News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
The Sisters School District has cited Sisters area resident Keith Akers for failing to keep his grandduaghter in school. The unprecedented move, probably the first such action taken in Central Oregon, is the district's use of a law enacted in 1993 allowing local schools to enforce compulsory education requirements.
Akers is registered as the guardian of his granddaughter, who should be a sophomore at Sisters High School. The girl has not attended classes since about the second week of school.
The citation carries a fine of up to $100.
"The concept of the law was to give the local school districts some enforcement power to make sure people are sending their kids to school," said Sisters Schools Superintendent Steve Swisher.
Swisher noted that citing a child's parent or guardian is "a last recourse." The law requires an elaborate system of notification before a citation is issued.
In the Akers case, Swisher said, "we made repeated attempts" to get the student back to school. Swisher said the high school counseling staff contacted Akers repeatedly throughout the fall semester. The district went forward with the citation after Akers refused to allow an assessment of his granddaughter, according to Swisher.
The citation was served by Deschutes County Sheriff's deputies on January 9. Akers failed to appear for his court date January 30 and was subsequently cited for failure to appear.
Another court hearing, set for March 27, has been continued.
Swisher is realistic about the weight the district attorney's office is willing to throw behind truancy enforcement.
"What's the priority of the case?" he said. "Probably pretty low, frankly."
He noted that the school district has invested 30 to 40 person hours into the case - a lot of work for a small district staff.
"Is it all worth it? Well yes," Swisher said. "Because you still have (the girl), who's not going to school and who obviously has some problems going on. If you give up on (this student) who's the next student you're going to give up on? Every one of these students is well worth it."
Sisters schools take attendance seriously. Swisher noted that the schools call home any time a child doesn't show up for school and doesn't have an excuse.
"That, in my opinion, is one of the advantages of smaller systems, smaller schools," Swisher said.
Partly as a consequence of that attentiveness, Sisters schools have good attendance records, and a comparatively low drop-out rate. In 1995-96, the drop-out rate was 4.9 percent, rising to 6 percent in 1996-97. Some districts have drop-out rates of epidemic proportions, Swisher said - 15 to 20 percent.
According to Swisher, districts as nearby as Redmond have had to work hard with the community to address widespread truancy problems.
So, truancy in general is not a major issue in Sisters schools - except in certain cases. And, as evidenced by the district's willingness to go all the way to court with Keith Akers, those individual cases get close attention.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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