Dive Brief:
- The board of education for Kansas' Olathe Public Schools approved the closure of five elementary schools and one middle school amid enrollment declines that have persisted since 2020. The six closures will take effect in the 2027-28 school year, according to the district.
- The district said its enrollment dropped from 30,299 students in the 2019-20 school year to 28,140 in 2025-26. Olathe Public Schools expects to lose nearly 1,000 more students over the next five years, the district said during a Sept. 3 board presentation.
- Enrollment declines at Olathe Public Schools are largely driven by rising housing costs and lower regional birthrates, according to the district, which also cited inadequate state funding for special education as adding “significant pressure” to finances.
Dive Insight:
Despite Olathe Public Schools currently serving the same number of elementary students as it did in 2001, the district operates nine more elementary schools than it did 25 years ago.
Additionally, the district said its decline of more than 2,000 students in recent years amounts to a $22 million annual loss in operating funds. The district also has to move millions of dollars from its general fund to cover the cost of needed special education services, it said, because the Kansas legislature is not funding the special education at the legally required level of 92% for excess local costs for services.
Some families and community members, however, remain displeased with the board’s approval to close the six schools. A campaign has since been organized to gather 6,100 local voter signatures for a petition requesting that the Kansas State Board of Education review the district’s school closure decision.
Olathe Families United, the parent advocacy group leading the petition, said on its website that the district proposed closing six of its schools on Sept. 3, less than a month before a final vote on Oct. 1. The group said that certain questions remain unanswered about the closures including class sizes, school boundaries, transportation, transition planning and net savings.
While the group said that a state review would not “automatically reverse the closures,” it would add pressure and require the board to reconsider its decision.
Following the district’s proposal, Olathe Public Schools Superintendent Brent Yeager said in a Sept. 8 message to the community that the district would begin the process to establish new attendance boundaries shortly after a school closure decision was finalized.
Yeager also stressed that no staff members would lose their jobs due to school closures. He added that the district would spend the remainder of this school year helping students and staff transition to their new schools for the 2027-28 school year.
“Families will be saying goodbye to schools that have been an important part of their lives and their neighborhoods,” Yeager said. “We understand that these are emotional changes, and we cannot remove the emotion that comes with them, but we can approach this process with care, compassion and respect, and that is our commitment to you.”
Difficult decisions to close and consolidate schools are an issue many districts are increasingly grappling with as public school enrollment continues to drop — particularly due to nationwide birthrate declines.
And that momentum doesn’t appear to be slowing this school year, as more districts have announced this fall that they are considering closures amid ongoing enrollment challenges. As of late, that includes some large districts such as Los Angeles Unified School District, New Mexico's Albuquerque Public Schools, Minneapolis Public Schools and Oregon's Portland Public Schools.
