Students, parents and teachers plead for OSD to keep schools open

Students, parents and others are speaking up, telling the Olympia School District board not to close schools to balance the district’s budget.

More than 70 people spoke up at the Olympia School District’s board meeting earlier this month after the district’s Facility Efficiency Committee considered closing a number of schools as a way to cut costs and prevent a budget deficit. Dozens of the commenters were students, many of whom currently or previously attended one of the schools that could close.

There were questions about exactly how much money the district needs to save in the 2024-2025 school year. Kate Davis, executive director of finance for the district, said the district needs to cut $3.5 million in expenditures to end the next school year with the minimum end fund balance.

Board President Darcy Huffman reviewed the Facility Efficiency Committee’s work on Nov. 9 and noted that it did not reach a consensus on how to avoid the budget deficit.

“They were split on many issues, and they universally shared that none of them wanted to close any schools,” Huffman said. “And I suspect that my fellow board members feel the same way. It’s not something that any of us want to do.”

Huffman said the board has requested more information about transportation costs, route times and length of bus rides if schools were closed. Board members wonder how the change in school sizes caused by consolidation would affect the district’s eligibility for federal funding. More also needs to be known about future enrollment forecasts because enrollment drives funding.

Huffman said district staff are analyzing those issues, as well as the effects on other facilities and programs, student and staff displacement impacts, whether buildings can be used for other purposes, and more, to get a better picture of the district as a whole. She said that information will be put together before the board’s next meeting Nov. 30.

“In other words, the board along with staff will need to narrow our focus,” Huffman said. “Our process and procedure says that after we decide on narrowing that focus we will then dedicate time over the next 90 days to hold hearings with school communities where closures or consolidations are being considered.”

She said she’s hoping the board can narrow its focus by Dec. 14.

Students and parents speak out

One of the main targets speakers took aim at was the proposal to consolidate the district’s “Large Special Curriculums” — Lincoln Options Elementary, Olympia Regional Learning Academy (ORLA) and Avanti High School — into fewer buildings.

Lincoln now occupies one of the oldest school buildings in the district; the stucco building was constructed in 1923 with the Mission-style architecture of Joseph Wohleb, the school district’s architect at the time. It was renovated in 1995 but retains its original features and is on the local historic register. Its program, run by a council of parents and teachers, focuses on community building, student-led learning and protecting the environment.

Laura Mutchler, a freshman at Olympia High School, told the board she went to Lincoln Options from kindergarten through fifth grade, where she felt very welcome. She said unlike some of her friends who went to different elementary schools, she’s still close with many of her Lincoln peers and keeps up with her former teachers.

Mutchler said that moving the Options program into ORLA, the district’s online schooling system, wouldn’t be right.

“If I didn’t go to Lincoln, I don’t know if I’d even be standing here right now,” she said. “Lincoln gave me the tools to communicate when I have a problem, raise my hand to ask questions, never be scared to ask for help, and most importantly to be a leader. I learned so much from Lincoln that I use every day.”

Melina Bond also attended Lincoln for six years. She said one of her favorite things there is the library, which she wrote a poem about in second grade.

“This is the library,” she said. “I love its big stage with stained glass windows and books filled with juicy stories. I love the front desk where you check out books. I love the fluffy chairs almost as soft as marshmallows. But most of all, I love the feeling that you are safe.”

Bond wrote another poem about Lincoln when she was in fifth grade.

“This school, this undying haven of learning, this place,” Bond said. “Even when people die and wars start, it continues to create these ground shakers, these earth breakers, all of them change makers. It continues to stand tall and proud and strong through love and hate and humor and despair and rage and kindness. If we continue to walk beside you, beside this school, these doors, these halls, the people you care about, through Lincoln and its legacy they survive.”

Katie Knight Pruit is a parent of two children, one at Washington Middle School and the other at Lincoln Elementary. She shared that the City of Olympia’s Comprehensive Plan includes goals to keep existing schools where they are, and encourage neighborhood schools.

“Lincoln is our neighborhood school within walking distance of my home, and the reason we chose to live where we live,” she said. “The Lincoln school building and campus are a vibrant and well used public space because it is embedded in an urban neighborhood.”

She said she believes the costs of school closures to students, educators, families, neighbors, and the greater community far outweigh the benefits.

Katie Stoll has two OSD high school students. She said her two kids had many different experiences at multiple schools, including at Lincoln, ORLA, Pioneer and Olympia High School. Stoll said she’s worried about proposals to close L.P. Brown or Garfield elementary schools and the disproportionate effect closing these schools would have on minority and low-income students.

“Both of these schools have the highest proportion of non-white students, and both of these schools have a majority of students that are low income,” Stoll said. “And both of these schools are well attended by students in their community, with a high percentage of students that are enrolled in their home boundaries.”

Jessica Ewing teaches band at Marshall Middle School as well as Lincoln, Boston Harbor, Roosevelt, Hansen and McLane elementary schools. She said as a secondary music staff member, she understands the need for the district to make cuts across facilities and programs. But she disagrees with the proposal to move sixth graders to the elementary schools.

Ewing said even with careful planning, it would not be possible to offer the same level of music education because of limited time, teacher schedules and facility constraints. She said students also would lose out on Career and Technical Education, daily physical education, clubs and after-school sports.

“Having a three-year middle school experience is paramount to student development and preparation for high school and beyond,” Ewing said. “Middle years matter.”

The district’s budget problem

Finance director Davis said the district’s $3.5 million budget deficit is the result of a combination of factors, including not enough state and federal funding, and the city’s declining birth rates and resulting enrollment. Board director Scott Clifthorne said Olympia’s multi-family housing houses just 1 student for every 10 units, compared to 1 in every 7 or 8 units in neighboring communities.

He said in the early 2010s there was an influx of people into the district. Both the influx and the birth rates have declined since then. There were 615 children born in the 2016-2017 year that the district anticipated bringing into its schools in 2022-2023, but instead there were 576.

Clifthorne said the goal is for each elementary school to have 450 students, but not a single elementary in Olympia is that big. Since 2020, the district has lost nearly 300 students. The district has been making up the difference between the real number of students — and the state money they bring in — and the projected number by using levy funds. Those levy funds are also being used to subsidize special education costs that should be covered by the state but aren’t, he said.

The district also received a large amount of federal money during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was used to hire more educators, nurses, family liaisons and other positions. But with that money exhausted, the district has had to find other ways to fund those positions, or cut them. Clifthorne recalled the dozens of layoffs that were used to balance last year’s budget.

Davis said the district’s 2023-2024 revenue is $176 million and its expenditures are $178 million, with an ending fund balance predicted to be $6.5 million. To achieve an end fund balance of $5.9 million in the 2024-2025 school year, the district has to cut roughly $3.5 million. Another $100,000 will need to be cut the following school year to balance out the budget. The district’s required minimum fund balance is roughly $5.4 million, she said.

Looking forward

Clifthorne said closing schools doesn’t have to be the only option, but the district needs to cut its budget. It isn’t able to tax the public any more, due to a property tax levy lid.

Boundary optimization — where school boundaries would be moved to balance out enrollments and class sizes — would only save about $500,000.

He said the district has an education foundation that people are able to make charitable donations to. He said it may sound like a crazy idea, but the district could run a Kickstarter campaign to raise $4 million to avoid closing schools.

“And that should sound outrageous, right?” Clifthorne said. “That’s evidence of a broken local and state taxation system that drives this school district.”

Student school board representative Christine Zhang recognized the dozens of students who addressed the board and said their perspectives are invaluable. She spoke in support of Jefferson Middle School, one of two middle schools that could be closed.

Zhang said she and fellow student representative Meredith Morgan were in Jefferson Middle School’s Accelerated Math and Science program. She said the social studies classes at Jefferson are what got her interested in policy and decision making.

She said many high schoolers who went to Jefferson have landed major scholarships and internships at some of the most prestigious companies in the nation. The school has created passionate new advocates for impactful causes, she said.

Zhang said it’s imperative that the board uphold the district’s mission of ensuring a quality education for every student.

“Equity must be at the forefront of our considerations, especially given that Jefferson serves some of the district’s most economically disadvantaged students,” Zhang said.

The Nov. 30 board meeting will be a work session, and there will not be a public comment period. President Huffman said there will be more community discussion the first week of December.