Olympia School District (OSD) Superintendent Patrick Murphy addressed the public’s budget concerns during a regular board meeting last Thursday, January 11.
Murphy announced that the board recently published Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about the closure-related issues on the committee School Facility Efficiency Review Committee’s page. The district also has budget-related FAQs on its main budget web page.
“We talked to one of our last work sessions about frequently asked questions, and those FAQs are now on the webpage,” Murphy said.
The FAQs revolved around the budget deficit, selling unused facilities, levies, staffing, and other budget concerns raised during meetings.
Murphy also said there is a depository of related stories around enrollment budget challenges and school consolidation in the district, state and across the nation.
“This is not unique to Olympia. They're closing the school in Hoquiam, talking about closing two schools on Bainbridge Island, they closed two schools in Bellevue, Seattle is going to close many schools in the years to come,” said Murphy.
OSD published a list of articles covering enrollment decline, budget issues, and school closures from Washington state and across the country.
Hoquiam School District voted to close its Central Elementary School, with the earliest closing date in fall 2025, as stated in an article from The Daily World.
Bainbridge Island Review also wrote a story about Bainbridge Island School District's plan to close either or both Ordway and Commodore Elementary schools.
Early last year, Bellevue School District considered consolidating three schools. However, at the start of the school year 2023-2024, the Seattle Times reported that the district voted to close two elementary schools – Wilburton and Eastgate, and their students were dispersed to different schools.
The Seattle Times also wrote that Seattle Public Schools has not set any school closures for 2024-2025, but would consider it next year.
“I am sincere when I say that we don't want to close any schools. It's not something we want to do. It's a very, very difficult time and our enrollment decline is real,” said Murphy.
OSD’s School Facility Efficiency Review Committee, responsible for the consolidation recommendations, released the schedule of the upcoming meetings for the closure concerns.
Board Work Sessions
Public Hearings
The board also shared the possibility of scheduling community cafés on this topic, with details to follow. Community cafés are public gatherings held at the affected schools with a board representative joining them for a less formal conversation.
Director Maria Flores recently conducted community cafés at Madison and McKenny elementary schools.
OSD plans to act on the school consolidation at its regular board meeting on March 14.
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JW
The shrinking of the Beast that is the public school system is a positive. This archaic, bloated, special-interest dominated machine needs to be torn down and rebuilt for the modern age.
Monday, January 15 Report this