Enrollment down at charter school

Although enrollment is low - lower than the 25 students required by the Oregon Department of Education - considerable positive energy surrounds the Sisters Charter Academy of Fine Arts.

The free, public charter school that operates under the umbrella of the Sisters School District, opened its doors at the beginning of the school year. At that time 32 students were enrolled in the school that serves children in grades K-6. That number is in the low 20s today.

Recently Michele Williams, chairman of the school's board of directors, chatted with its administrator Bill Lewis and board members Matt McCurdy and Ed Stebbins about the state of the school.

Although Sisters School District superintendent Elaine Drakulich has given approval for the school to take 50 students, because of the confines of their building both Williams and Lewis hope to limit that number to 40.

Located in the little red building at 450 E. Cascade Ave., the art-based school embellishes accredited core curriculum with constant exposure to the arts, including a wide variety of visual pursuits, music, dance and drama.

"I feel really good about the program," said Williams. "Now the objective is to keep it viable, strong, healthy. We need parent support and word-of-mouth support."

According to Williams, the school must concentrate on increasing attendance and enrollment.

Williams told her fellow board members that she would like to see the school institute an award for perfect attendance.

"Poor attendance will negatively affect our school," she said. "We're funded through the (state by the) Average Daily Membership (ADM) count. We need to keep our averages up," she said.

In an effort to educate parents about the importance of regular attendance, Williams has already sent a letter home to parents. According to Lewis, some parents are opting to keep their children home for "...family days in the middle of the week. A lot of them (absences), however, are legitimate. They (the children) are sick," Lewis said.

In planning for next year, Lewis and Williams hope to have input from parents soon as to whether or not students are returning. The school's K-2 instructor Brianna Barrons suggested that before asking parents about their plans, the school should inform parents about "... what next year's going to look like, what is perceived as the plans for the school. People are unsure because they don't know what it looks like," she said.

To this end, Williams hopes to improve communication between parents and the school.

Better communication with the public is also needed.

"A lot of negativity came that we are taking away from the (school) district," said Williams. "But, in fact, we are not taking money from the district. We are bringing money into the district. We've brought homeschool kids who were not being covered by the district back into the district. We've brought children from Bend and Redmond to this school who were not in this district. We're not bad; we're just different," said Williams.