Sisters to have two new charter schools this fall

Plans are being finalized for two new charter schools that will operate under the umbrella of the Sisters School District. At a recent community work session, the Sisters School Board approved the opening this September of the Sisters Web and Early College Academy (SWECA) and the Sisters Early College (SEC).

The two charter schools will operate as one 501c3 non-profit corporation, governed by its own board of directors. The schools will have a combined enrollment cap of 400 students.

SWECA will accept students in grades K-12. About 100 students will attend the school with a ratio of 50 percent living within the Sisters School District and 50 percent living outside the district, according to SWECA director Tim King, who also serves as the director of the North Clackamas Web Academy and Clackamas Middle College.

SWECA will target students who are currently homeschooled or unable to attend one of Sisters School District's neighborhood schools and is expected to attract students who will benefit from a high quality, computer based, non-traditional form of education. SWECA will install a computer in the home of each of its students.

According to Sisters School District superintendent Elaine Drakulich, 82 children who live within Sisters School District boundaries are currently registered with the High Desert Educational Service District (HDESD) as homeschool students.

"There are others that are not registered, and these parents have called and are interested in what this (SWECA) could bring to them in home teaching their children," said Drakulich.

Drakulich does not anticipate that any students will transfer from Sisters neighborhood schools to SWECA.

"I don't expect one," she said. "Those people who are here with us (with children in Sisters schools) want their children in the culture and in the socialization process with other children."

SEC, the second charter school, is an early college that will attract homeschool students who have completed most of their high school requirements but likely are not going on to a four-year college. SEC will send these students to community college and pay for their classes.

"What happens is that homeschool students tend to accelerate through their high school career. This is the program that we use then to send them on," said King.

SEC students will take courses that not only count as credit on their college transcripts but also as credit on their high school transcripts.

"For example, you have to have four years of English to graduate (from high school) in the state of Oregon. A kid takes Writing 121 at the community college, and we count that as part of their (high school) English credit," said King.

According to King, the average student who attends the Clackamas Middle College, a early college program like the one SEC will offer, graduates with over 45 college credits, as well as a high school diploma.

King anticipates that 300 students will attend SEC.

For more information, contact King directly at 503-577-2379.