Hello Olympia School District citizens and public school advocates,
Today, the second reading of the 2026-27 Olympia School District budget will take place with a PUBLIC HEARING at 5:30pm & a BOARD MEETING at 6:30pm. Public comment sign up will be available IN PERSON before each meeting.
The 2026/27 budget could very well pass at the 6:30 meeting, and it appears that input from forums, surveys, and our own classrooms has not been incorporated. Our community has answered over and over that we value smaller class sizes, holistic engaging instruction, student safety and well-being, and reduced barriers to education for all students in our community. Those values require family engagement, specialists in oft-marginalized and vital subjects like art and music, and an administration that wants to connect our schools and not divide them.
OSD4All knew that a school closure without consideration for the broader social and academic impact was divisive and fiscally unsound, as evidenced by a recent Stanford study. What is a nominal one-year savings compared to certainty and community connection?
Again, we are faced with a question of what a savings is worth, and the superintendent is now asking for nearly double what the district has ever held in a projected budget. Our district leaders continue to blame a lack of funding for poor spending habits when we have witnessed that there is not a levy lift or program cap big enough for the district not to spend before it is procured.
We provided research that upwards of 6 schools would have to be closed to reach the superintendent’s savings goal. It explained that the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction’s (OSPI) fiscal health score was not a ranking, nor an indicator of future fiscal health, yet in the 26/27 budget’s first & second readings, the OSPI fiscal health score is continually mischaracterized as a ranking. The services denied to students in favor of a reserve makes us question who the Olympia School District board and superintendent are here to serve.
The Reduction in Force (RIF) Resolution that was passed in April, cutting family liaisons, elementary art specialists, custodial and lunch staff, raising class sizes, and shuffling staff was a cost to the stability of our students, staff, and families. While multiple board members have questioned the consideration of our student outcomes and their welfare, none of those cuts will be finalized until the budget is passed.
Yet the district has already enacted many of these cuts. They have overloaded incoming classes, delayed transfer requests, and contracted out, cut, and begun charging upwards of $725/month for early learning services, a key component in academic and social readiness. Our district is normalizing the continual erosion of public resources to our most vulnerable populations.
While the state’s 49 year-old prototypical model is just that, a prototype, the superintendent has taken it literally. He often asks how many students pay for a principal or a teacher. This top-down approach forgets the purpose of public education. Education is built on relationships in schools, and while principals and building staff are increasingly fractionalized, the superintendent and his staff are not.
Considering student outcomes means asking what they actually need to thrive in ALL of our schools. Education does not just require financial resources, but intention, values, vision, and trustworthy leadership. Our hope is for the board to do what our community elected them to do, and hold the superintendent accountable for this budget & the detrimental effect on our student body if it is passed.