Olympia School District has a capacity problem. Enrollment has declined, and the district projects that trend will continue. I understand that difficult financial decisions must be made, and the district estimates that closing McKenny, Madison and L.P. Brown could avoid more than $136 million in future modernization costs.
But there is another question the district must answer:
What if, in solving a capacity problem, we dismantle something that is working exceptionally well?
The district’s own data tells an important story about McKenny Elementary.
Approximately 30.4% of McKenny students qualify as low income. That is substantially higher than at several elementary schools the district proposes to keep open, including Pioneer at 18.8%, Boston Harbor at 16.9% and Centennial at 25.9%.
McKenny also serves a higher-than-average population of multilingual learners and students whose primary language is not English. The district’s own boundary study identifies language diversity and socioeconomic factors as important considerations when evaluating school consolidations.
And yet, McKenny is producing strong educational outcomes.
Its math achievement exceeds that of several schools proposed to remain open. Its science performance is among the strongest in the district. Its attendance rates are strong, and McKenny has one of the district’s highest percentages of teachers with master’s degrees and one of its highest average levels of teaching experience.
That combination matters.
A school serving students across linguistic and socioeconomic backgrounds while achieving strong academic outcomes should prompt us to ask: What is working at McKenny, and how can we preserve and learn from it?
Instead, McKenny is on the closure list.
That deserves scrutiny.
This is not an argument against using data. It is an argument for using all of the data.
Enrollment and building utilization matter. So do academic achievement, attendance, teacher experience, student demographics and equity. If the district’s goal is to make decisions in the best interests of students, these measures should be considered together—not in isolation.
My family moved from Illinois to Olympia in 2024. We researched schools carefully and ultimately bought a home sight unseen so our daughter could attend McKenny. We later moved closer so she could walk to school.
We found what families call “McKenny Magic.” It is a culture of belonging where students are known, families are welcomed and relationships matter. It is a community that helped make Olympia feel like home.
I recognize that no school can be preserved simply because families love it. But love is not the only thing McKenny has going for it. The data shows a school serving a diverse population—including a meaningful population of lower-income students—and achieving strong outcomes.
That should matter when we talk about equity.
If Olympia must consolidate schools, then socioeconomic factors, equity and educational outcomes should be central to the decision.
Before the Board makes an irreversible choice, I urge its members to look beyond the question of which buildings have excess capacity.
Before the Board makes an irreversible choice, I urge its members to look beyond a utilization number and examine the full picture. Which schools are serving our most diverse students successfully? What can we learn from them? And what happens when we reduce the value of a thriving school community to a calculation about how a building is utilized?
Brianne Leverenz
Olympia School District parent
