Olympia council must weigh needs of whole community when deciding on Yelm Highway site

At the Olympia City Council meeting on Tuesday, March 22, the council will hear and consider a request from the Olympia School District to procure about 20 acres of a more than 80-acre park site on Yelm Highway for a future high school.

The school district likes this location because it’s in the southeast part of town that will need a second high school in about 10 years. Earlier, when the district went looking for land, it couldn’t find any available parcels that were big enough. District Assistant Superintendent Jennifer Priddy acknowledges, “We should have realized earlier there’s no land” on the east side. The only parcel they could find was a 27-acre piece on the west side, which they bought.

Superintendent Patrick Murphy says “It’s true we were late to the party” when they requested this partnership with the city in March 2020. The school district is offering to negotiate to purchase it, or to swap land for its west Olympia parcel, which could then become a second park.

The Olympia Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee (PRAC) recently voted 7-1 against the school district’s idea. In a letter to the City Council, they list eight objections.

The first is that soccer advocates have been promised four soccer fields — a number needed for tournaments. If the school district builds there, one of the four will be on school grounds. The school district is more than willing to share that field, and to negotiate to make it more accessible than the one at Olympia High School, where neighbors insisted on restrictions that limit its use.

The second objection is that “the co-location proposal lacks public support.” This is questionable. The PRAC cites a 2020 poll that found 49.6 percent did not support it. Those who were in support of the school, were neutral, or wanted more information totaled 50.4 percent.

The third objection is to sharing the fourth soccer field with the school. The fourth is that “the benefits to the parks community are not evident.”

The fifth is speculation that the partnership with the school district might cause delays; the sixth is that there is still uncertainty about the financial benefit since a deal has yet to be negotiated; the seventh is that the park will be smaller, have fewer amenities, and that more parking will be needed, and the eighth is that there might be more costs for stormwater management.

These are all variations on the theme of “benefits to the parks community.”

But the single-minded focus on the “benefits to the parks community” strikes us as shortsighted. What the city council must weigh is the benefit to the whole community and its future.

This is a classic example of a policy issue in which two important community values are in competition. We all want more parks; we all want the school district to be able to accommodate all the students in the community without crowding.

We should not deny the school district a site for a high school close to where it’s needed because parks advocates oppose giving up 20 acres of an 80-plus-acre park, even when a land swap could provide second park that would mitigate that loss.

Olympia has a well-organized and active parks community that is never shy about advocating for its interests. We salute its many victories. But in this instance, its intransigence is myopic.

It makes environmental and practical sense to build a high school near the students who will need it. It makes economic and civic sense to prioritize educating students to become productive and discerning citizens and leaders.

The fundamental purpose of public education is to produce adults capable of defending and practicing democracy. Such citizens are capable of compromise, of seeing multiple points of view, and of accommodating competing interests.

We hope citizens who care about balancing these values will let their voices be heard — or their emails read — on this issue.

And we hope the City Council will make decisions that honor the future our whole community — both students and parks.

This story was originally published March 20, 2022 at 5:00 AM.