A Letter to the Olympia School District Community

September 17, 2026

Dear Olympia School District community,

This week, the Olympia School District is releasing its analysis under Board Policy 6883 regarding the proposed closure and consolidation of Madison, McKenny, and LP Brown elementary schools. I will be going over this analysis with the board during a work session on Thursday, September 17. This proposal is contingent upon final approval by the Olympia School Board, which is scheduled to vote on November 12.

I recognize that for students, families, and staff at Madison, McKenny, and LP Brown, this proposal is about far more than buildings, enrollment, or budgets. These schools are communities built on relationships, shared experiences, and years of commitment, and I understand why the prospect of closure brings frustration and worry. In the pages that follow, I explain why I believe this difficult step is necessary, how we can support our students and families through the transition, and why I am confident our district will emerge from it stronger.

At the same time that I am bringing forward a proposal to reduce the number of schools, we are also updating our Strategic Plan. I believe those two efforts are connected. As we think about the future of our schools, we also have an opportunity to think carefully about how our people, time, facilities, and dollars can best support students. Our goal is to build on what Olympia already does well while making thoughtful choices about how we organize and use our resources. Strong relationships, excellent instruction, and meaningful learning experiences are strengthened when we use our resources wisely. Much of the information referenced in this document is supported by reports, studies, and other materials available on the District’s Long-Term Planning webpage under the School Closure and Consolidation section. This proposal follows years of study of enrollment, facilities, finances, and educational priorities.

District enrollment has declined and is projected to continue declining, with the decrease especially pronounced at the elementary level, which will eventually hit middle and high. We have monitored enrollment, pursued new revenue, expanded early-learning options, and increased the number of students transferring into the district. The number of students who live outside our district and transfer in increased from 864 students, or 8.8% of total enrolled students, in 2022–23 to 1,125 students, or 11.5% in 2025–26. Those efforts have helped, but they have not reversed the larger demographic trend.

• Enrollment Reporting Dashboard

We have also made budget reductions before proposing school closures. Since 2023, the district has made successive annual reductions of approximately $7 million, $1.3 million, $364,000, and, most recently, $3.5 million, with those reductions weighted toward the district office and central services. In 2017-18, the central administration made up 6.7% of total expenditures. In 2024-25, central administration represented 4.9% of OSD expenditures, below neighboring school districts and the statewide average of 6.3%. Twice in the past few years, district office administrators have supported budget-reduction efforts through furlough days and temporary pay freezes while negotiated salary increases for other employee groups rightfully went forward. We have worked deliberately to protect schools and classrooms, but central-office reductions alone cannot resolve the ongoing structural cost of operating more school buildings than enrollment supports.

Some have suggested the district could avoid closing schools if the Legislature provided more funding. As a district and a greater community, we have consistently advocated for increased state support, and those efforts have contributed to important gains, including increased special education funding and greater local levy capacity. However, those gains do not offset the financial impact of declining enrollment and the cost of maintaining more schools than our enrollment drives. We will continue to advocate strongly for full and adequate state funding for public education, while also recognizing that advocacy alone cannot replace the need to responsibly address the financial and enrollment realities we face today. 

State funding comes to us based on the number of students we serve. Operating more schools than our enrollment warrants spreads limited resources across additional administrative, office, custodial, utility, maintenance, and staffing costs. Our analysis estimates that the three proposed closures/consolidations could produce approximately $3.1 million in recurring annual savings, funds that can be better directed toward classrooms, student services, and the educational experiences our community expects.

While we anticipate $3.1 million in savings, first-year savings may be lower as the district invests in staffing and other supports needed for a successful transition. First-year savings may be lower because of transition costs and support, but projected savings are expected to exceed $15 million over five years. Closing these schools would allow future bond dollars to be focused on improving the buildings that will continue serving students, rather than making major modernization investments in facilities the District no longer plans to operate as schools. Removing Madison, McKenny, and LP Brown from the long-range capital plan would avoid roughly $137 million in projected facility investments that otherwise could have been part of future bond planning.

There is a narrative that Olympia may have intentionally designed a system to support many very small schools. Actions by previous boards and voters suggest otherwise. As recently as 2016, we approved and passed a construction and renovation bond to enlarge and modernize schools because Olympia expected and planned for growth. The district did not plan for its elementary schools to average just over 300 students. Today’s configuration reflects an enrollment decline, not any intentional educational design.

Comparisons with similarly sized districts is noteworthy. Olympia operates 11 elementary schools serving approximately 3,500 students, for an average enrollment of 319 students per school. Across the comparable districts reviewed, the average elementary school serves approximately 449 students. North Thurston, with nearly 6,000 more students, operates 13 elementary schools averaging 524 students per school. Olympia operates more elementary and middle school buildings, with substantially fewer students in each, than peer districts. (Comparable Schools Documents: Elementary, Middle, High)

That matters because Washington’s prototypical school funding model assumes an elementary school with approximately 400 students, and even that model does not fully cover Olympia’s actual staffing costs. At current salary and benefit levels, it takes roughly 450 students to generate the equivalent funding for one full-time building administrator and more than 500 students to generate the model’s full complement of classroom teachers. When the average Olympia elementary school enrolls only 319 students, the state formula does not generate enough funding to provide the staffing and services our community expects in every building without relying on local levy dollars or shifting resources from elsewhere. Over time, that has become unsustainable.

Smaller schools can struggle to sustain a full range of programs and supports. Specialists and support staff get divided among multiple buildings, administrators take on responsibilities outside their own school, and grade-level teams become very small or, in some cases, nonexistent. Lower enrollment can also increase the likelihood of unintended split-grade classrooms and reduce a school’s flexibility to organize intervention, enrichment, library, counseling, special education, music, and other services in ways that best meet student needs. These conditions can make it harder for some staff to be fully present and build strong, ongoing relationships with students and families. A system with a number of schools that more closely aligns with actual enrollment better supports fuller staffing, stronger grade-level and specialist teams, greater flexibility in serving students, and more consistent access to educational programs and supports.

Strong relationships and excellent instruction will always be at the heart of what we do, but both are easier to support when schools have the staffing, time, and flexibility they need. A more sustainable school system puts us in a better position to provide those opportunities consistently across Olympia. 

Buildings matter, but it is the people inside them who make our schools exceptional. The educators and support staff who have built strong communities at Madison, McKenny, and LP Brown are and will remain essential to our district. Staffing, budgets, and services tied to enrollment follow students, and staff assignments are made following the processes established in our collective bargaining agreements and through collaborative negotiations, which are hallmarks of our school district.

Students will be welcomed into Centennial, Pioneer, Roosevelt, Hansen, and Garfield. Those schools are every bit as beloved by their own families and staff. Our responsibility is to intentionally bring these communities together, honoring the histories and traditions of the schools that close while creating a shared identity at each receiving school.

The district is already assembling a district-level transition team that will expand into school-based teams to plan and support each step of the process. This work will include staff collaboration, student visits, family orientations, welcoming activities, and other opportunities to bring school communities together thoughtfully. More information will follow in the coming weeks and months.

The district is developing a student emotional support plan to help schools navigate the potential impacts of consolidation on students and staff. The plan will provide principals with clear contacts for requesting additional social-emotional support when needed, age-appropriate resources and guidance for responding to student questions and concerns, and links to resources for staff who may need support themselves.  The goal is to ensure schools have timely, consistent, and accessible resources to support their communities' well-being throughout the consolidation process. Extra support staff will be at LP Brown, Madison and McKenny as needed beginning Monday, September 14. 

During the 2023–24 school year, we brought in the consulting firm Western Demographics to facilitate a School Facility Efficiency Committee, examine the district’s school facilities, and develop a consistent process for evaluating their relative suitability for possible closure or consolidation. The committee reviewed a common set of factors and used those criteria to rank-order schools, helping identify which facilities were stronger or weaker candidates for closure based on the conditions and considerations established through the process.

Lincoln Options Elementary, and choice programs in general, were not considered in that analysis but Lincoln was considered this time. Because Lincoln is a choice school, its students come from neighborhoods throughout the district and would likely return to several neighborhood schools if it were closed. As a result, closing Lincoln would have a relatively limited impact on increasing enrollment and improving utilization at any one receiving school, whereas consolidating a neighborhood school would move a larger concentration of students into nearby schools and more effectively support staffing and operational efficiency. That being said, the current Lincoln building is expensive to repair, inefficient in terms of utilities, and offers little practical opportunity for expansion. These facility limitations, along with the long-term needs and potential growth of the Lincoln program, including the possibility of a K–8 model, warrant continued consideration in the district’s future facilities and program planning.

ORLA, which is a K-12 program, was also considered for closure this go-around; however, when considering the parameters established through the Western Demographics process, including the relatively new condition of the facility and the fact that, similar to Lincoln, closing ORLA would not significantly increase enrollment at any one neighborhood school, it was not identified as a preferred closure option. In addition, approximately 40% of ORLA’s enrollment comes from outside the district and is spread across programs such as homeschooling and online learning. Closing ORLA could result in those students returning to their home districts altogether, further limiting any enrollment benefit to other OSD schools. For those reasons, ORLA was not identified as a preferred closure option.

Although the earlier closure analysis did not include high schools, Avanti was considered this time because of its relatively small enrollment. Similar to ORLA, however, approximately 30% of Avanti’s students come from outside the district, limiting the enrollment impact a closure would have on other district schools and high school enrollment is not expected to the district’s significant enrollment challenge in the near term.  The District has also made significant recent construction investments in the Avanti facility through the last bond.

Aligning the number of elementary schools with current enrollment is an important step, but the same enrollment decline will, however, soon reach our middle schools, which already operate below staffing-model targets and with more buildings than districts of comparable size. Closing a middle school was considered as part of this 6883 analysis, but given the time it will take for the smaller elementary cohorts to fully reach middle school, it makes sense to maintain our current configuration for now while continuing to closely monitor enrollment and facility utilization. Over the past several years, Reeves Middle School has been the district’s smallest middle school, and that pattern is projected to continue, with BERK forecasting that Reeves will remain the district’s smallest middle school and decline to roughly 330 students over the next seven years. Reeves was also ranked second overall, and lowest among middle schools, in the 2023 Western Demographics facility-efficiency closure candidate analysis. These trends demonstrate why continued review of the district’s middle school configuration will be important.

Given these data points, I recommend to the school board that the district establish a standing committee to review facilities, enrollment, boundaries, and programs. This committee would conduct an annual review of enrollment trends, facility conditions and utilization, school boundaries, and programmatic needs across the district. The committee would recommend potential adjustments to the Superintendent each year that may warrant further study and, when appropriate, Board consideration. This would create a regular, transparent, annual planning process rather than addressing significant facility, boundary, or program decisions only when circumstances become urgent.

Any future recommendations that may involve Lincoln, the district’s middle schools, ORLA, Avanti, or other schools and programs are separate from the current Board Policy 6883 analysis and proposal the Board will consider in November. Establishing a committee would affirm that the district’s facilities and enrollment work will continue beyond this proposal.

The proposed closure of McKenny, LP Brown, and Madison, together with enrollment trends and projections, can inform the scope and priorities of the district’s next bond proposal so future capital investments align with the schools, programs, and facilities the district expects to need over the long term.

The 6883 analysis addresses this question. If a school building becomes vacant, the district has three primary options: sell the property, lease it to a community partner, or repurpose it for another district need. Leasing or repurposing would allow the district to retain ownership and preserve flexibility should a significant demographic shift necessitate additional school capacity within the next 15 to 20 years. While there is interest in purchasing district property, we also have strong community partners serving youth, families, and the broader community that are interested in becoming tenants. Such partnerships could reduce the district's utility and basic maintenance expenses while keeping the properties in public ownership and allowing the district to adapt as future needs change. More information on those possibilities will be shared in the weeks and months ahead as those conversations continue.

Community feedback improves processes. We want to hear questions, concerns, information we may have overlooked, and ideas about how we can best support students, families, and staff. Please use this Google Form to share feedback and ideas that can help inform and strengthen the transition process.

Policy 6883 calls for a public hearing for each school proposed for closure or consolidation. Those hearings are scheduled for:

These hearings will be communicated in accordance with Policy 6883 and through the District’s regular communication platforms to ensure families, staff, and community members are informed.

If the board approves this proposal, as stated, we will establish school transition teams to plan and coordinate structured support for students, families, and staff. The District is already beginning to plan and convene district-level transition teams so that, should the Board approve the proposed closures and consolidations, a thoughtful and smooth transition process is in place. School-level transition teams will also be formed and will include staff, families, and students. That work will include welcoming activities, opportunities to preserve school histories and traditions, coordination of programs and materials, staff collaboration and ongoing emotional and well-being support for students experiencing stress and needing help navigating change.

Some have asked why the district is acting now when we are not fiscally insolvent or in binding conditions. Waiting until we face a major financial crisis or buildings reach a critical condition would limit our choices, and it would be irresponsible. Cutting over $12 million over the past four years and facing another projected roughly $3.5 million in reductions this coming spring may not amount to insolvency, but it creates significant year-after-year strain on staffing, programs and our ability to sustain services. That uncertainty affects the culture in our buildings, throughout our district, and in our community. This change will help us protect the programs that make Olympia special.

Again, I know how deeply families and staff love their schools, and I do not underestimate how difficult change can be. How we approach and support this transition will help shape how students experience it. Significant change creates uncertainty for both children and adults, and students will look to the adults around them for reassurance, stability, and cues about what comes next. Whatever perspectives adults hold about this recommendation, we share a responsibility to support students through uncertainty. The district will work closely with families and staff to listen to students, answer their questions honestly and in age-appropriate ways, and provide additional support when children need it.

Sincerely,

Patrick C. Murphy, Ed.D.
Superintendent