YCS board member proposes conversation with labor groups on pay freezes

Ryan Jewell, Yelm Community Schools (YCS) Director of District Four, said that YCS is trying to leave no rock unturned as it navigates through its ongoing financial crisis, and believes it may be time for the district to have some tough conversations with its labor groups.
During a YCS Board of Directors meeting on Thursday, Oct. 8, Jewell, speaking during the board member comments portion of the meeting, said he wanted to mention an idea to the other school board members.

“I’ve heard the language multiple times that no one is coming to save us, and the levy kicks the can down the road,” Jewell said. “While I agree with those statements, I would love to ask Superintendent Woods if you’d be able to reach out to more labor groups and see if they would be willing to take a pause on increases. Just like we’ve asked our administrators to, to get us into a position where we have greater strength so we can build and continue to have these conversations. It’s not a fun conversation.”

Jewell added that he’s hopeful YCS can take some action toward the state of Washington and find some steps to secure additional funding.

“One of the primary roles of the board is to present a budget that’s on the right side,’ Jewell said. “If we’re on the wrong side, we moved some money around to achieve that goal this year, but there’s a lot of weight, a lot of pressure, on this levy conversation moving forward.”
The board member said it hasn’t been a fun decision in the last two out of three years to give no pay increase to administrators, but claims it’s a reality of where YCS is at.

“If we have the ability with Yelm to get in the same boat together and all of us moving in the same direction… I like seeing all these committed posts online,” Jewell said. “I’m committed to Yelm and going to Olympia to continue in that fight to get the funding right, to help us through the unfunded mandates and to fix some of these issues. It would be really great if we were all in the same boat and going in the same direction.”

Board member Casey Shaw, who also serves as YCS Board of Representatives President, responded to Jewell and said the district has been forced to look at “essentially everything” throughout the last three years.

“Some of the things we’ve been forced to look at over and over again,” Shaw said. “I think we’ve cut from just about every single pocket of money. Some we’ve cut twice. Some we’ve cut three times. The financials, they’re a little better but they’re not better. Inflation is killing us. I do agree. We have to keep having hard conversations. We have to keep looking at every single area. I don’t know what exactly that looks like moving forward, but I think we’ll have to have more conversations on what we can do to keep further cuts from coming.”

Shaw added that if the levy doesn’t pass in November, it would be nice to find a way to prevent “OSPI from controlling the district.” He noted that agenda would be a priority of his, if the levy fails next month.