Yelm Kids First treasurer highlights boots-on-ground efforts to promote upcoming levy measure

During a Yelm Community Schools (YCS) Board of Directors meeting on Thursday, Oct. 8, Kathryn Cullum, Yelm Kids First treasurer, highlighted some of the citizen group’s boots-on-ground efforts to promote the upcoming YCS levy measure.

The district’s proposed levy rate is set at $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed home value, and will appear in the Tuesday, Nov. 3, Thurston County general election.

Cullum, an educator and parent of former YCS students, spoke on the local campaign group’s recent efforts of doorknocking to bring awareness to the district’s need for a levy.

“I’m here on behalf of Yelm Kids First to talk about the work that we’re doing to support the EP&O levy,” Cullum said. “First, let me just talk about, so far, we’ve gone doorbelling. Even with a small group of people, we managed to make it to 530 homes — which represents 730 members of our community.”

She added that the group has made 30% contact thus far, with the initial goal of reaching a 20% contact rate. Cullum is also excited about the work that’s been done through Yelm Kids First’s doorbelling efforts.

According to Cullum, more and more community members have been encouraged to join the doorbelling process after hearing about the experiences Yelm Kids First has been having while doing it.

The group will be knocking on doors once again on Saturday, Oct. 17.

“We had members of our community say, ‘can we have another doorbell session on the 24th?’ So we’re looking at what that would look like,” Cullum said. “The goal is to remind the community to turn in their ballots, answer questions or direct them to the answers to their questions. Our entire campaign has been around ‘join the conversation.’ We talked earlier today in a listening session about having trust and having faith, and I have had so much faith restored in the community through these conversations that we’ve been having, one on one, or even on the internet in the Facebook world.”

Cullum added that the community has been stepping up, doing additional research, asking questions and talking amongst each other ahead of the upcoming vote. She’s hopeful to see the community find the areas they do agree in, and find ways the community and school district can move forward.

“The goal of Yelm Kids First is we want to keep Yelm Community Schools as Yelm Community Schools,” Cullum said. “So many of the employees here are here because they choose to be here, not because it’s the only option available to them. Me being one of them. I could work elsewhere, but I choose to be here and have chosen to be here for 19 years because I love it here and I love Yelm Community Schools.”

Cullum also highlighted a “big event” set for Monday, Oct. 19, at the Yelm Community Center — as the Know Before You Vote event is scheduled for 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. that evening.

According to Cullum, the event is meant for community members to ask questions about the levy and help local voters with their final decision about the measure.

“I wanted to make a point of thanking our community,” Cullum said. “I said earlier, it’s been helping restore faith, and hopefully, we can continue to build trust between the district, the community and the employees. I think great strides are being made in that direction.”

She added she’d love to see that trend continue as Yelm Kids First, YCS and community members continue to advocate together on how schools should be funded.

“Thank you to every community member that has joined the conversation,” Cullum said. “We have people who have done research and published their research with their sources and with no one particular agenda.”