News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sisters Charter Academy of Fine Arts (SCAFA) was evicted from its school site in downtown Sisters last Friday. Students were not in school on Monday or Tuesday.
SCAFA Principal, Theresa Schneiderman told The Nugget that charter school officials are negotiating with the landlord to reopen the school.
"We have the funds," she said. She did not know how much was required to make good the rent that is in arrears.
Schneiderman said she the school should be reopened soon.
"This week is my hope, but I don't know," she said.
She also said there is a possibility the school could seek a new location.
The district terminated SCAFA's charter due to concerns about the charter school's financial viability. Special education specialist Margaret Bates noted that the district and SCAFA have an agreement allowing the charter school to finish out the school year to avoid disrupting its students and their families.
"We signed a memorandum allowing them to continue school through the rest of the year," Bates said. "But if they don't have the money to do it..."
Annie Andreson, the agent for the landlord, said that SCAFA had always paid its rent, but became in arrears after management of the program was taken over by Ed Choices/AllPrep, the umbrella for SCAFA and the Sisters Web Academy.
Tim King has resigned as director of the AllPrep chain. The Sisters School District has terminated its charter agreement with the Web academy, citing inability to get accurate financial information.
The Oregon Department of Education issued a letter earlier this year asking districts that host AllPrep academies to review the charter schools' activities.
The Eugene Register-Guard reported on Saturday, March 13, that, "In an e-mail sent to staff on Thursday, King said a consensus emerged at a meeting with board members of the Estacada AllPrep Academy and district staff 'that I was not the best person to lead the Oregon AllPrep charter schools forward.'"
According to the Register-Guard, King wrote that, "The target on my back is too big and associating my name with the charter schools that I founded seemed to be getting in the way of progress, as well as solutions to the current financial
issues."
King did not return phone calls from The Nugget.
SCAFA Founder, Michele Williams, expressed dismay at the most recent turn of events in a turbulent year for local charter
schools.
"I'm just sick about it," she said. "At the beginning of the year, the money was there to keep the school open through the
year."
Williams said the school had $155,000 in grant funds and $50,000 in ADM (Average Daily Membership), which should have been enough to sustain the school. She told The Nugget that she does not know what happened.
"That's what I'm trying to find out," she said. "The SCAFA budget is really simple. It's such a small school, it's really black and
white.
"I don't want to point fingers, but something went way wrong," Williams said. "And we're all victims of this - my daughter (a SCAFA student) included. All the teachers, the staff, the children..."
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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