This is a breaking news story. Margaret Mellott and Kate Mays contributed to this report.
Olathe Public Schools is recommending closing six schools at the end of the 2026-27 school year to deal with declining enrollment.
The schools identified at Thursday’s school board meeting include:
- Indian Trail Middle
- Black Bob Elementary
- Heritage Elementary
- Scarborough Elementary
- Tomahawk Elementary
- Walnut Grove Elementary
The district plans to hold an input session on Sept. 22 at Olathe South High School about the possible closures.
Final board action will take place at the Oct. 1 meeting, according to Thursday’s presentation.
After that, boundary adjustments will be made from October through December with new final boundaries up for a vote before the school board in January.
Read our prior coverage below to learn more:
An Olathe Public Schools task force has concluded the district should close three to four elementary schools and one middle school.
The decision concludes the first phase of the district’s facility alignment plan, which they announced in February.
The district created a three-phase plan to determine how many and which schools will close after years of declining enrollment.
Deputy Superintendent of Organizational Operations Jim McMullen updated the board of education on June 4 with results from phase one, which focused on determining the scope of the reductions.
The district created a task force composed of one staff member and one parent from every school in the district, as well as some administrators. The group met three times this spring and looked at school finances and enrollment history as well as future projects, boundaries and other data points.
The district then surveyed every member of the task force individually.
Elementary schools will be the most affected
All 110 respondents agreed the district should reduce the number of elementary schools. The majority (88 respondents) recommended closing three to four elementary schools.
Task force members also expressed broad support for reducing middle schools.
Only three respondents said the district should keep the number of middle schools, while most recommended closing one.
McMullen noted after his presentation that the district is not considering closing any high schools.
The district is home to 36 elementary schools, 10 middle schools and five high schools. If Olathe follows the recommendation, the number of schools would drop to 32 or 33 elementary schools and nine middle schools.
With a general consensus of the number of schools to close, the second phase of the process will begin.
This summer, the Facility Alignment Steering committee, made up of 20 task force members, will meet four times to review the data and recommend which specific schools should be closed or consolidated. The committee is expected to present its recommendations to the board Sept. 3.
The district will redraw boundaries as part of phase three, which the board will vote on in January 2027.
District-wide impacts
McMullen emphasized that reducing schools will affect the whole district.
“The reality is both at the middle school level and the elementary level, there’ll be buildings impacted certainly that aren’t being closed,” he said at last week’s meeting.
Because attendance boundaries will need to be redrawn, students at schools that stay open could stay or be transferred to different buildings in order to balance enrollment and increase building utilization.
“We’ve got so many buildings that are sitting in that 50 to 60% capacity,” he added. “So through this alignment process, it also gives us the opportunity to really try to utilize our buildings, get our capacity more into that 70, 75% range.”
Superintendent Brent Yeager acknowledged that teachers and faculty will also be impacted.
“We will absolutely do everything we can to take care of our staff,” he said.
Still, he said some employees may not end up at their preferred schools as positions are consolidated.
“There may be staff members that initially may have to go somewhere that they’re maybe not exactly thrilled about,” Yeager said. “But over time, we have enough movement in our schools that hopefully they can get back to the spot they wanna be.”
McMullen said school closures and consolidations will likely begin for the 2027-28 school year and continue over the next few years.
Declining enrollment
According to the district, enrollment peaked at 30,216 students in 2019. The district now has 28,140 students.
Projections show enrollment dropping to just under 26,000 students over the next 15 years — a decrease of about 4,000 students from its peak.
Officials have pointed to slowed birth rates, rising housing costs and an aging population as key factors in the decline.
The district has already started consolidating schools.
Last fall, the district voted to close Westview Elementary and send those students to nearby Rolling Ridge Elementary. The district plans to repurpose the Westview building into an alternative school for grades K-8.
In March, voters approved a $389 million school bond, $68 million of which is earmarked for school consolidation. The district plans to build a new school for Fairview and Northview elementary students at the current Northview site and another new building at Central’s current location that will combine Central and Ridgeview elementary schools.
