YCS reviewing in-district and out-of-district transfers for 2025-26 school year

Ahead of the 2025-26 school year, Yelm Community Schools Superintendent Chris Woods said YCS will be heavily reviewing in-district and out-of-district transfers in efforts to avoid creating even larger classroom sizes.

During a YCS board meeting on Thursday, April 17, Woods said the district has typically allowed the majority of in-district and out-of-district transfers. Following a triple levy failure in YCS, Woods said the district will heavily review the transfers as classroom sizes continue to grow due to budget cuts.

“We are spending a lot of time on staffing as we’re making decisions around transfers. We are denying quite a few transfers given the capacity of our buildings. I think it’s what the families who live in our school district would want us to do. It’s certainly what we need to do for our staff. In the past, the answer has been yes to all transfers,” Woods said. “Unfortunately, now we need to closely monitor it and make sure we are able to staff our classrooms at manageable levels — so that means saying no to transfers, and that’s starting with in-district transfers.”

The superintendent added he anticipates even more “no’s” to transfer students as the end of the month approaches. He believes the district is doing the right thing by focusing on families already embedded into Yelm and YCS.

“It’s the right thing to do for our students. It’s the right thing to do for our staff,” he said. “Some people say, ‘why don’t you bring them because they bring more money to the district? Every student that you get is additional revenue.’ Well, the challenge with that is they don’t come in nice, neat packages by grade level. Adding a staff member doesn’t necessarily change the entire problem we’re addressing.”

For example, Woods said, if 20 students were to transfer into one building, though the district may be able to add one additional staff member, it would not be able to account for the 20 incoming students if they’re across different grade levels.

“Unless they come in nice, neat packages by grade level and you can address it by adding one teacher or a teacher at a specific grade, you can’t. It’s very challenging. There is a point at which it becomes more taxing on a school district because it’s just overloading each classroom. You’re trying to put a bandaid on certain areas to try to fix it,” Woods said. “Unfortunately, we’re having to say no to some families so we can provide the best learning environment for our staff and students, and families that do live in our district.”

The superintendent said more information regarding in-district and out-of-district transfers will follow in future meetings. He noted out-of-district transfers will be processed by the end of April.

“What I’ve heard is most people saying, ‘yeah, we have large class sizes. Why would we make them larger?’ I think people in our community understand and appreciate that we’re taking that step,” Woods said.