Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
As volunteers work on the Sweet Home Charter School’s new facility, openings remain available to families who want to send their children to the school beginning next month.
Volunteers held a work party on Aug. 16 to complete a list of tasks preparing the facility for occupancy. They held a second work night on Aug. 20.
“We’re rapidly moving through the list for final occupancy,” said People Involved in Education President and Sand Ridge Charter School Administrator Jay Jackson. Among the tasks were installing a wheelchair ramp and the construction of a fence around the school’s play area along with painting the driveway with arrows and putting up signs.
Most of the work is done now, parent Sherrie Ingram said. An exit door has been repaired, and the ramp is ready for cement to be poured. Holes have been cut for handicapped signs, desks are moved in and the last hall was painted on Monday.
“The office needs to be finished up this week in time for teachers to come in and start decorating their rooms,” Ingram said. It’s been a lot of work getting ready, but “I think we are kind of getting to the end.”
She said she was “excited” and “ready for school to start.”
Ingram is planning to send her first-grader to Sweet Home Charter School. Her daughter was in Sand Ridge’s kindergarten last year. She plans to send her two younger children to Sweet Home Charter School also.
Sweet Home Charter School is located in a building at the Church of Christ at 18th and Long streets. It is operated by PIE under contract with School District 55. PIE is a nonprofit corporation, which has operated Sand Ridge Charter School in Lebanon for several years.
The school can have up to 90 students, with two kindergarten classes and one class each of first through fourth grade.
After this year, PIE will add one grade to the school each year. It also will add a second first-grade class next year. Each year following it will add another class at the next level, so the school will eventually have two classes at each grade level. Under this arrangement, students starting in kindergarten will be able to continue attending the school. Each class has a cap of 18 students.
“One thing that has been kind of surprising to me, in spite of all the articles, people still don’t understand it’s a public school,” Jackson said. “Anyone can apply.”
The school charges no tuition, Jackson said, but “I get a lot of parents calling, ‘I’m very interested, but I just don’t know how to pay for it.'”
The school is a public school operated under contract with the School District, Jackson said. Admission and registration are free, although the school does charge an activity fee used by classrooms for field trips and other activities, and there is a book deposit.
People also may fill out registration forms any time for the school year starting Sept. 5, Jackson said. If the school has too many students who want to sign up, it holds a lottery to decide who gets to attend the school.
“We do still have openings available, but they’re filling up,” Jackson said. We’re not at full cap on student enrollment yet, but they’re coming in daily.”
Ingram suggests parents planning to send their children to the school sign up quickly.
The new charter school has some Sweet Home students transferring from Sand Ridge, Jackson said, but that’s mostly in the lower grades. For example, some kindergarteners from last year are transferring to the first grade at Sweet Home.
The older the students are, it seems they are remaining at Sand Ridge, Jackson said. Often, the families are choosing not to disrupt friendships or the students have older siblings attending Sand Ridge.
“My feeling right now is there’s going to be fewer Sweet Home kids (at Sand Ridge) because of the opening of the new school,” Jackson said. “I would guess that number is going to be a little bit smaller.”
“We’ve got staff lined up,” Jackson said. An administrator for the school has not yet been hired. “I will handle it initially with a transition to someone else being in there.”
For more information, call 367-1833 for the Sweet Home Charter School or 258-2416 for Sand Ridge Charter School.