Olympia School District (OSD) Board Superintendent Patrick Murphy discussed the latest version of the Written Analysis of the OSD Policy 6883 regarding school closures and consolidations.
At a meeting last night, January 1, Murphy announced that the board is making the materials connected to school consolidations more accessible to all on the district’s site. “This revised and more focused analysis incorporates and supplements the previously published analyses and makes the relevant information hopefully more accessible to potentially affected community members,” Murphy said.
Murphy discussed that there are currently four possible closure consolidation scenarios. The first is to close McKenny and Madison elementary schools and consolidate with surrounding schools: Centennial Elementary School, Pioneer Elementary School, and Roosevelt Elementary School.
The second scenario is to close Madison and consolidate with McKenny, Pioneer, and Roosevelt.
The third scenario would close only McKenny and consolidate with Centennial and Pioneer.
The fourth option is that no schools would close.
The document will remain a working draft and may be updated periodically to reflect staff and community input, new data board deliberation, and the ongoing refinement of the impact analysis.
The board will not decide on the remaining consolidation or closure options until at least March 14.
“The board has already indicated that it will not make any decision on the remaining consolidation closer options until at least March 14,” said Murphy. “At this time, I would recommend to the board that you hold off on any action on school closure consolidation options until the second meeting in April.”
Murphy said that the schedule would give the community ample time to digest the update, allow the board and staff more time to consider input from school-specific community hearings, and better understand the implications of any legislative funding changes that will be done on March 7.
OSD For All, an independent organization of OSD parents across different schools, criticized the board’s latest analysis.
“OSD School Board Directors re-start the 90-day review period with a new written analysis still based upon inaccurate enrollment projections. The written analysis remains based upon inaccurate modeling conducted by FLO Analytics that erroneously projects a future enrollment decline,” OSD For All’s newsletter stated.
OSD For All also wrote that after transportation costs and new FTEs are figured in, the total savings amount to an estimated $1.7M annually. It is slightly more than half of what is needed to close the projected August 2025 $3.5M deficit.
The organization is inviting everyone to a meeting on Tuesday, January 30, at the Capitol Theater in downtown Olympia to discuss the budget options.
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johnvaneenwyk
As a clinical psychologist who has treated highly suicidal patients for 50 years, I am acutely aware of factors that lead to the kind of despair that suicidal people experience. Among the highest are loneliness, failure and loss of significant others. For teen-agers, these factors are especially painful. Among my colleagues, and in the media generally, on of the situations that exacerbate these factors is the large class sizes in our schools. Personal relationships with teachers have been shown to be particularly helpful for teen-agers who face difficult situations at home and among peers. For example, my high school band teacher was instrumental in keeping me in school and alleviating my feelings of social isolation. Large class sizes make such relationships difficult, if not impossible.
Consequently, to combine schools to save money is to reduce, if not eliminate, the possibility of teacher-student relationships. Sacrificing the lives of our future citizens to save a few dollars makes no sense. Actually, it's unconscionable. The Olympia community understands this and always votes to increase funding for schools. The State Legislature, however, does not. Cutting school funding (or failing to provide adequate funding in the first place) ensures societal dissolution.
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