Cannon Beach Academy looks to new year

Published 9:52 am Monday, September 2, 2019

CANNON BEACH — The Cannon Beach Academy is looking forward to starting the school year with a full capacity of students in kindergarten through fifth grade.

Moving forward, the academy will use a waitlist and lottery system to fill open positions as they come available.

“Because of the demand for the seats, so to speak, there needs to be an equitable way to be able to determine who gets to come to the school,” Amy Fredrickson, the charter school’s director, said.

The academy faced possible closure last school year due to financial woes tied to lower-than-expected enrollment and unpaid pledges.

For the new school year, which begins Tuesday, 50 students from Astoria to Nehalem are registered at the academy, with one student on the waitlist. The school’s admission is capped at 50 students, based on the number of teachers, as they are committed via their charter to having 25 or fewer students per classroom.

“It’s kind of a circular thing: Our enrollment is limited to our staff and our staff is connected to our enrollment,” Fredrickson said.

Once the school has at least 16 more students registered to attend, they can hire another full-time teacher and increase their capacity to 75, which is the goal for the 2020-21 school year.

Another change at the academy this year is the addition of both fourth and fifth grade education. The academy opened its doors in 2017 with first, second and third grade, and then added fourth grade for the 2018-19 school year so existing students could continue their education at the school.

As several families have students in fifth grade as well as lower ones, Fredrickson said, “it made sense to us to add fifth grade.” Additionally, she said, “We thought it would help our enrollment, and sure enough, we have a handful of kids who are in fifth grade.”

She feels, however, the main contributor to the school’s roughly 60% increase in enrollment — from 31 students at the end of last year to 50 this year — was the marketing and outreach conducted using funds from an Oregon Department of Education grant.

Another goal on the horizon for the academy is to offer transportation to students. To do so, Fredrickson estimates it would require an additional $25,000 annually to pay for maintenance, insurance, a driver and other related costs.

“We need to do some fundraising if we’re going to do that,” she said.

The school has not initiated an active campaign, but they are seeking people who would be interested in sponsoring the project. With the addition of a school bus, the academy will be able to serve students by transporting them to school, but also offering out-of-town field trips.

For the upcoming school year, Fredrickson said, they look forward to continuing a number of traditional field trips and activities — such as the taffy pull at Bruce’s Candy Kitchen, trash pickups with SOLVE and welcoming back the tufted puffins at Haystack Rock.