Thursday, October 1, 2026
A family engagement position is being weighed at Olympia School District, about two months after five family liaison positions were eliminated amid budget woes.
At a June 8 work session, Superintendent Patrick Murphy referenced research highlighting the importance of engaging families to produce better outcomes for students.
“We really like to add a framework for family engagement and talked about a position, potentially, that could work alongside those key members at the district level and really talk about ways to support student success by helping schools implement data-driven strategies for increased family engagement,” he said.
Murphy said the position would be a go-to resource for staff on how to support families, which will create training materials on best practices for family engagement, pool learning resources with counselors and social workers, and collaborate with multilingual matters.
“I think it's where we need to go because the (Olympia School District Board of Directors) has had presentations and conversations with our Human Resources Department about how we try to diversify hiring to better reflect the families that we serve, because representation matters,” he said.
The district included the reduction of five family liaison positions with the passage of Resolution No. 685, or the 2026-27 (School Year) Reduced Educational Program and Staffing Plan, in April.
Federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds initially funded 12 family liaison positions. But the funding has ceased, along with the temporary federal COVID-19 relief funding for the position that was expended during the pandemic.
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johnvaneenwyk
While OSD rightfully decides how to allocate its very inadequate funding resources, eliminating the entire family engagement program was a mistake. It has been well-researched (if not intuitively obvious) that family engagement greatly enhances students’ abilities to succeed in school.
So, thank you OSD for reconsidering and preserving at least a vestige of this very necessary program.
Wednesday, June 17 Report this
Honestyandrealityguy
I wonder from the union control perspective, if they will ever be educating on reading, writing and arithmetic anymore?
Wednesday, June 17 Report this