Schools see jump in enrollment

By Eric Dolson

Sisters schools are nearly out of room. There are 555 students in Sisters Middle/Senior High School, a facility that Principal Dennis Dempsey feels was designed for 550.

At the elementary school there are 539 students, according to Principal Tim Comfort, about eight more than anticipated from last year's enrollment. The elementary campus, including buildings on the administration site, has a capacity of about 600.

Class sizes at the elementary school range from an average of 22 at the second grade level to 27 in both the fourth and fifth grades, said Comfort.

Things are much tighter at the middle/high school. On the first day of school all could not meet in the cafetorium and had to gather in the gym, according to Principal Dempsey.

Some of the increase was anticipated, much was not. At the end of the last school year, grades seven through 12 had 466 students. Because a graduating class of 53 was going to be replaced by a much large incoming seventh grade class, enrollment this year was expected to be 520.

But other classes jumped in size over the summer as well.

"We had 78 seventh graders at the end of last year, (and have) 93 eighth graders this year. You can handle increases of 5 or even 10 percent, but when you are trying to build a schedule, a jump (from 78 to 93) really causes problems," said Dempsey.

There were 45 students in one section of physical education, Spanish classes with 37-38 students and language arts classes with 35-36 students, Dempsey said.

On Thursday, September 7, the board authorized part-time teachers to teach a two additional elective periods, a regular physical education class and "Wilderness Adventure," also a section of physical education. The additional electives allowed rearranging the schedule to reduce the class sizes in Spanish and language arts, Dempsey said.

However, the gyms are crowded and the lunchroom can only seat about 200 at a time, according to Dempsey. This may require a split into two separate lunch periods.

At the elementary school the biggest challenge right now is having personnel for lunch coverage and spreading limited staff to assist special needs students, according to Principal Comfort.