Tumwater conflict prompts new plan to squash issues between school board, city
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Tumwater school board formed a work group to plan joint meetings with the city.
- President Casey Taylor said Mayor Dahlhoff threatened to make the board uncomfortable.
- Board members disagreed about attendance, collaboration, and timing of meetings.
After recent conflict, the Tumwater School District board of directors decided April 23 to put together a work group aimed at planning a series of joint meetings with the City Council that would likely happen once a year.
According to previous reporting from The Olympian, the Tumwater City Council and Tumwater School District were scheduled to have a joint meeting on April 14. Three out of the five school board members were absent from the meeting.
The agenda for the joint meeting included topics such as the School Resource Officer program, sharing facilities, the Tumwater FRESH Program, and creating a community of welcoming and belonging.
Board members Melissa Beard and Julie Watts were the only people from the district, including general staff members, who attended the April 14 meeting. School Board President Casey Taylor and board members Ty Kuehl and Rob Warner were not in attendance. Kuehl and Warner both notified staff they wouldn’t be in attendance due to being out of town.
Taylor did not provide an immediate reason to the city or school board for not being in attendance, but later told The Olympian he had a prior commitment to coach a youth baseball game, and that the joint meeting was not official, therefore a quorum could not have been reached.
During the April 23 school board meeting, Kuehl said he watched the entire joint meeting with the City Council, and he heard from many in attendance that there was an unwillingness by the board members who weren’t there to work with the city. He said that isn’t true, and that he’s been working with members of the council for more than a year on projects including shared use facilities.
Kuehl referred to Dahlhoff as Mayor Loretta during the meeting. Watts corrected him and said that the mayor’s name is Leatta.
Kuehl said there has “definitely been some frustration” with the city, but he looks forward to working with them, and he thinks there are some things that would make both the district and city better if they work together.
Warner said at the April 23 meeting that he feels like the board got off to a rough start this year, and he wasn’t prepared to combine their rough start with another board until they got some internal things figured out.
He said he’s interested in collaborating with the city, but that it wouldn’t be valuable without real collaboration. He said the City Council inferred that those who didn’t attend the joint meeting weren’t prioritizing collaboration, and that the council’s comments were reckless.
Warner said the district has more than 6,000 students and 900 employees, and including families they answer to 50,000 people. He said the City of Tumwater has less than half the amount of employees and less than half the amount of citizens they answer to, and their structure of government is different.
According to the city’s 2025-2026 biennial budget, the city employs around 250 people, and the population was 27,470 in 2024.
Taylor said during the April 23 meeting that his prior commitment took priority over the joint meeting, and that he couldn’t imagine someone prioritizing a joint meeting over being out of state on vacation with their family.
He said the council’s remarks regarding their priorities were harassment, and that it was not an official district meeting.
Taylor said Dahlhoff threatened to make the board uncomfortable.
According to previous reporting from The Olympian, Dahlhoff said that she’s setting expectations for those who weren’t in attendance at the April 14 meeting to show up and work together. If not, she said it will be “really uncomfortable” for them, because the city isn’t stopping the work it’s doing.
She also said she wouldn’t be bullied, and that board members being absent from the joint meeting was a waste of time.
Taylor called out the city for recently posting a policy on its social media regarding comments that may be deemed threatening, harassing or offensive. He said he finds that rich and wonders if the council and city staff hold themselves to the same standards.
The city posted on its social media page on April 22 and linked to Tumwater’s social media policies. The post stated that the city welcomes community feedback, and they understand that not everyone will agree. They asked that comments “remain respectful and free of profanity, so conversations can stay productive and accessible for everyone.”
“The City of Tumwater social media policy prohibits profane language, violent, offensive, harassing, or threatening content,” the post said. “Comments that don’t meet our social media guidelines may be removed.”
During the April 23 meeting, Watts relayed some of the concerns the council had during the joint meeting, including the several months that it took to get a joint meeting on the books and the allegations from the three board members who weren’t in attendance that the city was in breach of contract over the reassignment of a School Resource Officer. She said during the April 23 meeting it felt like the current conversation wasn’t helping them move forward to repair their relationship with the city.
“I really want to make sure that we set our sights on the fact that the same people who elected us elected them, and I think they have an anticipation that we engage with them in a professional manner and engage in conversations, because at the end of the day, this is about the district and the well-being of the kids and the families that we’re serving and this is their mayor and their council as well,” she said.
Beard said there were a lot of hurt feelings expressed at the joint meeting, and a lot of hurt feelings expressed during the April 23 board meeting. But the positive, she said, is that everyone is interested in working toward a joint meeting and collaborating with the city.
In response to Watts’ comments, Taylor said it isn’t accurate that the same people who elected them elected the mayor and council. He said there are 14,000 registered voters who don’t vote in Tumwater but vote for board members, and that makes up about 45% of the district.
Taylor said he and Kuehl will be the two school board members to participate in a work group with city council members and staff aimed at squashing some of the interpersonal issues and working toward annual joint meetings with the city.
Taylor asked that the board have months to plan the next joint meeting and that they get an agenda in front of them weeks in advance. However, Superintendent Kevin Bogatin and board members Beard, Watts and Warner pushed to have a joint meeting sooner rather than later. The new work group has not yet set a date.
In an email to The Olympian on April 29, Dahlhoff said the City Council values its partnership with the school board and the shared responsibility they have to serve the community. She said the recent joint meeting was meant to strengthen that partnership, not create division.
“It is important to say clearly that the intent of the Council was to engage in open dialogue about how we can better align our efforts in support of students, families, and the broader Tumwater community,” she said. “We appreciate the two Tumwater School Board members who attended and participated in the conversation. Their willingness to engage is an important step forward.”
Dahlhoff said she acknowledges that the district serves a broader population than the city, including families in Thurston County. She said that perspective reinforces the importance of coordination across jurisdictions. She said Mayor Pro Tem Kelly Von Holtz will be reaching out to the district and Thurston County to support that effort.
She said she and the council aren’t interested in prolonging disagreement or focusing on differences, and that the issue isn’t personal.
“Our focus remains on building a strong, respectful partnership grounded in shared goals and mutual accountability,” she said. “Our community members expect, and deserve, collaboration between their local governments and schools. We remain committed to moving forward together in that spirit.”
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