The Thurston County Commission is costing our local school districts funding that supports teacher salaries, facilities, and student enrichment programs—directly harming the quality of education for thousands of kids. Here’s why:

For months, county politicians have ignored community concerns about the financial impact of the county’s efforts to stop sustainable timber harvests on Department of Natural Resources (DNR) state trust lands in the Capitol State Forest. These public working forests are responsibly harvested under strict regulations to generate revenues for schools and other local public services.

Here’s a conservative estimate provided by DNR of what our public schools, fire districts and other community service providers stand to lose if anti-forestry groups and politicians are successful: 

Our school districts need to contact DNR’s Board of Natural Resources and urge it to move forward with these harvests, despite the position of the Thurston County Commissioners.

Please take a moment to email the leadership of your local school district. Urge them to contact the DNR Board of Natural Resources requesting they move forward with these harvests to support our public schools.  

Olympia School District 
Dr. Patrick Murphy, Superintendent – pmurphy@osd.wednet.edu
School Board – osd-schoolboard@osd.wednet.edu

Tumwater School District
Kevin Bogatin, Superintendent- kevin.bogatin@tumwater,k12.wa.us
Darby Kaikkonen, School Board Chair – darby.kaikkonen@tumwater.k12.wa.us

Rochester School District 
Dr. Jennifer Bethman, Superintendent – jbethman@rochester.wednet.edu
Thomas Trott, School Board Chair – ttrott@rochester.wednet.edu

Griffin School District
Kristen Rue, Superintendent – krue@griffinschool.us
Julie Osterberg, School Board Chair – josterberg@griffinschool.us

PS – You can also click here to send a quick message directly to the Washington Board of Natural Resources. Urge them to keep Washington DNR State Trust Lands working for our schools and communities!