Original Research by School Decision on Summit Public School: Olympus
Summit Public School: Olympus was a charter high school in Tacoma serving grades nine through twelve. The school is now closed. The board voted in October of 2024 to close the campus at the end of the 2024-2025 school year, citing chronically low enrollment and the fiscal challenges that came with it. This closure directly affects families who relied on this school, and records for former students are held at the Summit Public Schools home office as of mid-2025.
Before it closed, Summit Olympus operated as a small high school. Its enrollment was modest for a high school serving all four grades, and it drew a student body that was diverse in its composition. A substantial share of students qualified for free or reduced-price lunch. The student population reflected a mix of backgrounds, including a Hispanic/Latino plurality, with significant shares of White students, Black students, and students identifying as two or more races. The school did not report data on students with disabilities or English learners.
State testing results are available for the final school year, and they provide a picture of academic performance at that point. In English language arts, a share of students met the state proficiency standard that was below the majority. In math, the share of students meeting the standard was notably low. In science, the share was higher than in math but still below the majority. These results represent a single year of data, so there is no trend to compare against. Because the school is closed, these results are a snapshot of its final academic standing rather than a trajectory.
The school’s location in downtown Tacoma placed it in a mid-sized port city with a working waterfront, a downtown cultural district with museums and theaters, and distinct residential neighborhoods. The city draws on healthcare, retail, and educational services as major employment sectors, and the Port of Tacoma and nearby Joint Base Lewis-McChord are significant economic anchors. The immediate downtown area around the school is walkable, with the Museum District within walking distance, though the city as a whole is largely car-dependent. Housing values and rents in Tacoma have been rising, and the city is experiencing steady population growth, with city-led housing initiatives pushing for more units.
For families who are reading this description now, the most important fact is that this school no longer exists. Any search for Summit Public School: Olympus will lead to a closed campus. Parents of high-school-aged students who were enrolled there will need to work with the Summit Public Schools home office or with Tacoma Public Schools to secure a new placement. The closure was driven by a steady decline in enrollment from a founding ninth-grade class to a very small incoming freshman class in the final year, which made the school financially unsustainable. The state testing data from the final year may give some indication of what academic support students might need as they transition to new schools, but the institution itself is no longer an option.
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