Olympia School District leadership presents transition plan for school consolidations 

The Olympia School District (OSD) superintendent has outlined initial transition plans for the district ahead of a vote on school closures.

At a Nov. 5 OSD Board of Directors work session, Superintendent Patrick Murphy and Assistant Superintendent James Whitehead presented details on transition planning the district is going to follow for closures and consolidations. 

Whitehead said the district plans to bring school-level leaders and district leaders together through a series of transition committee meetings to identify potential needs.

There are 12 meetings scheduled after the board votes on the proposed school closures on Thursday, Nov. 12. The targeted schools for closure are McKenny Elementary School, LP Brown Elementary School and Madison Elementary School.

“The transition committee is not … done just at the district level. The idea is that we are doing this pre-planning work, working with schools that were up for potential consolidation and for schools that would be receiving, and we have district cabinet members and district directors and assistant directors all supporting in that work,” Whitehead said. 

If the board votes in favor of Resolution No. 689 (Authorizing School Closures), McKenny, LP Brown and Madison elementary schools will be shuttered and consolidated with other schools.

Students from McKenny Elementary will be transferred to Pioneer and Centennial elementary schools, students from Madison Elementary will be transferred to Roosevelt Elementary School, and students from LP Brown will be transferred to Hansen and Garfield elementary schools. 

School transition teams (certificated staff, classified staff and parents) will be organized into consolidation groups based on where the students are going. The district will be using Liberatory Design for the process.

“Liberatory design comes out of the National Equity Council … truly around the process of see, engage and act around this idea of empathy, define, inquire, imagine, prototype and try,” Whitehead said. 

The district is in the emphasize and define petals right now during the pre-vote stage, and according to Whitehead, parameters were put around on how to advance to inquire. 

Proposal to postpone board vote 

During the work session, OSD Director Renee Fullerton proposed postponing the Nov. 12 vote to Dec. 14, and asked Murphy to prepare more documents related to the consolidation. 

“I just wanted to put this in front of you so you can think about it … would be a sort of a multi-step so that all board members can make a fully informed decision and to allow for public comments,” Fullerton said. 

Fullerton proposed moving the vote to allow time to discuss the requested documents: a non-closure proposal and supplemental program relocation report. 

Fullerton also suggested engaging in family outreach efforts through plain language communications to inform them of new reports and updated decision milestones. 

The district released Murphy’s response to Fullerton’s proposal, which will be discussed at a board meeting this week.