Possible school closures in Olympia

Earlier this week, a resident of the South Capitol Neighborhood sent out an email via our association listserve (if interested, you can sign up on our Contact Page) about the possibility of school consolidations/closures being considered by the Olympia School District (OSD), which may affect Lincoln Options and other schools in the district.

The email mentioned that a work session of the OSD Board would be held on Nov 2 to discuss recommendations by the School Facility Efficiency Review Committee. The committee’s charter was to “assist the Board of Directors in right-sizing the school district for current and projected enrollment and within the context of expected state funding” and “to assist the Board of Directors in visioning school sizes that maximize opportunity and access
need.”

The OSD recently looked at future enrollment expectations, and new forecasting suggests that the school district will decline in student enrollment in the years to come.

I was interested in learning more, so I watched it online via webinar. The session was recorded and a link to it has been posted on the meeting page.

Two members of the committee spoke during the meeting, stressing that they did not offer up “recommendations” but rather a “Majority Opinion on Final Scenarios”. These were ranked in order of preference.

There was, I felt, considerable discussion and questions about the committee’s report. All of the elected board members attended as well as most of the student representatives. The meeting began at 6 pm and ended at 8:30 pm.

One of the questions asked was how much money the school district will need to save due to declining enrollment, and the answer was that they don’t really know yet.

This will be discussed further at the next regular meeting of the board on Thurs, Nov 9, and will include a report on the budget for the 2024-2025 school year. Agendas and documents for school board meetings are posted on their Board Docs website.