Sean C. Morgan
The Sweet Home Charter School will not have a sixth grade next year, allowing the school time to install the septic system it needs to install new modular buildings.
“We have an arrangement to have a new septic system put in this summer,” said Principal Scott Richards. Linn County is requiring the new septic system because the school wants to put in new modular buildings.
The county has no record of the existing septic system, Richards said.
After the septic is installed, the school, located at 28721 Liberty Road, can address its need for more space.
School officials don’t believe they can finish the project this summer, Richards said, so it will have to cancel sixth grade next school year.
The work will continue into the school year, he said.
The new structures are needed to address a shortage of space, he said. “We use every square inch of the building.”
The school has about 235 students with two classes in each grade except fifth and sixth. The school has one fifth-grade class and one fifth- and sixth-grade blend. The expansion will accommodate two classes of the fifth and sixth grades.
It also will allow room for two full-day kindergarten classes, Richards said. This year, the school offered two half-day kindergarten classes. Next year, when districts around the state start offering full-day kindergarten, so will Sweet Home Charter School.
Next year, the school will provide one full-day kindergarten class, Richards said.
Sweet Home Charter School is operated by People Involved in Education, Inc., which also owns and operates Sand Ridge Charter School in the Lebanon School District.
Sweet Home Schools Supt. Keith Winslow said the Charter School has approximately 30 incoming sixth-grade students for next school year.
Some of those students will go to Sand Ridge, Winslow said. Some will participate in home schools.
He expects about 20 students to attend Sweet Home schools, mostly in the Foster and Hawthorne areas.