Thursday, October 1, 2026
Centennial Elementary School in Olympia earned a Culture Kickoff Award for the second straight year, affirming its commitment to fostering a sense of belonging among students.
The award celebrates schools that open the year with a positive school culture.
“This Association of Washington Student Leaders (AWSL) and Association of Washington School Principals (AWSP) award honors schools that start the year with purpose and positivity, that bring their community together through creative themes, energizing opening assemblies, and activities that make everyone feel welcome and included,” the school district wrote in a social media post.
Centennial is one of only eight schools statewide to receive the honor consecutively, as stated in the Olympia School District’s December Spotlight on Success.
“I want to do a second year in a row congratulations to Centennial Elementary School. They were named once again this year, in 2025, a Culture Kickoff Award winner,” said Superintendent Patrick Murphy at a school district board meeting on Dec. 11.
At Centennial, each school year begins with a unifying theme with the aim of inclusivity and fostering a sense of belonging. This fall’s theme was “Lights, Camera, Action, Learning.”
The school’s initiatives ranged from welcoming students with a wall of "Centennial Stars" featuring every student’s name, to classroom visits from the principal to reading a book about shared commitment to belonging.
“It's just an awesome, positive, inclusive school community, and they really do go above and beyond there,” Murphy said.
Additional support from the school includes a sensory room and scheduled breaks to promote well-being and self-regulation among students.
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ConservativeHippie
Interesting. This is the same elementary that had an LGBTQ+ club led by Jennifer Knight, a teacher. An elementary school.
The same teacher was reported to have groomed an Indian immigrant child through secret emails and subjective interpretation of the 10 YEAR OLD child's clothes that they were desiring to be the opposite ***.
Email from Jennifer Knight to the 10 YEAR OLD child: “Make sure this email is deleted too when we are done bc otherwise when your mom looks, you will be outed instantly.”
Here is the national news article written on the topic: https://nypost.com/2024/02/01/opinion/family-flees-us-after-teacher-spurs-hides-10-year-old-daughters-gender-transition/
So spare me the accolades for Centennial's leadership in belonging and inclusivity ... this is all very weird tbh. Jennifer Knight was not removed, apparently did nothing wrong under district rules or the law in Washington State, and was moved to another ELEMENTARY school in the district.
Reminder - Less than 40% of registered voters voted in this past election of school board members.
Saturday, December 27, 2025 Report this
CobraCommander
ConservativeHippie - NY Post is a tabloid. Do better in differentiating between unbiased sources and 'fake news'.
Donald Trump is a named *** offender, prolific throughout the Epstein files, and the Republican Party is packed with child rapists:
https://www.scribd.com/document/618859562/Convicted-Republican-child-predators
Saturday, December 27, 2025 Report this