Second wave of Yelm district reductions begins, recalls underway

Yelm Community Schools Superintendent Chris Woods said that it is “fair to say” the district is roughly halfway through its budget reductions as it looks to cut $15 million due to the double failure of its educational programs and operations levy.

The school board unanimously approved the second resolution of its reduced education plan, which was a reduction in force focusing on the Yelm Association of Educational Office Professionals (YAEOP), certificated and classified administrators, and athletics on Thursday, May 23.

Included in the resolution was a series of furloughs within the district office and the administration, which means that the employees don’t work for a specific number of days and are not compensated for that time off.

The following positions were furloughed:

• Superintendent — 10 days
• Assistant superintendent — 10 days
• Director of human resources —  eight days
• Director of finance —  eight days
• Communications and CTE director —  five days
• Director of student support —  five days
• Director of assessment —  five days
• Director of student learning — five days
• Director of transportation —  five days
• Director of facilities —  five days
• Director of food services —  five days
• Director of technology —  five days
• 14 principals and assistant principals —  five days
• Assistant director of student support — five days
• Assistant director of transportation —  five days
• Finance manager —  five days
• Four program coordinators —  five days

Woods said the district is also reducing seven positions at the district office, four coordinator positions and others within the Yelm Education Association (YEA) bargaining group.

“There are three positions that are in the YEA bargaining group that were addressed at the last board meeting — three coach positions. Two were on the reduction in force and one was not but will be moved back into the classroom,” he said.

He added that the assistant facilities director position was vacated due to a retirement over a month ago and would not be filled. Woods said after the meeting that while early retirements were a point of discussion after the levy election results were finalized, the district decided against that due to there typically being financial incentives involved with early retirements, a move he said was counterproductive.

“We would have liked to have been in a situation where we could do that for people, but we felt like that would have been counterproductive, like you’re in a time where we’re cutting $15 million and offering financial incentives for people to retire,” he said.

Woods said the district is reducing three assistant principal positions, two at the elementary level and one at the high school level. It will cut contracted staff positions, including one social worker and one student resource officer.

He added that the district is in the process of recalling previously reduced positions, starting on Wednesday, May 22, with special education teachers and transportation workers, where the staff are either offered back their previous jobs or moved to a different position. Woods noted that “we might be halfway” in terms of chipping away at the $15 million in budget cuts.

“We’re going to have some very challenging decisions, not that these weren’t challenging because they are, but we’re also going to have some very difficult program and services decisions,” he said in response to school board member Casey Shaw’s question regarding the recall process.

The district had to follow guidelines in its collective bargaining agreements in order to move forward with its recall process. Woods said the district started “at the top of the list” of those who were affected by the reductions in force and looked at if they had the endorsement and qualifications to teach their particular course or area, particularly in special education.

YCS placed five employees back into their original positions and three accepted other positions, Woods said on May 23. He said all special education positions will be filled, but they may be filled with different staff.

“We have a special education position, we start with the first person and then we also look at their endorsement, so they have to have the endorsement to teach that particular course or area. We’re continuing to work our way down that list,” Woods said. “We do the same thing with transportation. We start at the top, and whenever the position is open, if the person is qualified to do that, we offer that position. We’re going to continue as quickly as we can.”

Woods added that the district’s hope is that it will start recalling basic education teachers and paraeducators this week.

Lastly, the district released the names of the 105 affected employees who were part of the reduction in force layoffs. Of the 105 employees, seven were furloughed custodians, while 71 were paraeducators, 47 were in special education — many of whom were also paraeducators — 20 were in the transportation department, and three were in the grounds crew in the facilities department, among others.

YCS will host a budget forum to discuss the future of programs and services on June 13, and it will meet on June 27 to discuss salary changes for recalled employees.