YCS to bring forward resolution for reduction in force at March 26 board meeting

During a Yelm Community Schools (YCS) Board of Directors meeting on Thursday, March 12, Chris Woods, superintendent, said a resolution for a reduction in force (RIF) will be brought forward during the district’s next meeting on Thursday, March 26.

Woods stated he’s told the board previously that he’d be discussing a potential RIF for a future resolution, and wanted to recap why YCS would conduct a RIF. Additionally, he said the cuts won’t be similar in size to the notices that went out in 2024.

“Currently, I think almost every school district, with the exception of maybe Tenino, but every school district in Thurston County is doing a reduction in force, of some kind,” Woods said. “It is now becoming commonplace that districts are doing this every year for a number of reasons. One, if you have to eliminate one position, you’ve got to get a reduction in force… and many districts are facing multi-million dollar cuts. This has become something that is very common now, unfortunately.”

Woods said one of the reasons why RIFs are issued is because it’s used in conjunction with a reduced education plan. He noted that the plan spells out how different education would look based on a reduction in funding or a financial hardship, the result of lost levy funds, reduced enrollment, reduced K-12 funding or increased materials, supplies and operating costs.

“As of this morning at 7:30 when we had our legislative briefing, we’re not anticipating any help in either of these,” Woods said. “Matter of fact, going the other direction. We will be getting less money in K-12 funding and less money in materials, supplies and operating costs.”

Woods stated that’s been a consistent conversation throughout the legislative session. He noted, after the session concludes, OSPI will “crunch the numbers” and more specific conversations centered around YCS will transpire.

“We’re going to see cuts in things like transitional kindergarten,” Woods said. “They’re reducing funding for that so we won’t be able to offer as many sections as we have in the past. They’re going to be doing some reductions to running start and some other program reductions that we’ll have more specifics on next week and for sure at the next board meeting.”

Woods added that RIFs are used as a last resort for the school district.

“We’ll be looking at specific positions,” Woods said. “Not a large-scale RIF like we had to do two years ago when we had to deliver 200 notices and we ultimately cut 100 positions in our district. A board resolution is recommended. It’s not required, but I think it’s good to go through that process and be transparent about that at an open meeting.”

According to Woods, the RIF notices must meet each labor group’s CBA. He noted there are specific timelines within each CBA that states when staff must be notified of their employment status for the next school year.

“Each (CBA) is a little bit different,” Woods said.

Additionally, with the approval of a transfer of money from the capital fund to the general fund, YCS will start next school year with a starting fund balance of $8.1 million.

“All things considered equal, if we were not to make any additional adjustments for next year, we’d end the year at $1.5 million,” Woods said. “In policy, currently, it says our ending fund balance should be 5% — which is about $4.8 million. If our estimated fund balance is $1.5 million, then you see a difference of about $3.3 million in order for us to be at that 5%. The bigger picture is we have deviated from the 5% during binding conditions. That’s something the board agreed to a resolution to allow us to deviate from that during binding conditions. The bigger picture is long term, thinking beyond next year.”

Woods added that YCS will be trying to close that gap “as much as (they) can” in order to learn their estimated ending fund balance and identify the 5%.

“It will not be a large-scale (RIF) like we’ve done before. We’re getting to a place where, at a certain point, we can’t cut much more because we’re required, by law, to deliver basic education,” Woods said. “So, it will be very selective. We’re working on staffing right now. At the (March) 26th meeting, we’ll be bringing a resolution for the reduction in force and talking more specifically about what that may look like.”