Yelm Community Schools is on its fifth attempt to pass an educational programs and operations maintenance levy.
The levy is necessary for the financial stability of the school district, but has been voted down by the district’s voter base four times in the last two years.
Most recently, a levy proposal on the Nov. 4, 2025 ballot failed 50.73%, representing 3,889 votes, to 49.27%, representing 3,777 votes.
That proposal asked voters to approve an estimated rate of $1.30 per $1,000 of assessed value, for a total of $18.45 million levied over two years.
Yelm Community Schools Superintendent Chris Woods believes that the district has done enough in the year since the last levy failure to address the concerns that led voters to vote down that proposal.
Feedback the district has gotten over the years include that residents are tired of paying taxes, that they don’t trust that the district has been managing its funds properly, that the district's budget isn’t transparent, and that Yelm students are underperforming academically.
“We’ve heard those arguments loud and clear,” Woods said. “Based on that feedback, what we've tried to do is say, ‘okay, we want to be responsive to the criticism and make sure that we are building a plan that helps us to improve in the areas where people have concerns.’”
Last year, Yelm Community Schools assembled a group of about 30 staff members, parents and community members to develop a new strategic plan.
That plan focuses on three pillars — learning, belonging and community — with 11 measurable goals for success.
“We took a hard look at how we were doing in all phases of our district, and we believe we put together a strategic plan that acknowledges those needs, addresses them, and now we're putting those actions in place and monitoring them on a regular basis,” Woods said.
Yelm Community Schools has a committee meeting scheduled for November to go over data from the last year to see how successfully the strategic plan has been implemented so far.
“It's going to take time, but we're committed to meeting the needs of our students and addressing the concerns of our community,” Woods said.
Confident enough to go back to voters with a fifth levy proposal, Yelm Community Schools has increased its ask, requesting an estimated rate of $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed value, for a total of $23.47 million levied over two years.
Woods said the $1.50 rate is the minimum the district needs to avoid further cuts to programs and services within the district.
That $1.50 rate is also the minimum to qualify the district for levy equalization from the state, which would grant the district an extra $2 million in funding.
Every extra dollar Yelm Community Schools can secure helps protect the district as it operates under financial oversight from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI).
Yelm Community Schools has been under “binding conditions,” the lowest level of OSPI financial oversight, since Sept. 2024, when the district forecast a negative funding balance for the 2024-25 school year.
Despite significant reductions in staffing and services over the last two years, the district has continued to rely on one-time funding sources and remaining cash reserves to support ongoing expenses in the absence of local levy funding.
“We've used up all available money that we can to cover the costs for this school year,” Woods said. “After this school year, we don't have any other options, and so we know that if this levy fails, we will go into financial oversight.”
OSPI informed Yelm Community Schools about the pending financial oversight on Sept. 28.
Financial oversight is the next step up from the binding conditions the district has been under since 2024.
This stage of the process requires the convening of a Financial Oversight Committee, which reviews the financial condition of a school district and makes a recommendation to OSPI on next steps.
Woods said that OSPI indicated it would start assembling that committee immediately if the levy proposal fails on the Nov. 3 ballot.
According to Woods, Yelm Community Schools would be tasked with showing the Financial Oversight Committee a two year plan that is financially sustainable.
Initial assessments indicate that plan would involve laying off 80 to 90 more staff, and eliminating all programs and services except those explicitly required by the state.
“It would be extremely challenging for us to operate, and I think for families, they would also be probably exploring other opportunities,” Woods said.
If the Financial Oversight Committee is unsatisfied with Yelm Community Schools’ financial plan, the committee could recommend enhanced financial oversight, under which the committee takes full control of the district’s financial decisions.
The committee could also recommend that the district be dissolved and consolidated into neighboring districts.
Only one Washington school district has gone through that dissolution process in the last 25 years, according to OSPI.
“That would be a significant loss for our community, and really unfortunate for our students and our staff,” Woods said.
Yelm families would most likely be split between North Thurston, Tumwater, Rainier and Bethel school districts.
All of those districts have higher tax rates than what Yelm Community Schools is currently asking for, Woods said.
“What this means for our taxpayers is, at some point, they would take on that tax rate,” Woods said.
Yelm Community Schools could potentially run the levy again in February 2027 to avoid dissolution, but that would probably be the district’s last chance to do so.
“I guess the question would be, what would be different in February from November?”
Not much, Woods believes, aside from the drastic cuts the district would be deciding on with the Financial Oversight Committee.
Woods does have hope that the fifth time could be the charm.
“We have more people engaging in the conversation than we've had the last four times that we've tried this levy, and that's been encouraging,” Woods said.
For more information about Yelm Community School’s levy proposal and about the Nov. 3 general election in Thurston County, visit https://www.thurstoncountywa.gov/departments/auditor/elections.
