YCS superintendent highlights district’s financial overview for three year window

As Yelm Community Schools (YCS) prepares for a fifth attempt at passing an educational programs and operations (EP&O) levy at the rate of $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed home value, Chris Woods, YCS superintendent, highlighted the projected ending fund balances for the 2026-27 and 2027-28 school years.

First, Woods said that YCS is working on getting its budget approved for the 2026-27 school year — which requires a lot of conversation with Educational Service District (ESD) and the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI).
He noted that YCS will end the current 2025-26 school year with an ending fund balance of $7.9 million.

“You’ll remember that we transferred $9 million from capitol over and so $7.9 (million) of that is carrying over into next year,” Woods said. “So 2026-27, no levy dollars factored into this information. As it stands, all things being considered equal, meaning we maintain the cuts we’ve made so far, which this spring for next year, we’ve reduced 63 more positions for next year. That’s on top of positions we’ve already reduced the past two years.”

Woods added that the projected ending fund balance for the 2026-27 school year is projected at $877,000 — which doesn’t cover a month’s payroll.

“That assumes no additional support,” Woods said. “That assumes status quo from the state. That assumes the same cuts for next year, and actually a little bit more, probably through attrition through positions. Obviously, the outcome of the levy would then determine the following year.”

With no additional revenue or funding through levy dollars, the projected deficit for YCS at the end of the 2027-28 school year would be $9.5 million. Woods said the district will know “for sure” in November whether it will be receiving levy funding or not.

Woods said one of two things will happen. If the levy passes, there would be a conversation between YCS and OSPI to present the organization with the district’s two-year outlook. More than likely, YCS would remain in binding conditions for the remainder of the year and could potentially come off binding conditions the following year.

If the levy doesn’t pass, Woods said a committee would be assembled for financial oversight. He believes by the end of December, there would already be meetings with the committee relating to potential cuts in the spring.

Ahead of the projected $9.5 million deficit, YCS would be putting in place the necessary cuts to get the district above the $9.5 million mark. The district would also enter financial oversight with OSPI.

“Again, this assumes no additional revenue. No additional support from the state,” Woods said. “It also assumes flat in cost, which we know there’s gonna be an increase. So when we talk about the amount that we went out to our voters for, at about $11.34 million, you could see that $9.5 million is going to increase with inflation.”

Woods claimed that according to TJ Kelly, 10 different school districts across Washington will be on binding conditions to begin the 2026-27 school year.

“We’ll be posting our draft budget for 26-27. It has to go through ESD,” Woods said. “It also has to be finally approved by OSPI. We don’t anticipate any challenges on that because we’ve been working with them along the way. They’ve already seen pieces of it anyways. This is a high level outlook for the next couple of years, assuming no additional revenue.”

School board director Ryan Jewell asked Woods how many of the 10 schools on binding conditions have levies — to which Woods answered with all of them. The superintendent noted that YCS is the only district that doesn’t have a levy in binding conditions.

Additionally, Woods met with Joe DePinto, Yelm mayor, and asked if he could speak to the city council.

“I’ll be asking if they would be willing to support us as we move forward, and what that could look like would depend on them,” Woods said. “Not necessarily financially but maybe in word. I’m waiting to hear back on when I’ll have an opportunity to speak with them. I’d love for two of you to come with me if you’d like. Any more than that, we’d have to consider it a public meeting — which is fine. We can do that.”