Yelm Community Schools Superintendent Chris Woods traveled to the Washington state Capitol Campus Monday, Feb. 3, to express his support for House Bill 1338, which relates to materials, supplies and operating costs (MSOC) for schools.
The bill, introduced in January by Rep. April Berg, D-Mill Creek, would increase the per-pupil MSOC allocation by 20% beginning in the 2025-26 school year for all categories, and class sizes in the state’s funding formula would be reduced. It would also include increases for technology and curriculum allocations, as well as the introduction of a minimum allocation for small schools.
The total general education MSOC per-pupil allocation is $1,533.02 for the 2024-25 school year, while the proposed bill asks for an increase from the currently projected $1,570 in 2025-26 to $1,883.77 per pupil.
Woods shared how the approval of the bill would help YCS, a district that had yet to fail its educational programs and operations levy measure for the third time at the time of his testimony. The measure failed on Tuesday, Feb. 11, with 3,362 voters, or 44.27%, across Thurston and Pierce counties choosing to approve the levy while 4,232 voters, or 55.73%, voting to oppose, as of the initial tally.
“This increase is essential to address rising costs and to maintain the quality of education our students deserve. I’d like to thank you for this proposed 20% increase,” he said at the Capitol. “Over the past five years, we’ve seen a tremendous increase in utilities and insurance. Insurance alone has increased 144%. Despite rigorous cost-control efforts, we remain at the mercy of market-driven price increases in both utilities and insurance, which are placing an ever-growing strain on our limited resources.”
Woods added that YCS has had to subsidize MSOC funding with $2 million in levy funds last year and $4 million over the past three years.
“The recent double-levy failure in Yelm Community Schools will further exacerbate our funding shortfall. This loss will force additional cuts to essential programs and services at a time when we’ve already reduced spending by $10 million last spring,” he said. “The absence of these vital levy funds for the remainder of the school year and the next school year, possibly longer depending upon our current ballot measure, will have a profound and lasting impact.”
At the Thursday, Feb. 13, YCS school board meeting, Woods told the board that he planned to meet with each school’s principal on Tuesday, Feb. 19, before discussing strategic planning for cuts.
In an email to district staff, Woods said he will meet with the Board of Directors to discuss the timing of potential another future ballot measure following an analysis of voter data. The district has the option to run the levy measure again in April, August or November
