Peninsula School District Director David Olson wants to change the way public education is funded in Washington State.
Olson was the underdog of three in a financially lopsided primary race yet finished strong to knock out the best-funded candidate in the August primary, surprising everyone but him.
The man is no stranger to politics. He was first elected as a director to the PSD in 2011 and reelected twice; he ran as a Republican and was elected to the Pierce County Charter Review Commission in 2015. He challenged but lost to incumbent Democrat Derek Young for his seat in District 7 on the Pierce County Council 2018.
He has never engaged a campaign manager but admitted running for state office is much more work.
The product of a public education, Olson saw enlistment in the U.S. Navy as his ticket to the future following high school graduation. He became a diver and worked doing underwater welding and saturation-dive missions. The job demands maintaining peak physical condition, but the work took its toll and damaged the vocal cords responsible for Olson’s raspy speaking voice.
His 28 years of military service allowed his family to travel and experience the world together, an opportunity for which he said they have no regrets.
Olson is proud of the leadership at PSD. It was the first large district in the state to restrict cell phone use at school last year.
“Our strategy was to restrict social media at the router but not forbid cell phones on campus,” he said. “We could have done it earlier but wanted to take the time to meet with all the stakeholders, parents, teachers and students to craft good policy and do it right.”
Social media is harming students’ mental health, which Olson cites as the most critical concern to be addressed. “We really hadn’t seen this level of student stress and anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation until 2010, three years after the first iPhone,” he said.
Peninsula School District has experienced some issues surrounding its support of diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as some bullying and harassing behaviors that made the news on several occasions.
There were accusations of racial slurs made following a girls basketball game between Peninsula and Gig Harbor High schools. Olson said that was looked into and resolved. Another incident occurred on a school bus headed to Kopachuck Middle School, captured on video in December 2023, when a student attacked another 12-year-old student, hitting him while seated and making racial slurs in the process.
“I think anywhere you go in the country there’s going to be issues like that,” Olson said. “It’s what’s going on in the world. I think our district is better than most, but there’s been harassment, intimidation and bullying since (we) were kids.”
Olson recalled a bully in his third-grade class who never bothered him but said if he had, he would have punched the kid in the nose. “Of course, you can’t punch kids in the nose anymore. But now we have these things (cell phones),” he said.
“The sad thing now is that kids no longer try to break up a fight or something bad — they videotape it, just like when George Floyd was killed by the police officer,” Olson said. “That young lady videotaped the whole thing instead of running over and trying to knock the police officer off of George Floyd; I would have preferred she put the camera down and run over to interfere with the police officer than videotape the whole murder.
“As the son of a police officer, I was appalled at and disgusted by it and by that, I mean by the officer. But I was disgusted by her behaviors as well.”
Olson said he thinks we need to try and just be kind and treat everyone equally and fairly and make sure all our students feel safe. “When we identify areas we can improve, we need to work on that. We’ve been working on our Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying communication policy, and the board has asked the process be more streamlined.”
On the campaign trail, Olson said he tells audiences, “I’m running so that parents like you get faith back in our public school system because when Reykdal took over, our public schools were No. 8 in the nation but now we are 27th and that is absolutely the wrong direction.”
He said that Washington state got almost $3 billion in Covid relief money and in two years had spent $1.8 billion. “That’s a lot of money that could have gone into mental health student services and keeping schools open. So where did it go? I don’t know but I know it wasn’t spent, it wasn’t doled out to the schools to spend.”
Olson gave an example: “Let’s say you’re in a small school district in Central Washington (not Seattle Public Schools where $3 million is a drop in the bucket with a $1.8 billion budget) and you get an extra $3 million and you must spend it in one of three areas: transportation, materials and supplies or special education.
“Where are you going to spend it? What’s the most critical need? I know where I’m going to spend it,” Olson said. “It’s student mental health. That’s the most critical issue.”
Olson said $3 million would go a long way to help a smaller school district, but the spending model is not equitable.
“The majority of state money goes to high-net-worth school districts like Issaquah, Bellevue, Seattle, Mercer Island and Northshore while the small districts get less of the lion’s share,” he said. “Our school district gets $17,000 per student. Seattle gets $25,000. Yet only a third of their kids can, in some of their schools, read and write at the current grade level.”
Olson said Peninsula gets far less but students are doing far better.
“I don’t think Reykdal is doing enough to work with the state legislature and demand that they take on the job. I’ll go bang on the door of the Washington Supreme Court and demand they put the state back in contempt until they fix their funding problem.”
For more information go to www.electdavidolson.com.
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