Elementary school is pressed for space

There's more of them this year... photo by Eric Dolson

Sisters Elementary School moved one of its counselors from a small room to an electrical storage room this semester because the school is cramped for space.

"She's actually in a converted utility room," said principal Tim Comfort. "We just put in a wall. It would be nice to have a counseling office."

The students, teachers and administrators are bursting the building's seams, due to an unexpected increase in this year's enrollment. The school's enrollment for kindergarten through fifth grade jumped to 429 this year, from 382 last year, Comfort said.

The unexpected increase offset the pattern of the last four years, when enrollment was steadily decreasing.

"We expected 385 to 390 students," Comfort said. "We always have students move in and out, but instead of getting our usual 30 new students, we got 72. So now we have 40 more people than we budgeted or projected. For four years in a row, we have gone down about 20 students per year. All of a sudden, in one year, it has reversed and increased by 40."

Comfort said the increase is partly due to Sisters' growing popularity. City reports estimate the city will quadruple in population in the next 20 years, filling up with people who prefer Sisters' slower pace and scenic landscape.

While Sisters has been growing over the years, Comfort said the trend is only recently spreading to younger families with children in elementary school.

"Due to the cost of living and housing shortage and family-wage jobs, for a while Sisters only attracted second-home buyers, who usually have kids in middle school or high school," Comfort said. "Now more families with younger children are coming here as they are looking at their options of where they want the kids to grow up."

Comfort said the majority of the new students came from the valley or other parts of Oregon, and others came from California, Washington, Montana, Idaho -- even Poland.

Comfort said many of the new students are kindergarteners and specialneeds students. Comfort said the school added three Spanish-speaking children, who know little or no English.

The school added a fourth kindergarten class and a new teacher. There are 82 kindergarteners this year, which is about 20 more than last year, Comfort said. The school also hired a new third grade teacher and a few playground supervisors.

Next year, the school will need a new first grade classroom, Comfort said.

Comfort said every instructional classroom in the building is being used to its fullest capacity. Comfort said it is not an option to build a new elementary school, but he would like to add additional facilities and some improvements to the 23-year-old building.

"We need to look at short-term and long-term solutions for new classes or an area for the special needs program," Comfort said. "Our goal is to provide for the kids, be fiscally sensitive, and respect the taxpayers."

Options being considered are finding a separate building for classroom space, using the district administration building on the old middle school site, adding temporary structures on the elementary school site or using the middle school, Comfort said.

"There is a new high school and remodeled middle school," Comfort said. "We need to make sure our site also gets a chance to improve so we can be on par with their sites."

Comfort said he would also like to see smaller class sizes. He said he wants to see class sizes drop from the existing one kindergarten teacher per 23 students to 1-to-18; and the existing one fourth grade teacher per 28 students to at most 1-to-25.

Comfort said the first step to respond to the need for more space will be to give the enrollment numbers to the Sisters School Board at its next meeting. He said the administration will continue to gather data for growth trends and predictions and evaluate options in the spring.

"Will this trend continue again next year or was this a fluke?" Comfort asked. "Are the projections on building permits and growth of Sisters coming true? This definitely bucked a four-year trend."

The school's 429-student enrollment is the largest since October 1999, when it enrolled 444 students, Comfort said. In 1996, it enrolled more than 450 students.

In 1997, four classrooms were added to a corner of the school to accommodate the students.