Jacob Dimond / jake@yelmonline.com
It was a packed house on Tuesday, Sept. 15, at Yelm Cinemas, as Yelm Kids First hosted a 2026 Yelm Community Schools (YCS) levy campaign kickoff, where the group was joined by Yelm Superintendent Chris Woods and Rep. Matt Marshall during a Q&A portion of the event.
First, an audience member asked superintendent Woods if YCS would be in jeopardy of losing an additional 100 employees in the district if the levy fails this November?
Woods responded, stating the number of employees receiving RIF notices would be between 80 to 90.
The superintendent was also asked by an audience member if the 80 to 90 positions being reduced would include the elimination of transportation within YCS?
Woods told her that everything would be on the table with a fifth levy failure.
“If we fail a levy, we would not be able to operate anything other than basic education teaching in our classroom,” Woods said. “We’re trying to get everything out. That’s why we’re recording today. I think TJ (Kelly’s) presentation talked a lot about the process and what would happen next, and the timeline with that. Essentially, everything would be on the table because we don’t have a savings account, so to speak, like we’ve been using the last couple of years. We’ve been without levy dollars for two years now, so we’ve had to subsidize out of our ending fund balance. We’ve had to take out of our capital projects to cover to push us out as long as we can to save as much as we can.”
Woods added that by the end of the 2026-27 school year, YCS won’t have a savings account anymore, and would be facing $9 million in cuts.
“We’d have to have everything on the table, because at that point you’re making catastrophic cuts,” Woods said. “The other thing I’ll say is 85% of our budget is people. 15% is non-employee related costs.”
Woods was asked about potential transportation cuts again towards the end of the meeting. An audience member asked the superintendent if transportation would or could be cut in January, following a levy failure?
“That’s a possibility,” Woods said. “I can already say that things we can cut during the school year are very limited. We’ve cut many, many of those. It’s such a small dollar amount overall. Again, going back to 85% of our budget is people, so we would have to put a plan in place in the spring for the next year. It doesn’t mean that the district and the board couldn’t say we’re not doing spring sports. It doesn’t mean that we couldn’t say we aren’t going to do transportation, with the exception of special education. But really, we’d be looking at the larger number for the next year because we’re balanced to the end of this school year. So really, the plans in the spring are for next year and beyond.”
Another audience member asked Woods that when the levy is passed, what would look different throughout YCS next school year? The superintendent noted the proposed levy rate is $1.50 per $1,000 assessed home value, and that the last proposed levy rate was $2.50 per $1,000.
Woods said lots of conversations have happened leading up to deciding the levy rate, and that the YCS Board of Directors decided to go with the lowest rate possible to be sensitive to the tax fatigue that Yelm taxpayers are experiencing — but also to remain qualified for levy equalization.
“For us, in our district, we qualify for levy equalization dollars if we pass the levy at $1.50,” Woods said. “All that would do overall for our budget is maintain. We would not be bringing back things unless enrollment is above our projection, unless our expenditures are less than what we’ve projected, or if we’re guaranteed more revenue coming our way. I think we know how that plays out.”
Woods added that inflation is exceeding incoming revenue “by far.” He reiterated that YCS wants to be sensitive to local taxpayers, and claimed the district knows it has some trust to earn back with the community.
“I think our strategic plan speaks directly to our goals and our strategies, and exactly what we want to do,” Woods said. “I think it was well done, well thought out a year ago. That’s the roadmap forward.”
Woods added there would be no plan to bring back middle school sports or other prgrams, services and classes that have been cut, unless YCS somes above the budget.
An audience member also asked Marshall a question relating to the state, county and city level — pondering what’s being done with the taxes collected from marijuana and the lottery.
“The question is about the marijuana tax revenue and lottery tax revenue that was promised to voters to pay for schools and roads,” Marshall said. “You’ve seen our roads, and we know where Yelm schools is at right now. That total revenue, I’d have to look at the exact numbers, but the ballpark is $3.7 billion between the two of those that comes into the state budget over a two-year revenue cycle.”
Marshall noted the tax revenue from marijuana and the lottery are first dropped into the transportation budget for their portion, and then into the general fund. He said the general fund is the state balance that schools are funded out of — aside from buildings or construction, which comes out of the capital fund.
“General funds, those now pay for the entire state’s $81 billion budget. So, if you talk to the department of revenue, they will probably tell you that $3.7-ish billion coming from lotto and cannabis is going to the schools, because the schools are getting more than $3.7 billion across the state. I don’t think it’s a good answer. I don’t like the answer. But yes, that money is likely going to schools. The problem we find ourselves in is schools, after the McCleary Decision, was funded at nearly 60%. Right now, the state budget, we’re funding the schools at approximately 43%.”
Marshall said when the McCleary Decision occurred in the Supreme Court, Washington was funding schools at approximately 43% — which was determined as not upholding its paramount duty to provide for a basic education.
He believes Washington is in a “real bad spot” right now, and sees two ways forward. One is to increase all the spending to get closer to the 60% mark so schools don’t have to rely on levies to pay staff and provide for sports programs. Option two, according to Marshall, would be making budget cuts across Washington state.
“That’s where I believe the state is failing,” Marshall said. “When it appropriates its money and sets up the budget, I think that the state legislature has failed to make the hard decisions to come up with a budget that actually makes sense for the people of Washington.”
An audience member also asked Marshall what some examples of flagrant waste would be, and if that was cut how much would it help out?
“My personal favorite — legislators can run provisos. Provisos are basically projects that we sponsor that the state will fund if there are resources available to fund them,” Marshall said. “There is one that was in the last budget that was climate listening circles for environmental justice in Africa at over $1 million. That would be one example where I think we could probably cut the program. In general, I think the Provisos program, where legislators sponsor certain programs, is widely abused.”
Marshall pointed to other examples as being “a lot” of the public-private partnerships. One in particular, according to Marshall, is the ongoing response to homelessness across Washington state.
“Yes, homelessness is a problem. Yes, it needs to be addressed,” Marshall said. “But the way the state has been addressing it is through Proviso money and government money to private organizations with absolutely no requirements on outcomes. There is no metric — nothing that is looked at as to ‘is our money being put to good use?’”
Marshall added that he’s watched this spending problem get worse throughout the last decade, and that it’s time to cancel all of these “special partnerships” and rebuild a program that works from the ground up. He believes that would free up billions of dollars of state funding.
“Balancing the budget is what the state needs to do,” Marshall said. “There are a lot of cuts that likely need to happen because there’s money going out to programs that are not nearly as important as providing for athletics and sports for our youth.”
