Going private for small classes

When it came time for Taryn Scudder’s daughter, Cailyn Ellis, to attend kindergarten in the fall of 2006, Scudder paid a visit to the family’s local public elementary school in rural Lane County.

“The feeling was not good,” Scudder said. “It seemed more like an inner-city school than a rural school. And I’m from L.A.!”

So she and her husband, John Ellis, took a drive out to Oak Hill School, the private school near Lane Community College they had heard so much about.

Scudder stepped out of the car, looked around at the sprawling old oak trees amid the 72 acres on which the private school sits, and began to weep. “This is it,” she thought.

But did she know tuition for kindergarten at Oak Hill is $12,600?

“Maybe that’s why I cried,” Scudder said with a laugh on Tuesday, retelling the story in front of her daughter, now a fourth-grader at Oak Hill, and the school’s new headmaster, Bob Sarkisian.

But Scudder is quick to add that the money spent on her daughter’s elementary school education thus far is “more than worth it.”

It appears that more and more parents are following the lead of Scudder and other families who have decided to remove their children from budget-strapped public school districts that are struggling to keep expanding class sizes from bursting at the seams.

Oak Hill, which opened in 1994 as a K-12 college-preparatory school, has 127 students this year. But a record number of 32 new students already are registered for the fall, said Lauren Moody, the school’s admissions director. With 10 seniors graduating, that would give the school 149 students this fall — but more are likely to sign up before classes begin in September, Moody said.

Only 11 of the new students signed up so far are kindergartners. The rest are in grades 1-9, including seven sixth-graders who, instead of jumping from public elementary schools to public middle schools, will start their middle school days at Oak Hill in classes of no more than 18 students — the maximum number allowed at Oak Hill in grades 6-12.

Oak Hill has six middle school teachers, plus specialists in Mandarin, Spanish, French, art, music and theater. Of course, you get what you pay for. Annual tuition at Oak Hill ranges from $12,600 for kindergarten to $15,000 for high school students. Compare that to what the University of Oregon will be charging in-state students this fall: $8,880 a year.

About one in three Oak Hill students receives financial aid, averaging about $7,000 a year, Moody said.

Moody said many parents of newly registered students at Oak Hill have voiced frustration with the Eugene School District’s financial woes, which is expected to result in class sizes of four to five more students this fall. Aware of the parental concerns, Oak Hill has done more outreach than ever before, Moody said.

“The most rational (parents) will say they believe in public schools, but they are disappointed in what’s going on,” said Sarkisian, who came to Oak Hill in March after more than three decades leading East Coast private schools. More extreme comments come from parents who say “they hate public schools,” Sarkisian said.

Public schools suffer as kids leave

The Eugene, Bethel and Springfield public school districts, which have all faced multimillion-dollar budget deficits for three or four years running, also have seen declining enrollments in recent years. Every student lost cost the districts about $6,000 a year in per-pupil state funding.

“So any reduction in enrollment makes it even harder on the students who are left,” Eugene School District spokeswoman Kerry Delf said. The district has heard lots of concerns from parents this school year about class sizes and other matters, said Delf, who added: “We do believe that public schools are the best option for most students.”

A survey of other private schools in the Eugene-Springfield area, most of them religion-based, shows that numbers are up there, too.

Willow Creek Academy, a small Christian private school in west Eugene near Kennedy Middle School, opened in 2007 and has quickly grown to 60 students in grades pre-K through fifth. It’s expecting about 10 additional students this fall. In fact, the school is considering starting middle school classes if there’s enough interest, parent Jessica Blakely said.

Blakely has two children enrolled in the school, kindergartner Avery and fifth-grader Ashlee. Ashlee attended nearby McCornack Elementary School through third grade, but Blakely said she grew frustrated with the class sizes. With 25 to 27 students in Ashlee’s third-grade class, her daughter was bored and struggling in math, Blakely said. Avery already was enrolled in pre-school at Willow Creek when Blakely and her husband, Jason Blakely, decided that the annual tuition of $4,650 was worth it.

The Blakelys have had to sacrifice to make it work. They are not wealthy, said Jessica Blakely, who is a medical assistant at Oregon Allergy Associates. Her husband is a work crew supervisor at Coyote Steel, she said.

Holding students to a higher standard

Tabitha Sandoval is another parent who took her son, Ethan, out of public school to enroll him at Willow Creek. Ethan is in the fourth grade there, after attending Malabon Elementary School in the Bethel School District until winter break. Sandoval and her husband, Luke, researched several private schools, including Oak Hill, before deciding on Willow Creek. Oak Hill was too expensive for them, “and I couldn’t see him using Mandarin anytime soon,” Tabitha Sandoval said with a laugh.

But the Sandovals, who said they liked Malabon but whose son was being bullied there by another boy, were impressed with the staff and the students at Willow Creek. They also were surprised to learn that Ethan, who seemed to be advanced in reading and math at Malabon, actually was behind other students at Willow Creek.

“It’s just that they hold their students to a higher standard,” Tabitha Sandoval said.

Other private schools anticipating increased enrollment this fall include Eugene Waldorf School on McLean Boulevard and Eugene Christian School on West Amazon Drive.

“We’re seeing a lot of parents from public schools who are requesting tours,” said Laura Purkey, Eugene Christian School’s development director. The K-8 school, which charges $5,520 a year, has 116 students and expects to top that this fall, Purkey said.

Eugene Waldorf School, also a K-8 school housed in the Eugene School District’s old MaGladry Elementary School building, has seen its enrollment drop from about 225 six years ago to a low of 160, said Marina Taylor, the school’s enrollment coordinator. But the numbers are now climbing back up, from 180 this year to a projected 190 next year, Taylor said. Tuition at the school ranges from $2,550 for two-day preschool to $8,035 a year for grades 2-8.