The Nugget Newspaper - News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon

In a period of 15 years, Sisters schools have had two incidents that have brought the separation of church and state issue to a boil. Both of them have occurred in the past two years - which has led some in the community to think the district has a hard time keeping on the right side of the church-state line.

But church-state problems are not usually what pushes the hot buttons in Sisters, according to school board chairman Mike Gould and high school principal Bob Macauley.

Usually, it's politics in the classroom that sets off alarm bells.

That was the case, anyway, until three weeks ago when Kris Helphinstine, the high school's temporary, part-time biology teacher was fired. The Helphinstine firing hit the national news and launched the Sisters community into a spirited debate about faith versus science and the place of evolution, creationism and Intelligent Design discussions in the schools.

The other issue that has caused the community to question the district's policy regarding religion in the classroom is a homeschool program that was housed at Sonrise Christian School (now Sisters Christian Academy) from 1999-2004.

According to Macauley both the Helphinstine and the Sonrise incidents have been fueled by opinion that has not always been fact-based. School board chairman Gould could not agree more.

Perceptions, he says, often skew reality. People's views are pigeonholed as either liberal or conservative, red-state, blue-state, secular or religious.

"We live in a world now of perceived absolutes," he said.

As rumor and innuendo fly through Sisters, the school district has often chosen to remain silent instead of attempting to clear the air.

One example of such an instance occurred during the Helphinstine controversy. A parent's inaccurate assertion was circulated throughout the community that Macauley, through his son, had known Helphinstine before he hired him. This alleged connection was painted as evidence of some sort of agenda being pushed in the school.

When this assertion, which was known to be inaccurate, was brought to the attention of the district's administration, the district did nothing to quell it.

"That's poor leadership," Macauley said.

Gould is the first to admit that there is room for improvement in the district's leadership that not only goes to its top administrators but also to the school board itself.

"You can change perceptions with strong leadership," Gould said.

Macauley said he usually deals with complaints about political bias in the classroom - and the problems are almost always not as they appear. The principal points out that sometimes what students bring home is not a valid representation of what happens in the classroom.

"Students hear things and then interpret it and take it home and sell it as fact, not purposefully, not intentionally, not with malice or maybe they are trying to get a good dinner conversation going. I've always found when you have people talking at the primary source, you get things straightened out a lot quicker," Macauley said.

Macauley has been faulted for his involvement with Sonrise Christian School. Here again, he feels that perceptions have blurred reality.

According to Macauley, he got permission from Steve Swisher, the Sisters School District's superintendent at the time, to compile the accreditation papers for Sonrise.

"He gave me permission. He said just don't do it on school time," Macauley said.

Macauley does not deny that his name appears as a board member for the Christian school the first months it was in existence. He believes that it was the school's way of thanking him for his work.

"As a board member I've never attended a meeting. I've never been involved in a meeting, never voted," he said. "I looked at it as good community work. I really honestly wouldn't have cared if it was a Jewish school, a Muslim school, a Christian school, a private school, whatever. I still would have helped."

Macauley said he would like to see people investigate and talk to those involved first before forming an opinion on a controversial subject.

He said that in a small, tight-knit community it is important that "we think the best of each other" instead of assuming the worst.