When Yelm Community Schools Superintendent Chris Woods described his district’s struggles as “tearing things down to the studs and rebuilding,” many of the fellow Thurston County school leaders solemnly agreed.
Superintendents from each of the county’s eight school districts met with the Thurston County Board of Commissioners during a Wednesday, March 19, work session to share their concerns from the past year.
The sentiment was largely the same across all eight districts: more funding for public education is needed to operate. As many of the districts are entering or actively working on strategic planning, that piece of the puzzle is up in the air with two Senate bills regarding special education and materials, supplies and operating costs (MSOC) on the table.
Most of the superintendents in the south county region expressed fear with the lack of certainty in state funding. Only 43.1% of Washington state’s 2024 budget was used for K-12 education funding compared to 52.4% in 2019, according to waschoolfunding.org.
Bryon Bahr, Rainier School District superintendent, shared that the 2024-25 school year has been especially challenging in terms of financial stability for a district with 938 students, 15.9% of which are special education students.
“The biggest challenge that I’ve seen since I’ve been the superintendent is this financial stability because there doesn’t seem to be any solution,” he said. “We’ve done different things and we just keep getting knocked down. What I would ask is if you have any time or any energy with any of our legislators, please talk to them about supporting schools. If we can’t heat the building and keep the building safe with our MSOC funding where they’re going to give us $5 a kid more when our insurance has gone up double, those are the things that we struggle with every day.”
Kevin Bogatin, Tumwater School District superintendent, described the overall situation in his district as “a rough go” filled with angst for a variety of reasons. He said that the district is running in an operating deficit of about $4.5 million and has operated in the negative in its cash fund balance for two months in a row. As a result, the district is borrowing from the capital fund.
“We had some money in the bank, and we’ve been overspending that. The well has run dry,” Bogatin told the commissioners. “We have some pretty significant cuts across our system into the coming year. We actually passed our levy and are facing some of this.”
Bogatin added that nearly 60 staff positions will be reduced in the coming year, including district office staff and classroom teachers.
Aside from its financial struggles, the Tumwater School District has made headlines in recent weeks due to its ongoing federal Title IX investigation into the school board’s defense of the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association’s (WIAA) policy that would keep transgender students from playing with biological girls in sports.
The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights Seattle branch is investigating a Title IX complaint against the district for allegedly opening a bullying investigation after a student sat out of a junior varsity basketball game in protest of the opposing team having a transgender girl competing, Tumwater school board member Ty Kuehl said during a recent board meeting. Washington’s Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) has also opened an investigation alleging discrimination regarding the board’s support of the WIAA policy, Kuehl added.
Despite the school board’s vote, Bogatin told the commissioners that the district is supporting all students and student athletes and is meeting with local groups as it works through this issue.
“My school board is torn on this, and so it is causing a lot of angst in the Tumwater School District at this time and in our community as we start to try to navigate these political issues that are rolling into our schools,” he said. “We keep trying to send the message that all of this stuff that’s happening is really outside of our schools right now. We are following our policies around supporting all students, specifically transgender students.”
Perhaps no school district in the county has faced more financial struggles in the past year than Yelm Community Schools, as the district is reeling from its third consecutive failure of its educational programs and operations levy. As a result of the loss of about 15% of its revenue, YCS had to cut $10 million and eliminate 100 positions last year and faces additional cuts this spring and beyond. The district is also in binding conditions with OSPI, meaning the office supports YCS in its attempt to balance its budget.
Woods said the district is creating a strategic planning committee that aims to bring staff, students, families, board members and community members together to build the “roadmap for Yelm Community Schools moving forward, with or without levy dollars.”
“The reality of it is, we’re not the only ones in the state that didn’t pass their levy. I think, quite honestly, we’re going to see more of that given the current climate,” Woods said. “Unfortunately, levies have become very political in public education, and that has caused some significant challenges.”
Dr. Jennifer Bethman, Rochester School District superintendent, shared that, despite a consistent total enrollment, kindergarten and first grade class sizes are smaller than ever but middle school class sizes are increasing. She added that the district has made a 13% budget reduction over the past two years, even with a small increase in students over that timeframe.
“The MSOC costs are just increasing at rates we can’t even keep up with,” Bethman said. “We had a 22% increase in our utilities costs since 2020, and we had a 100.3% increase in cost for our insurance rates since 2020. We are being asked to cover that with the funds that we get from our local levies. That’s the only way I can do that, or by having less teachers in the classroom or less administrators.”
RSD also failed its recent bond, which Bethman said would have been used to improve its high school that was built in 1989.
Clint Endicott, head of Tenino School District, said the district is fortunate to have a full staff despite some financial concerns, but he expressed that the need is not as dire as some of the neighboring districts.
“It would be fantastic if we could get additional funds from the state so that we’re not having to backfill with enrichment dollars, but overall, we’re very fortunate that we’ve been able to make small adjustments,” Endicott said. “That’s carried through to where we’re not in a position where we’re having serious budget woes.”
