Chelsea Update Focus on School Board Members: Steve Olsen

By Lisa Carolin

For Chelsea School Board President Steve Olsen, it’s being located in the Chelsea community that makes the school district outstanding. He says that the quality of the school district is a result of the people of Chelsea, who take pride in both where they live and what they do, as well as how they raise their children.

Olsen was first elected to the board in May 2004 and has served continuously since then. He has been elected president continuously since July 2010.

He says that it was in 2002 when his son was in second grade at South Meadows Elementary School and the board was considering a proposal to reconfigure the elementary school buildings that he decided to run for election.

“I felt that the Board of Education was moving too quickly on this proposal and without sufficient time for the community to become educated about it, and to provide input into the proposal,” said Olsen.

After more than a decade on the board, he says he has found watching students grow and develop into the next stage of their lives to be the most satisfying part of the job.

“Another particularly satisfying aspect to serving on the Board of Education is having the opportunity and privilege to work with and for the great administrators, educators and support staff that are employed by the school district,” he said. “These individuals devote their working careers to creating a safe, caring and stimulating learning environment for the development and guidance of our children.”

Olsen says that he has enjoyed working with board members over the years. As far as the challenges that he feels the board faces, Olsen believes that student discipline is the biggest emotional challenge, especially when it leads to suspensions and expulsions, which he says are rare.

He finds the negative financial and political picture facing the state’s public schools in the last ten years and the consequent reduced funding for schools to be one of the board’s biggest challenges.

“Second is the task of negotiating with special interest groups within our community who make increasing demands in the face of dwindling resources,” said Olsen. “The Board of Education has no ability to raise revenue for our general operating fund. Educating these special interest groups about the reality of the school district’s fiscal condition can be, at times, difficult. Regardless, the board has insisted that the educational well-being of our children takes precedence over the demands of all other groups.”

Olsen grew up in Detroit, graduated from St. Cecilia High School, and after starting college at the University of Richmond in Virginia, was drafted into the armed forces. He enlisted in the Air Force and worked as a radio intercept analyst in Texas, Okinawa, and at the National Security Agency. He was awarded the Joint services Commendation Medal and honorably discharged from active duty after four years of service.

He completed his undergraduate degree, a double major in economics and political science, at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, and then attended law school at the University of Michigan. He worked for several law firms in Ann Arbor as a trial attorney then established his own firm.

Olsen and his wife bought a home in Chelsea in 1986, and he moved his law practice to the Chelsea area in 2000. He has worked as a part-time legal consultant for other law firms since 2012.

Olsen has served as a Cub Scout leader in Chelsea and on the Chelsea Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors for seven years, including one year as president. He enjoys hunting, fishing, cooking, reading and spending time with his family.