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I live in Milwaukie and have a student that has been on the waiting list at the Sojourner School for the last year.

I attended the meeting last week, where the district announced the proposed consolidation of the Sojourner and Concord schools.
Unfortunately, the meeting was very uninformative and showed me that the process thus far by the district has been poorly thought through. 

The information presented should been much further developed in how the proposed changes to the 2 schools would look once completed, and how the changes will affect the programs at each school.  In reality, there were few, if any answers given about specifics.

From what I have observed, the waiting list at the Sojourner school is huge due to the amazing curriculum.  It is by far the best quality curriculum I have seen over the last 18 months in my looking at public, private, and charter schools for my child. I am currently paying to send my child to a private school because the other options that I looked at within the North Clackamas School district did not meet my goals or expectations for my child's educational experience, and even the private school we are attending does not come close to the Sojourner School in terms of offering a quality, well rounded education.

My suggestion to the school board via email this last week was to take the following steps:

1. Look at the number of students on the waiting list who want into the Sojourner School.

2. Find a larger facility to house the Sojourner School within the district.

3. Allow those on the waiting list the ability to enroll at the Sojourner School.

4. Allow the Sojourner School to retain the 6th grade, and then add 7th and 8th grades over the next 2 years. Possibly adding 9-12 later.

5. Then, look at the remaining small or under-performing schools within the district, and begin making the tough decisions of consolidation with those schools. 

By taking these actions, N. Clackamas School Dist. could preserve a model of what all other schools in the region should aspire to become, and I think that they would find that the size of the school will grow to a point that it is more viable from an economical viewpoint as well.

OPB- Thanks airing great local topics like this!

posted 2 years, 3 months ago
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