The recent expansion of a charter school in the eastern Oregon town of Ontario drew criticism at Thursday’s State Board of Education meeting.
School district leaders said expanding the local charter school will decimate the local high school. Charter school proponents said their program is serving students in ways the local schools can't and should be allowed to do more.
Public school leaders in Oregon often question charter schools, arguing they deprive existing schools of students — and money — under the state’s per-student funding model.
Oregon allows charter school operations to reach agreements directly with the state, in part because Oregon school districts may be reluctant to allow charter schools to compete for students within their own district schools. But it's relatively rare — only four schools have contracts with the state, compared to more than 120 that have contracts with school districts.
Four Rivers Community School in Ontario is one of those four state-sponsored charters.
It opened in September 2003, and until this school year, focused solely on elementary and middle school students. But over the last year, Four Rivers received permission from state officials to open a high school program. It started enrolling ninth graders in fall 2016.
The Ontario School District said the Oregon Department of Education and state board members improperly allowed Four Rivers Community School to add high school grades without considering its effect on Ontario High.
Several officials from the Ontario district came to this week's State Board of Education meeting to criticize the steps ODE took to recommend Four Rivers' expansion, and to press the State Board of Education to reconsider.
Ontario Superintendent Nicole Albisu blasted ODE's examination of Four Rivers' expansion. Albisu said it was improperly folded into a renewal of the school's charter, when it should have been treated as a more significant change to the school.
But the bottom line for Ontario is a financial one. Albisu said if Four Rivers expands to a full high school, it would mean $900,000 less out of a $2.5 million budget for Ontario High School.
"That is 36 percent of our entire high school instructional budget for Ontario being distributed to Four Rivers — 36 percent," Albisu said. "Our town is too small for that; we can not support two high schools in our town."
Albisu said such reductions could lead to layoffs.
Ontario board member Renae Corn joined Albisu to argue Four Rivers is already affecting Ontario High’s enrollment.
"The results, if not addressed by this board, will be reduced enrollment and funding to Ontario School District, which will have a direct negative impact on the quality of education for a majority of the high school-aged students in the Ontario district,” Corn said.
But Four Rivers’ superintendent Chelle Robins argued her school’s bilingual approach offers a good alternative in eastern Oregon.
Robins said students at Four Rivers are outperforming students of similar demographics at other schools. She pointed to a 100 percent graduation rate for Four Rivers students after they've left eighth grade and gone on to finish at eastern Oregon high schools.
“Our program is a dual-language immersion focus, with an emphasis on creating a college-going focus," Robins said. "At Four Rivers, students receive their education in Spanish and English, promoting the strategic initiative of bi-literacy."
Robins said all students at Four Rivers qualify for free lunch based on their limited family income. Nearly four-fifths of students are Latino and nearly half speak languages other than English at home.
Ontario school officials argue the demographics at Four Rivers are similar to Ontario as a whole, though Robins said the school attracts an even more diverse student body than the local public schools.
Four Rivers parent and board member Ramon Palomo joined Robins to argue the school is successful at teaching children to learn multiple languages. Palomo said the district and charter school should work together, not fight.
Ontario's Argus Observer newspaper has documented ongoing conflicts between the school district and Four Rivers, including an aborted attempt to build a dual-language immersion program at Ontario High.
The state board was originally scheduled to review Ontario School District's concerns about Four Rivers at the December meeting. But due to the winter storm, the December meeting was shortened.
"We all were concerned about the viewpoints that have emerged since the original discussion occurred in the board last year," said board chair Charles Martinez.
Martinez was particularly interested in an investigator's report referenced by Ontario School District officials. It was shared with state board members, but not included in publicly available meeting materials.
Further discussion of the eastern Oregon charter school is scheduled for January 2017.