Olympia School Board puts forward plan to close Madison, McKenny elementary schools
Around 70 people spoke during public comment at Thursday night’s five-hour Olympia School Board meeting, most pleading for the directors to keep Olympia’s neighborhood schools open and not shutter them to solve the district’s budget deficit.
The meeting ended with the board voting 3-2 to open a 90-day window to consider closing Madison and McKenny elementary schools. Madison is located at 1225 Legion Way SE in downtown Olympia; McKenny is at 3250 Morse-Merryman Road SE, across from LBA Park on the city’s east side.
The board will now spend the next 90 days gathering information and testimony on issues related to the potential closures. No action has been taken yet, but the board may consider taking action once the three-month period ends in March.
Dates and times of community meetings and hearings had yet to be scheduled as of Friday.
The proposal to close the two schools was made by board member Scott Clifthorne, who said he originally had five schools in mind to consolidate to make up for the $3.5 million looming deficit. His original plan included Madison, McKenny, L.P. Brown and Boston Harbor elementary schools, plus Reeves Middle School.
Clifthorne said the decision to close campuses has to happen at this point.
“I’m proposing this because I quite literally think that the financial life of the district is at risk,” he said. “I don’t think deep additional operational cuts are going to get us there, and it’s time to make a hard choice.”
Board president Darcy Huffman agree with Clifthorne, and voted to open the 90-day window for information gathering. She said she sees closing Madison and McKenny as the minimum number of closures and consolidations, and that there will still need to be cuts made to programs and staff to make up the budget shortfall.
Board members Maria Flores, who was just re-elected, and Jess Tourtellotte-Palumbo, who is newly elected, voted against the proposal. Hilary Seidel voted with Huffman and Clifthorne.
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