Sean C. Morgan
As students are getting busy with the new school year, enrollment is up district-wide in Sweet Home.
Holley and Foster schools each had to add a new teacher and classroom to cope with increasing enrollment.
Outside of these growing pains, school started smoothly this year, said new Supt. Tom Yahraes. “I am very pleased with our in-services. I’m pleased with our operations, very happy with our teachers being prepared and welcoming our kids. I’m very impressed with Sweet Home’s support staff, facilities folks, nutrition, transportation, instructional assistants.”
Enrollment was higher than anticipated in a couple of different places, Yahraes said.
Overall, enrollment was at 2,295 as of Friday, an increase of 21 students from the 2,273 recorded during the first week of last school year.
To make an apples-to-apples comparison, the totals were adjusted to exclude Access College Today students.
ACT students qualified to graduate but attended Linn-Benton Community College while remaining enrolled in the district, with the district paying their tuition.
The program had 73 students last year, but the Oregon legislature eliminated much of the program, leaving just one student in it this year.
The district had several large classes at Holley and Foster schools. Holley’s overall enrollment increased from 147 to 154, and Foster’s increased from 303 to 350.
At Holley, a first- and second-grade blend exceeded 34 students, Yahraes said. Holley added a full-time teacher to handle the additional students.
“We have a teacher at every grade, no blends,” said Principal Todd Barrett.
Yahraes said he aims to make “corrections that are not temporary fixes, allocating staff where we are supporting the kids, the families and staff in an effective manner and not a Band-Aid.”
At Foster, classrooms included a 35-student fifth-grade classroom, a 34-student fifth- and sixth-grade blend and a 34-student sixth grade classroom.
“Today, I issued another staffing allocation to make those class sizes smaller, reducing class sizes to the mid-20s at Foster,” Yahraes said Thursday. “We’ll be able to break the blends so teachers now can provide one grade level targeted instruction.”
Whenever numbers reach those levels, it becomes possible to break up blended classes, he said. After the adjustments, the school has fifth- and sixth-grade classes with 25 to 27 students.
The district had surplus funding in its budget because Sweet Home Charter School enrollment was lower than the district projected, allowing the district to add two full-time teachers, Yahraes said.
Internally, the district is “all-hands-on-deck” getting classroom space opened up at the two schools, Yahraes said, but it may take a couple of weeks before those classrooms are fully ready.
Also experiencing enrollment growth were Sweet Home Junior High, going from 325 to 354 students; Oak Heights, going from 275 to 282 students; and Sweet Home High School, going from 671 to 703.
Enrollments decreased at Hawthorne, from 348 to 302, and at the Charter School, going from 154 to 150.
After adjustments at Foster, the largest classrooms in the district are also at Foster, including two second-grade class es, with 30 and 31 students each, and a second- and third-grade blend, with 31 students.
The largest class in the district is the ninth grade, with 194 students.
The smallest is the eighth grade, with 148 students.
Hawthorne Principal Terry Augustadt said he had a large sixth grade, about 65 students, leave the school last year, which helps explain the growth at the Junior High.
Kindergarten projections were high too, he said. The school expected 50 to 55 kindergarteners, but only 42 enrolled.
“It’s great seeing the enrollment trend hopefully start to come up,” Yahraes said.