OLYMPIA, Wash. — School district leaders in Washington are tightening their belts amid declining enrollment and shifts to education funding.
Families in the South Sound are now feeling those impacts first-hand: an Olympia School District committee is considering which schools to close and which to consolidate.
At Thurgood Marshall Middle School Tuesday night, parents gathered tonight to discuss and prepare for the possibility of welcoming hundreds more students, which would bring the school’s capacity to an estimated 99.5%.
But it’s not just Thurgood Marshall students who are possibly impacted.
"Parents are rallying to band together," said Shannon Hinchcliffe, a parent of two boys in the district, with a 7th grade son in Reeves Middle School. "They're both heartbroken. They love this school."
In a consolidation study, Reeves is a school that OSD's efficiency review committee has flagged for possible closure next school year, as they try to avoid a budget deficit.
The committee has not made its official recommendation to the board yet, but it has established its preferred scenario: Jefferson Middle School would close, and students would be consolidated into Thurgood Marshall Middle School. Plus, Reeves Middle School would close, and students would be pushed into Washington Middle School.
Hinchcliffe has concerns about proximity.
"You're talking about an hour to two-hour bus ride," said Hinchcliffe.
Additionally, all of OSD's middle schools would become 7th and 8th grade only, and the remainder of the elementary schools in the district would operate as kindergarten or pre-kindergarten through 6th grade schools.
Under the preferred plan, L.P. Brown Elementary School would close, too, because its more than 300 students could then instead go to Hansen Elementary. Hansen is already a pipeline for Thurgood Marshall Middle School.
The preferred consolidation would save the district between $3 and 5 million, but Hinchcliffe hopes they reconsider the data and make cuts elsewhere.
"And try to determine something different," she said.
Hinchcliffe plans to publicly testify at Thursday’s regular school board meeting and said her kids may even take the stand to speak as well.
The budget for next school year won’t be finalized until the summer, but the board’s president has said she hopes for a decision on this by the end of this month.