At the conclusion of the Yelm Community Schools (YCS) Board of Directors meeting on Thursday, Jan. 8, all five board members — Frank King, Denise Hendrickson, Ryan Jewell, Bill Hauss and Casey Shaw — took some time to voice their support of Chris Woods, YCS superintendent, following Yelm Education Association’s (YEA) vote of no confidence on Tuesday, Jan. 6.
The newest member of the YCS Board of Directors, Ryan Jewell, said that he originally prepared some thoughts because he thought there was going to be “some defense of the superintendent.” To his surprise, Jewell noted, there was an “overwhelming sound of support” that spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting in favor of Woods.
Jewell also believes that you can tell a lot about someone’s character by the friends and people they surround themselves with in life.
“We have some real challenges. Nobody at this table or in this room is unaware of the challenges we are facing right now, but we’re better together,” Jewell said. “I’m new to Chris and I’m new to the board — but I’m not new to Yelm. I’m sad by how Chris was received in our community and I love this community deeply.”
Jewell, who defeated the incumbent and 40-year board member Debbie Edwards in November to earn a seat as a school board member, said he initially reached out to Woods a year ago by email because he had several frustrations based on school activity that he saw online. He noted he was instantly invited in for a conversation by the superintendent.
“You want to talk about transparency — there’s nobody that is more open, in my experience, than Chris,” Jewell said. “He invited me in that week and we sat down. In every conversation I had with him from then forward was refreshing. It was clear that there was an honest and transparent desire to make things better. That has been my interaction from day one.”
Jewell added that he’s grateful to be a member of the school board, grateful to be in Yelm and grateful for Woods. He believes Yelm has some of the greatest teachers and staff who love students like their own — and that it’s rare to find communities and districts like that.
“I’ve reached out to groups of members in the community to ask for transparency and they haven’t had the same response,” Jewell said. “If we’re going to do this together, we genuinely need to be on the same page.”
Casey Shaw, Yelm school board president, took the end of the meeting as a second opportunity to speak on Woods’ work ethic and character. He initially opened the meeting with a 10-minute dialogue about the superintendent, and used the conclusion of the meeting to add some closing thoughts.
“I don’t believe in coincidences. There was a band here for each of us that says to ‘commit to hope,’ and I think with what I’ve heard tonight, from all the speakers, what I do know about this community is we do have hope,” Shaw said. “Sometimes you have to go through the darkness before the daylight seeps in. Sometimes sunlight is the best disinfectant and there’s a bacteria growing in the dark. There is nobody that is singularly to blame. Everybody carries some blame.”
Additionally, Shaw said he appreciated the comments from YEA co-president, Katherine Collum, and noted that her statement gave him “the most hope during the entire meeting.”
