Families at five Olympia elementary schools would see additional principal time and staff if the district closes three buildings, Superintendent Patrick Murphy told the Olympia School District Board of Directors on Thursday, Oct. 8.

Murphy laid out specific staffing numbers for the schools that would absorb students from LP Brown, Madison and McKenny elementary schools. He also warned that slowing the timeline would force the district to cut deeper elsewhere.

"If we delay closure, then deeper cuts will be needed elsewhere or deeper cuts will be needed in the future," Murphy said at the meeting, first reported by The Jolt News.

Under the district's school-closure analysis, required by Board Policy 6883, McKenny students would move to Pioneer and Centennial elementary schools. Madison students would go to Roosevelt. LP Brown students would split between Hansen and Garfield.

Each receiving school would get a larger share of principal time. Centennial and Hansen would each receive 1.5 full-time-equivalent (FTE) principal positions, up from the baseline 1.0 FTE allocation. Pioneer and Roosevelt would each get 1.4 FTE, and Garfield 1.3 FTE. The district's staffing formula assigns one principal per 350 students, with a minimum of 0.6, according to OSD's 2025-26 staffing allocation document.

School size does not drive class size. Murphy said teachers are distributed based on student-to-staff ratios at each building, not on overall enrollment. He acknowledged that specialist positions "don't come in perfect bundles" and sometimes require rounding down.

The district also plans to move flat-panel displays from closed buildings to receiving schools at the end of the school year, matching the number of screens to classroom enrollment.

Murphy said the district cannot set the exact size of budget cuts until it closes the books on the 2025-26 fiscal year and finalizes its fund balance. The closures are part of his goal to reach a 7.14% ending fund balance by the 2028-29 school year, or about $14.28 million in reserves, The Olympian reported.

In a Sept. 15 letter, Murphy estimated the three closures would produce about $3.1 million in recurring annual savings, though first-year savings may be lower because of transition costs. Removing the buildings from the district's long-range capital plan would also avoid roughly $137 million in projected facility investments.

More than 30 people spoke at the Oct. 8 meeting. State Rep. Beth Doglio, D-Olympia, told the crowd the state legislature faces its own budget pressure. Former state Rep. Laurie Dolan, who worked 30 years in Spokane Public Schools, said partially empty buildings drain instructional dollars and that no extra money is available, according to The Olympian's reporting.

Public hearings on each school are scheduled: LP Brown on Thursday, Oct. 15, at 6 p.m. and Madison on Monday, Oct. 19, at 6 p.m. If approved, the closures would take effect ahead of the 2027-28 school year. The board is scheduled to vote on the proposal Nov. 12.