Robust enrollment for alternative schools.

Byline: Anne Williams The Register-Guard

Unprecedented scrutiny and public debate over Eugene's alternative elementary schools doesn't appear to have put much of a dent in expected fall enrollment at most of the four schools that underwent review this year.

In fact, with the exception of Magnet Arts, which will merge with Jefferson Middle School after the 2006-07 school year to create the district's first K-8 school, all of them appear to be full-up already.

That's welcome news for parents and staff members, some of whom worried that uncertainty over the schools' programs and locations, as well as a new lottery system that eliminated grade-level limits, could take a toll.

Slumping enrollment at both Magnet Arts and Hillside had raised red flags for the four-member Alternative school review team, which assessed those schools along with Eastside and Family School, in the fall.

The team also agreed that Hillside was the only one of the four lacking the kind of distinctive program necessary to give it legitimate alternative status - a finding Hillside teachers and parents disputed.

Nonetheless, with a mandate from the school board to modify its program and raise enrollment or face possible closure or merger, Hillside came up with a new name - Hillside International - and a new focus.

While it will continue to emphasize traditional academics in a one-grade-per-classroom setting, as it always has, the school plans to introduce a more global curriculum, incorporating world literature and language instruction.

Hillside parents and teachers plugged the concept to prospective families during school visitation sessions earlier this year, said Ann Reeder, Hillside Parent Organization president.

"People were really very excited and interested and intrigued about the concept, and also the opportunity to really be in on the front end of something new," she said.

"As you know, we continue to disagree with the school board's determination on distinctiveness, so we were up front (with parents) about that, that we felt what we have is distinct and that what we have will continue to exist and will simply be enhanced."

The numbers are highest at kindergarten, with 35 signed up. That's good news, although it may necessitate adding a second kindergarten class, Principal Pamela Irvine said.

Overall, enrollment is still slightly below capacity, due in part to an especially tiny group of incoming third- graders.

In the past, the alternative schools accepted students based on the number of openings per grade level. Most took roughly 23 to 26 students per class.

That changed this year with the school board's vote to eliminate class caps and accept students purely by random lottery, no matter their grade.

The recommendation came from the review team and Russell, who believed the caps served no educational purpose and amounted to an unfair privilege not shared by neighborhood schools.

Critics of the plan worried it might create bulges in certain grades, but the board believed its impact would be minimal.

In fact, it was - the vast majority of selected applicants continued to be kindergartners and first-graders (neither Family School nor Eastside have a kindergarten), ensuring a stable base for future years.

At Family School, for instance, the number of first-graders accepted was 18 rather than the usual 22, with a smattering of students coming in at the higher grades, Principal Sally Huling said.

Eastside saw a similar trend, with 26 first-graders (13 of them siblings guaranteed admission) accepted and one student at each of the higher grades.

The school board agreed with a recommendation from Superintendent George Russell that Hillside, Eastside and probably Family School should eventually relocate.

All three share buildings with neighborhood elementary schools, which has stirred tensions among staff and parents.

But that didn't appear to give prospective parents much pause. Both Eastside and Family School are full with waiting lists.

The review team found both programs to be distinctive and popular, but said Eastside needs to work on diversifying its student body to serve more low-income, special education and minority students.

Magnet Arts earned high marks for distinctiveness and diversity, but the review team said low enrollment threatened to sink it.

The picture changed dramatically a month ago, however, when Russell announced his decision to close both Magnet Arts and Jefferson, with which it shares a building, after the 2006-07 school year.

In their place will be a new K-8 school emphasizing the arts and technology.

Both schools had suffered a sharp decline in enrollment during the past several years.

The district's four other alternative schools - Corridor and the three language immersion schools, Charlemagne at Fox Hollow, Buena Vista and Yujin Gakuen - will be up for review this fall.

Because they haven't yet been reviewed, the board allowed them to keep grade-level caps at least for this year. All are full with waiting lists for the fall.

Several neighborhood elementary schools have waiting lists this year as well, including Cesar Chavez, which shares a building with Family School, and Parker, which shares with Eastside.

While alternative schools accept students only by lottery, neighborhood schools must serve all students who live within their boundaries.

They also accept transfers if it appears there will be space available.

ALTERNATIVE SCHOOL ENROLLMENT

Here's what the fall numbers look like for the four alternative schools that underwent review this year. The numbers are just estimates at this point, as students could pull out or enroll closer to the start of school.

Eastside: 144, with 15 on waiting list

Family School: 123, with 25 on waiting list

Hillside: 128 (counting half-day kindergartners as 0.5), four students fewer than the target.

Magnet Arts: 87 (counting kindergartners as 0.5). The schoolwide cap has traditionally been about 140, with kinder- gartners counted as 0.5.