About 2,200 Olathe students could lose their schools if the Board of Education approves a plan to close six buildings Oct. 1.

Families get their last chance to weigh in Tuesday, Sept. 22, at a public hearing at Olathe South High School, 1640 E. 151st St. The hearing starts at 5:30 p.m. Each speaker gets three minutes.

The six schools on the list are Indian Trail Middle School and Black Bob, Heritage, Scarborough, Tomahawk and Walnut Grove elementary schools. All sit in south Olathe. Five of the six, all except Walnut Grove, feed into Olathe South. If the board approves the closures, the schools would shut down at the end of the 2026-27 school year.

Board members will attend Tuesday's hearing but will not engage in back-and-forth dialogue with speakers, according to the district's official notice. The format is public comment only.

Parents have been organizing since the district unveiled the closure list Sept. 4. Families at several affected schools launched online petitions and chalk sidewalk art campaigns, Heartlander News reported.

When the announcement landed, Tomahawk Elementary parent Molly Booth told KCTV5 it caught her off guard. "It's just, it's gut-wrenching," Booth said Sept. 4. "I mean, we kind of felt a little blindsided, you know."

Scarborough Elementary PTO president Erin Potter, whose middle-schooler at Indian Trail has a rare genetic condition requiring special services, told the Johnson County Post that transitioning to a new school after just one year would be a difficult adjustment. Two specialized programs would also move under the plan: Black Bob's Spanish Immersion program would relocate to Arbor Creek Elementary, and Scarborough's deaf and hard of hearing program would be placed at another school.

The district says the closures would save about $12 million a year, according to Olathe CFO John Hutchison. Deputy Superintendent Jim McMullen told the Olathe Reporter Sept. 4 that savings would come largely from salary and benefit costs. All affected staff would keep their jobs, with positions eliminated only through attrition.

Enrollment in Olathe Public Schools peaked at 30,216 students in 2019 and dropped to 28,140 last school year. District projections show enrollment falling to just under 26,000 over the next 15 years. Officials have pointed to declining birth rates, rising housing costs and $44 million shifted from the general fund to cover special education as factors driving the decline.

The closure plan grew out of an 18-month process that included a 110-person task force of parents and staff from every school in the district. That group unanimously agreed in June the district needed to reduce its elementary school count, recommending three to four closures. A 20-person steering committee then shaped the final six-school recommendation.

If the board approves the plan Oct. 1, the district would drop from 33 elementary schools to 28. Two closed buildings would temporarily house students from Central and Northview elementary schools during knockdown-rebuilds funded by the $389 million Bond 2026 measure. The remaining buildings would be sold.

New attendance boundaries would be proposed in December and finalized in January 2027. Residents who cannot attend the Sept. 22 hearing can submit feedback through the district's School Alignment page at olatheschools.org.