OSD superintendent answers questions about proposed school closures

Olympia School District superintendent answered questions about school closures By P. Jade Asumbrado Olympia School District Superintendent Patrick Murphy answered questions on proposed school closures at an Oct. 8 regular Board of Directors meeting. The district is in the process of engaging with the community before it holds a final vote in November to either close or retain LP Brown Elementary School, Madison Elementary School, and McKenny Elementary School. Murphy addressed questions from the board and community that are not available in the Frequently Asked Questions portion of the district website. A question about the speed of the school closure process was posed, and Murphy responded that the district needs to close the books for the 2025-26 school year to finalize the fund balance that determines which of the projected reductions are needed to be made. "Can we slow down this process? Can we just do it at a slower timeline? Maybe not as many schools at once? And there is a projected deficit that we have to make up this spring…Anything that we didn't do is compounded. If we delay closure, then deeper cuts will be needed elsewhere or deeper cuts will be needed in the future,” said Murphy. There was a question about what it will look like in elementary schools with larger enrollment in terms of administrative support. The district has a document about staffing allocation in administration that shows how many students generate one principal at each level, and how many students would generate deans or assistant principals at the other levels. The written analysis outlines the administration allocation after closures and consolidations, which shows Centennial Elementary will have 1.5 Full-time Equivalent (FTE) principal allocation from the former 1.0 FTE. An FTE figure is a measurement based on workload and funding allocation. The FTE principal allocations for other schools will be 1.4 for Pioneer Elementary, 1.4 for Roosevelt Elementary, 1.3 for Garfield Elementary, and 1.5 for Hansen Elementary. Murphy also answered a question on how extra specialist time will be used if enrollment drives more than a 1.0 FTE teacher in that specialist area. “Class sizes are not based on how big the school is…class sizes are based on the ratio of the number of students in the school and we distribute classroom teachers out to schools,” said Murphy. Murphy said that specialists do not “come in perfect bundles” and sometimes there is a need to round down based on a formula. Asked about whether there would be sufficient large-screen displays should closures happen, Murphy clarified that the devices will be moved to schools in need at the end of the school year. “Should those schools… be closed, then they need to continue in that school until the end of the school year, but the technology department will remove those flat panels from those schools and replace them and bring them to other places where they're needed,” said Murphy. The number of flat panels would match the FTE enrollment in the school classrooms. The district is set to hold the first public hearing of McKenny Elementary today, Oct. 12, as one of the proposed schools to be closed. ***Photo caption: Olympia School District Superintendent Patrick Murphy answered questions on school closures at a meeting on Oct. 8, 2026.