Sisters to weigh in on future of school site

Once a new Sisters Elementary School is built on the campus at the west end of town in 2023, the current site on the corner of Highway 20 and Locust Street will become a community asset. How that asset might best be used is at the forefront of a community conversation.

Citizens4Community (C4C) will kick off that conversation with a November 15 “Let’s Talk” session. These talks are conducted monthlyby C4C on a variety of issues important to Sisters, but they are making a particular effort to bring the public into the discussion of the future of the elementary school site.

“We want to make sure the public is heard,” said C4C Executive Director Linda Cline. “It’s for everybody in the community.”

The session will include presentations by Sisters City Manager Cory Misley and Sisters School Board Member Edie Jones, as well as discussion on past conversations and current thinking about the site from Sisters Schools Superintendent Curtiss Scholl and Jennifer Holland, Sisters Park & Recreation District (SPRD) executive director.

The session will be conducted via Zoom on November 15 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. To participate, email Cline at [email protected]

citizens4community.com. She will send out Zoom links on the day of the

meeting.

Cline acknowledged that there have been some preliminary discussions about the possibility of SPRD using some of the facility space, but no decisions have been made.

“Nothing’s written in stone yet,” Cline said. “We really want the community to be able to give some thought to it.”

The meeting is designed for the public to learn about the site the building sits on; explore ownership and zoning of the property; discuss past exploration into repurposing the building; ask questions; and share thoughts regarding alternative models that could be

added.

The session will not be the only community outreach. Cline said that C4C plans to facilitate a broad community input process, modeled on the City of Sisters’ effort to bring the public into the shaping of an updated comprehensive plan over the past year.

“They got a lot of public input — and they did that during COVID,” Cline said. “We’re going to model it somewhat on what the City did for the comp plan.”

She said, “We hope to know by spring what the public wants to do.”

The November 15 session will be recorded and posted to http://www.citizens4community.com.