Chief of finance highlights the significance of passing Nov. 4 levy for YCS

Prior to the Yelm Community Schools Board of Directors voting unanimously to run a fourth levy attempt — set for Tuesday, Nov. 4 — the district’s Chief of Finance Jennifer Carrougher spoke at the podium about the significance in passing the upcoming measure.

During the special board meeting on Thursday, July 31, Carrougher said she’s presented a lot of data, scenarios and forecasts to the school board throughout the last several weeks in order to make an informed decision. With no levy money set to be collected in the 2025 calendar year, Carrougher said the set levy amount would be at the rate of $1.30 per $1,000 of assessed property value. The tax would be collected in 2026 and 2027.

“We’ve had a lot of discussion, and I know you’ve had discussion behind the scenes. You’ve been provided some additional information as of yesterday to help make the decision. The resolution, based on conversations you have had, was developed at a rate of $1.30,” Carrougher said. “We will not collect anything in the fall. If we pass the levy in November, for next year, we would start collecting on that in the spring. We’d have no collection in the fall.”

She also presented the exact ballot proposition language — which will be featured on the Nov. 4 ballot — and it read: “this proposition would authorize the district to levy the following excess taxes, replacing an expired levy on taxable property within the district for essential educational programs, extracurricular activities, and operations including, but not limited to, teachers, arts, nurses, counselors, classified staff, para-educators, safety, graduation readiness, technology, athletic facilities, curriculum training.”

Carrougher noted that YCS is limited to only 75 words on the ballot to indicate what the levy pays for, but noted many administrators and “other things” aren’t included but would be impacted with a levy failure.

“I know this is not a new message, but I think it’s important to reiterate this because there seems to still be a lot of confusion or misunderstanding by our voters on what the levy is used for,” she said. “It’s often referred to as an enrichment levy, which leads people to believe it’s just for extracurricular activities and enrichment-type activities when, truly, it supports a lot of our essential and basic education programs, because we know the state doesn’t fully fund basic education.”

Carrougher believes the main change in the upcoming levy language, while comparing the measure ran in February of last year to the upcoming measure, is that special education was removed from the Legislature-approved regulation during the last session. She said districts can no longer use levy money to fund special education.

“Most districts, if not all throughout the state, were using levy funds because everybody subsidizes special ed because they don’t get enough money from the state to meet all of the requirements that we’re required to meet,” she said. “What that does, as we’re still required to pay for those special ed costs because it’s federal and state required, is it requires us to move other essential staff to levy dollars.”

Carrougher added that YCS will be faced with deciding which staff will be considered, and that it could be a range of “any of them listed in the ballot measure.”

She also noted the total amount of levy money collected in 2026 and 2027 does not include the state of Washington’s support for levy equalization. According to Carrougher, this would be an additional amount that taxpayers “would not pay for” but rather the state would provide.