Best Public Elementary Schools in Olympia
South Sound public elementary education is dominated by three districts — Olympia School District, North Thurston Public Schools, and Tumwater School District — plus the suburban Steilacoom Historical and Clover Park districts that overlap into JBLM and southern Pierce County. Unlike the Eastside, where top elementaries clear 90 percent proficiency in both subjects, the Olympia top ten centers in the 50-to-70-percent range, reflecting a different demographic mix and substantially smaller school-foundation infrastructure than King County's top suburbs.
Boston Harbor Elementary leads the list. The school sits on the Boston Harbor peninsula north of downtown Olympia and serves only about 175 students PK-5 — one of the smallest enrollments of any school in this top ten. Centennial and Pioneer, both within Olympia School District proper, follow closely. Pioneer occupies a campus on Carlyon and Henderson near Olympia High School that has anchored the south-Olympia school footprint for more than fifty years. McKenny and Roosevelt round out OSD's strong showing — five of the top ten are OSD schools, an unusually heavy district concentration.
Chloe Clark Elementary in DuPont (Steilacoom Historical School District) is geographically the outlier, sitting south of Joint Base Lewis-McChord rather than in Thurston County proper. Olympic View in Lacey (North Thurston Public Schools) and Rainier Elementary at JBLM Lewis Main (Clover Park) reflect the military-family communities that define the eastern half of the metro. Black Lake and Michael T. Simmons in Tumwater SD give that smaller district two top-ten placements.
The Olympia / Lacey / Tumwater elementary leaders cluster much more strongly inside city limits than around them. Rural elementaries in the Rochester, Tenino, and Yelm districts do not appear in this top ten, even though Yelm SD enrolls thousands of students. The geographic pattern likely reflects the influence of Olympia's state-government and small-college professional class, the more limited tax base of the rural districts, and the cumulative effect of school-foundation parent giving in central Olympia neighborhoods.
The Olympia / Lacey / Tumwater elementary leaders cluster much more strongly inside city limits than around them. The two strongest schools in the metro both sit in Olympia SD's compact eastside-of-Capitol-Way attendance area, while Tumwater's strongest elementaries hug the city's small core north of the Olympia airport.
Ranked schools
- 001BOSTON HARBOR ELEMENTARYOLYMPIA SCHOOL DISTRICT · THURSTON66%
- 002CENTENNIAL ELEMENTARYOLYMPIA SCHOOL DISTRICT · THURSTON65%
- 003PIONEER ELEMENTARY SCHOOLOLYMPIA SCHOOL DISTRICT · THURSTON63%
- 004CHLOE CLARK ELEMENTARYSTEILACOOM HIST. SCHOOL DISTRICT · PIERCE60%
- 005MCKENNY ELEMENTARYOLYMPIA SCHOOL DISTRICT · THURSTON57%
- 006ROOSEVELT ELEMENTARY SCHOOLOLYMPIA SCHOOL DISTRICT · THURSTON57%
- 007OLYMPIC VIEW ELEMENTARYNORTH THURSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS · THURSTON57%
- 008RAINIER ELEMENTARY SCHOOLCLOVER PARK SCHOOL DISTRICT · PIERCE57%
- 009BLACK LAKE ELEMENTARYTUMWATER SCHOOL DISTRICT · THURSTON56%
- 010MICHAEL T SIMMONS ELEMENTARYTUMWATER SCHOOL DISTRICT · THURSTON56%
- 011HORIZONS ELEMENTARYNORTH THURSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS · THURSTON55%
- 012EAST OLYMPIA ELEMENTARYTUMWATER SCHOOL DISTRICT · THURSTON55%
- 013LAKES ELEMENTARY SCHOOLNORTH THURSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS · THURSTON55%
- 014SOUTH BAY ELEMENTARYNORTH THURSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS · THURSTON53%
- 015MEADOWS ELEMENTARYNORTH THURSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS · THURSTON53%
- 016TUMWATER HILL ELEMENTARYTUMWATER SCHOOL DISTRICT · THURSTON51%
- 017MADISON ELEMENTARY SCHOOLOLYMPIA SCHOOL DISTRICT · THURSTON50%
- 018EVERGREEN FOREST ELEMENTARYNORTH THURSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS · THURSTON50%
- 019WOODLAND ELEMENTARYNORTH THURSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS · THURSTON50%
- 020PLEASANT GLADE ELEMENTARYNORTH THURSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS · THURSTON47%
- 021MILL POND ELEMENTARY SCHOOLYELM SCHOOL DISTRICT · THURSTON47%
- 022SEVEN OAKS ELEMENTARYNORTH THURSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS · THURSTON45%
- 023LINCOLN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLOLYMPIA SCHOOL DISTRICT · THURSTON45%
- 024PETER G SCHMIDT ELEMENTARYTUMWATER SCHOOL DISTRICT · THURSTON45%
- 025MCLANE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLOLYMPIA SCHOOL DISTRICT · THURSTON43%
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