea Richardson, new Yelm Middle School (YMS) Assistant Principal, was formally introduced to Yelm Community Schools (YCS) families during a YCS Board of Directors meeting on Thursday, May 28.
Alongside her family, Richardson was officially introduced to the community and those in attendance at the meeting by YCS Superintendent Chris Woods, and YMS Principal Mark Bowden.
According to Woods, Richardson will be serving as the new YMS Assistant Principal following the departure of Kaiya Burgess — who is heading to Ridgeline Middle School. Additionally, Woods said Richardson comes to YMS from the Olympia School District, where she has previously served as a councilor at Centennial Middle School.
Woods spoke glowingly of the new assistant principal.
“I will tell you through the process, Chelsea shined and everybody was so impressed with her,” Woods said, during the meeting. “I even had multiple people reach out to me unsolicited to tell me how great Chelsea is and how lucky we would be to have her as part of our team here. We’re very much looking forward to having her at YMS.”
Mark Bowden, YMS Principal, followed Woods’ comments and spoke highly of Richardson. According to Bowden, Woods said all of the remarks that the YMS Principal was planning on saying.
“I was going to say how great she did in the interview process, how every group we brought together to get feedback voted all in her favor, how we came to the next interview and everybody said, ‘obviously Chelsea,’” Bowden said. “It’s a situation when you’re looking for someone that you’re going to work with so intensely, you really want to find someone who is going to be a good fit. Pretty quickly I felt like Chelsea was going to be that person for us, and everyone else that was involved in the interview process felt that as well.”
Much like Woods, Bowden said he’s also had many colleagues reach out to him to speak highly of Richardson and her potential at YMS.
“She’s going to come into the building in a couple days and we’ll get to get our feet going and get the job going,” Bowden said. “I’m excited about it.”
Richardson, who was joined by several of her children during the YCS Board of Directors meeting on Thursday, May 28, said she’s excited to join YCS and the middle school.
“I’m super pumped to be a part of the YMS team,” Richardson said. “Thank you guys so much. We’re really excited.”
Woods thanked Richardson and her family for attending the meeting. He told her children that it was nice to meet all of them, even though it’s “probably not (their) favorite thing to be introduced.”
Richardson will begin her role as YMS Assistant Principal during the 2026-27 school year.
