Skip To Main Content

Select a School

About Us

Welcome to Olson Elementary!

Our school community acknowledges the value of family and community involvement. Through a strong relationship with Olson’s Parent/Teacher Organization, we have successfully raised money to support a variety of program needs, material requests, and special projects throughout our school that all lend themselves to bettering a higher level of education for all of our students. The presence of a variety of classroom volunteers from around our community allow our students to connect with new people every day and identify with the different cultural views that make up the beauty of Olson Elementary.

As the newest elementary school in the district, we have close to 450 students in grades 4K – 5. We are fortunate to be equipped with wonderful technology and a beautiful building to teach our students in. During the 2020-21 school year, Olson will be part of the final phase of MMSD’s Technology plan. Through this process, our classrooms will be equipped with new, interactive teaching devices along with 1:1 student devices. Our goal is to provide a safe and optimal learning environment for all of our children.

four happy elementary students

Paul J. Olson Elementary school is proud to be "Going for the Green". What does that mean? It means that it is built to be a green school /grEn skül / n, a school building or facility that creates a healthy environment that is conducive to learning while saving energy, resources and money, according to Green Schools 101.

Our school district has worked hard with the builders to build a school that has achieved silver LEED-certified status and now we are working as a school community to live up to the challenge of living green.

The most obvious signs of our green school are the geothermal heating and cooling system, the solar panels on the roof and the lighting in our learning spaces. But if you look closer, you can see, smell and experience many other benefits to green living. Our school is named after Paul J. Olson who was a longtime conservationist and school principal who helped organize the Madison School Forest which is still being used as an outdoor conservation classroom. Every year, our students and the whole school community continue the restoration of native habitat on our school grounds. This will expand learning opportunities about living with the land. Our first year we learned about energy sources and how to make compost, so we already have a good start! The building has recently been recognized as a Green Building of America Award-winning project.