At the January 7 work session and the January 8 board meeting, the Olympia School District board of directors were presented with an update on the implementation of the district’s communication plan and the outcome 1 monitoring report. They discussed their upcoming winter retreat and their own strategic communications plan. Here are some highlights.
Communications director Conor Schober presented a short update on the new district website, set to launch in summer 2026, and a timeline of work done on communications to this point, including the Qmulativ migration and adding a Parent Square Board Communications Group. The board continued talking about recommendations for the budget survey and their own community outreach plan. Director Fullerton spoke to opportunities at different times of day in different venues than past community cafes.
Regarding the budget survey, Director Flores encouraged the district to consider not putting state-mandated services on the budget survey. Director Hilary Seidel continued to be concerned about how to reach a 7% ending fund balance and communicate funding decisions with the community, saying, “The only guideline that we’ve given superintendent is that it is our stated desire, based on board policy, to be able to have one meet one month of payroll. And he is committed to making a plan to get us there, but we’ve not given any guidance to the superintendent, and that creates the situation that we always have, which is the superintendent brings us a budget, and people come and get angry about individual things in the budget, and the board can’t defend those things.” It’s unclear when the guideline Director Seidel referenced was established.
Students from across the district participated in the Olympia Reads bookmark competition, and the 5 winners were awarded at the January 8 board meeting, along with several of the district’s teacher librarians.
The board was then presented with the outcome 1 monitoring report. Outcome 1 reads, “Be compassionate and kind.
- Resolve conflicts and repair relationships.
- Be aware of and appreciate one’s similarities and differences with others.
- Listen well and cooperate with others.
- Demonstrate awareness of one’s own thoughts and emotions and how they impact behavior.
- Express emotions, thoughts and impulses in positive and beneficial ways.”
Olympia High School principal Matt Grant spoke to the benefit of restorative justice at the high school, and the results of the last Panorama surveys showed no clear trends in its data regarding kindness and compassion in schools.
The Olympia School District winter retreat is February 14 in the Avanti HS library.