News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
A dearth of affordable housing in Sisters could prove costly to local schools, at least in the short run.
According to school district figures, 17 Sisters students will be affected by evictions at The Pines. Residents there will move out at the end of November. If those students' families can't find new lodgings and have to leave the Sisters School District, the schools could lose up to $45,000 in state funding.
Of the 17 students, 10 are elementary school-age, three attend the middle school and four are high schoolers.
"Those students and their families are going to have an awfully tough time finding a place to live in Sisters," said schools superintendent Steve Swisher.
According to Swisher, the schools stand to lose about 10 units of "average daily membership," a pro-rated calculation of the 17 students' attendance over the school year. Schools get $4,500 per ADM from the state. If all 17 students leave the district, payments to the schools, which come in January, March and May could decrease by $45,000.
That calculates to approximately one teaching position, counting benefits.
"That's a teacher, absolutely," Swisher said.
Swisher acknowledged that the district is "holding its breath," waiting to see where enrollment is at the end of November. Enrollment is currently about 15 ADM above budgeted projections. If enrollment holds, the loss of 10 ADM would probably not trigger severe budget cuts.
But this is the time of year when students leave the district, according to Swisher.
"Traditionally our October, November, December count starts to go down," Swisher said.
Barbara Nason is determined to stay in the district.
Her daughter is in fifth grade and, according to her mom, she is "getting As and Bs."
"She's been going (to Sisters Elementary School) since kindergarten," Nason said. "The last thing we want to do is pull her out of there."
Kim Simmons has a kindergartner and a high school sophomore in Sisters schools. She said she does not want to leave the district, but she's not finding much to rent in Sisters.
"We're praying we can find something inside the district," she said. "It's looking really ugly at this point."
Simmons said she is concerned about pulling her kindergartner out of familiar surroundings after he just got used to going to school. And she worries that other schools might not work as hard to help her high school age son succeed in school.
"Other school districts, I don't know if they're going to be as supportive," she said.
Both Nason and Simmons said they have seen rents run $700-900 a month for comfortable houses. Less expensive places are small and crowded and still hard to reach financially.
With first and last months' rents and a deposit, "we're looking at a minimum of $1,500 to move in anywhere," Simmons said.
Nason said her family might bring in a 22-foot travel trailer until they find a suitable place within the Sisters School District.
"I'll live in a trailer if I have to," she said.
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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