Madison Elementary community protests school closure

Some 120 parents, teachers and students met at Madison Elementary School on Friday, January 5to show solidarity against its closure and learn of plans to organize against the district’s plan to close it and another school

This meeting was near the start of a district-determined 90-day public comment period after Madison was identified to be closed along with McKenny Elementary School.

Independent watchdog against school closure -- OSD For All

LP Brown Elementary’s Parent-Teacher Organization (PTO) Vice President Dune Ives introduced OSD For All, which she said already involvesmore than 100 volunteers across the district and aims to keep all schools open.

“OSD For All is a loosely affiliated group of schools. There are a ton of us… and our mission is to make sure that none of our schools close. We firmly believe that our neighborhood schools are not the structural issue that needs to be fixed,” said Ives.

According to the group’s website, OSD For ALL is “a group of like-minded community members who have come together in response to the recommendations from the Olympia School District School Board’s School Efficiency Review Committee consultant.”

“What we're doing at OSD for All is … all the research, all the analysis. We're diving into the budget. We've looked at the demography that Flo Analytics and Western Demographics have done. We have found that they have not included any of the apartment buildings in their future projections; they are under-projecting by a minimum of 400 kids,” eIves said

Ives emphasized that Madison has the highest rate of students who experience homelessness, and it is a safe and walkable school. She insisted on focusing on allocating resources across schools and doing a hiring freeze.

Ives also criticized the district’s alleged violation of its Policy 6883, which mandates the board to publish a draft of a written analysis before the 90-day public comment period. The analysis should contain comprehensive data such as projected enrollment, student and staff displacement, and financial considerations, among many others.

“We believe strongly that the school board is currently in violation of their own policies. And we are working with our attorneys over the weekend to make sure that everybody who wants to file an appeal can file an appeal. It's due next Friday. If you miss the window, it's a 30-day window, we don't get it back,” said Ives.

OSD For All has organized ways for community members to get involved. Volunteers are putting up fliers to encourage public comments, and its site also collated specific ways to petition.

Vanessa Cruz Matias, a student attending Madison Elementary School, touches up her sign supporting her keeping her school open at the meeting held …

Underfunding by the legislature blamed

OSD Board Director Maria Flores attended the meeting and talked to the Madison community, urging them not to turn the current problem into “The Hunger Games” and that the district must not pit schools against each other, saying that “this is a community and we got to solve the problem together.”

“The budget development process has started for next year, while on Monday, the legislative session starts. One of the reasons we're in this place, it's not because we are mismanaging money. It's because we're being systemically unfunded by the state,” explained Flores.

There is a funding issue because the state puts a cap on the number of students allowed to receive Special Education (SpEd) funding. The allocation for SpEd students is capped at 13.5% of the student population in a district.

OSD is also counting on a proposal to remove this cap. The district’s 2021-2022 Annual Report showed that 15.6% of OSD’s 9,777 population are children with special needs.

Currently, OSD’s levy money pays for SpEd instead of spending it on the operation of smaller schools and extracurricular activities, which is why these schools are greatly impacted by the lack of funds.

The district also did not receive “regionalization funding,” a state program that increases funding based on a district’s cost of living, Flores said.

Flores said that they needed to alert the state of this “fundamental mistake” because OSD deserves regionalization and it would also solve the budget issues.

“What’s coming up next? Several board members, including myself, have some ideas and proposals in the next couple of meetings that we are going to be sharing,” Flores said. “One of the things that I'm exploring that might also help us is…we could expand early learning.”

“If we expand early learning, we can get different funding from the Department of Children, Youth and Family,” Flores furthered.

The board approved calendar dates for important events during its work session last Thursday, and several formal hearings and community cafés would follow this meeting.