Sisters Charter Academy to appeal termination

The Sisters Charter Academy of Fine Arts (SCAFA) board of directors has voted unanimously to appeal termination by the Sisters School District board, which would have closed the small charter school effective Friday, January 15.

The board will not seek to renew its charter with the district for next year.

"If we don't file the appeal, those kids won't have a school to go to... ," said board president, Ed Stebbins, of Sisters, whose son is a student at the charter school.

The school's battle with the district is primarily over "fiscal viability," said SCAFA Principal Teresa Schneiderman. Oregon charter schools pay a portion of their state per-student funding to their sponsoring districts. SCAFA receives 80 cents for each dollar in state per-student funding that comes to the Sisters School District, Schneiderman said.

She acknowledges the school has struggled financially but stated that allowing the school to remain open, at least for the remainder of the school year, would not harm the district.

Schneiderman also pointed out that the school has seen enrollment nearly double since September, although it is still short of the minimum 25 full-time students it needs.

"We were told some time ago that the charter school would likely appeal, so it comes as no surprise," said Sisters School Board chair, Christine Jones. "Frankly, as we have stated, we hope the appeals process will provide us with some guidance on the issues that we have raised. So all in all I see it as a positive step forward in resolving our concerns."

The charter school board also voted not to renew its three-year charter with the Sisters School District, which will expire this summer.

"It's been one thing after another since they tried to start this school five years ago," said Stebbins. "I'm tired of the constant battles. We just need the school to stay open for the rest of the school year so the kids' educations aren't disrupted and the parents have time to figure out something else."

"I'm not surprised, as we have raised a number of contractual issues with Tim King, the director of both the Web academy and SCAFA," Jones told The Nugget. "As the sponsoring district charged with ensuring the oversight of the tax dollars that fund our local charter schools, we have the obligation to make sure that the appropriate regulations and contractual provisions are followed.

"The board believes that charter schools can provide valuable alternatives to our neighborhood schools, and we are certainly open to considering applications. Getting any charter school up and running in a financially viable state is a very difficult proposition, and SCAFA had some difficult problems to overcome."

Oregon law allows the school to remain open until the appeal is resolved, which means the school will likely stay open until April or May regardless of the outcome of the appeal.