News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sisters' new elementary school is ready to take on students for the start of the 2024-25 school year.
Sisters Elementary School hosted a community open house last week. Hundreds of community members turned out to see the new school.
The $33.8 million project, funded by bonds approved by voters in 2021, came in on time and on budget, despite increases in construction and materials costs. Students were to walk through its doors for the first day of school on Tuesday, September 3.
"We've got a few things left to do," said Schools Superintendent Curt Scholl. "We're behind on landscaping."
The playing field still needs to be hydro-seeded, and other play areas are not quite ready. Scholl said educators are working on a plan for hard-surface physical activities until those facilities are on line.
The school is facing an increase in the fifth grade population, which is posing a dilemma that has some parents concerned. The fifth grade, which has been educated at Sisters Middle School for many years, is moving "back" into the new facility.
For a moment, the district was seeing enrollment of 90 students, which would put the three current fifth grade classes at 30 students each.
Fifth grade parent Kari Sims Anthon wrote to Superintendent Scholl, expressing her concerns and those of other parents.
"There have been multiple academic studies done on the adverse effects on these large classroom sizes; not just for our children's learning experience, but for their mental health," she wrote. "This overcrowding is not only unfair to our children, but is also unfair to our teaching staff. Students have increasingly complicated academic and mental-health needs, and when you put 30-plus pre-teens into one classroom, it's impossible to meet their individual needs.
"This particular class of students has also experienced this previously in their learning environments at SES - and we saw the direct negative effects of the larger classrooms on their learning. And then, when the classroom sizes went back to more manageable numbers in subsequent years, the children blossomed. We cannot do this to these children yet again!"
Scholl told The Nugget that 30 students is the "threshold" for maximum class sizes in the fifth grade, and that the District is poised to hire if the numbers hold.
"This is one we've been watching over the summer," Scholl said.
Enrollment can fluctuate, sometimes significantly, in the first week or weeks of school. State funding is allocated on a per-student basis.
In previous years, Sisters has hired based on anticipated enrollment and got caught out when the numbers didn't materialize.
"We hired in third grade because the numbers looked big, and we lost 10 kids in the first week of school," he said.
This year, the fifth grade numbers hit 90, then dropped back to 88.
"If 88 holds, we'll probably hire," Scholl said.
The superintendent said that the District is poised to get the hiring done quickly, despite the late date in the process, and a new teacher could be in place within a matter of days.
"We're for sure going to respond," Scholl said. "We just need to be sure what's going to happen."
The new school is designed to enhance educational function.
Dedicated second-floor classrooms for art and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) are outfitted with sinks and cabinets, ceiling-mounted power cables, and extra storage for class projects. The art room will have a signature feature in its southwest corner: a kiln.
Classrooms are set up in pods, with four classrooms set around a common area. There is an interactive TV in each pod. Kindergarten through second grade will be housed on the first floor and grades 3-5 will be on the second floor.
The way the education space is configured is designed to promote differentiated instruction - tailoring content and processes to meet the needs of individual students who are not all learning at the same pace and in the same style.
Outside the school, there will be a one-stop bus drop-off point. Sisters School District worked with the City of Sisters to install "speed bumps" on McKinney Butte Road.
Scholl said he anticipates making adjustments as everyone settles into their new school.
"The thing about a new school - we'll learn a lot in the first month," he said. "It's exciting. It's a beautiful building."
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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