News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sisters schools have 33 more students than they had last year.
Sisters Elementary grew by 16 students to a population of 447; the middle school added four students and Sisters High School grew by 13 students for a total of 429. The total number of students as of last week was 1,150.
That's good financial news to the school district, which was facing up to $100,000 in cuts after the state budget allocation for schools came in smaller than expected.
The state funds schools through a weighted, per-student formula known as "average daily membership" (ADM). The state pays schools $4,500 per ADM. With 25 more ADM this year - at least so far - Sisters may have about $112,500 more to work with this year.
"That really starts to make up the gap," said schools superintendent Steve Swisher. "(With) as much as $100,000 we were going to have to trim up and make up, we may just about balance."
However, Swisher remains only cautiously optimistic. He noted that school populations don't tend to stabilize until October and some students may leave the district.
And, if there are more students across the board in Oregon, the amount of funding per student will drop.
Still, Sisters schools are starting the new year full.
"Every one of our classrooms is in use" at the elementary school, Swisher said.
The middle school is at capacity.
"Every room is used every period of every day," Swisher said. "Even when one teacher goes on prep, another class comes in to use that classroom."
The high school has one classroom to spare.
There are more kindergartners starting school than in the past two years. Sixty-five children started kindergarten, including one tuition-paying full-day class. That's up from 57 in 1998.
There had been a steep drop-off in kindergarten population from 72 in 1995 and 71 in 1996 to a low of 48 in 1997.
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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