Representatives from the Lebanon Community School District and People Involved in Education (PIE) held their first meeting in nearly three months to discuss a new operating contract for Sand Ridge Charter School on Sept. 15.

Former Lebanon superintendent Jim Robinson and assistant superintendent Steve Kelley met with PIE president Doug Miner and business manager Mary Northern for more than two hours on Sept. 15.

"It was a positive and productive meeting. We got a lot of work done," Kelley said.

Two major issues remained unresolved: the amount of funding Sand Ridge receives through the district and the number of students allowed to enroll at the charter school.

Funding for charter school students is passed from the state through the sponsoring district. By law, districts are allowed to keep 80 percent of the money for K-8 students and 5 percent for grades 9-12. The amount kept by the district goes into the general fund and helps cover administrative costs associated with the sponsorship of a charter school.

PIE is requesting it receive 100 percent of the state funding. Sand Ridge would contract with the LCSD for any services it needs. Kings Valley Charter School in Philomath has a similar arrangement with the Philomath School District, Northern said.

"There are two or three options on the table," Kelley said.

Sand Ridge is asking for an increase in its current enrollment cap of 280 students. After dropping grades 9-12 this year, enrollment at the charter school fell from 275 students to 252 this year.

"They're pretty close to capacity for their buildings now, so we're amenable to expanding the cap to get them (Sand Ridge) to where they want to be," Robinson said.

After Sand Ridge's three-year contract was approved in 2005, PIE opened two additional schools, a charter school in Sweet Home and a private preschool housed at Sand Ridge's South Main campus in Lebanon. Separation of funds for the different schools is another item of contract negotiation.

Each school has its own account drawn from a different bank to ensure funds are not mixed, Northern said.

However, teachers from one school have temporarily worked at another and the district has expressed concern over how those hours are tracked and billed.

Bus transportation of charter school students is also under discussion. State law requires the district to provide transportation for charter school students as long as it does not require adding additional bus lines.

In mid-August, the district received about 50 bus transportation requests from Sand Ridge parents, which it has not responded to, Northern said.

Larry Tilford, LCSD director of operations, said he was unaware of those requests.

During the time Northern left the requests at the transportation office, the district was in the process of consolidating the facilities and transportation departments and Tilford replaced Pat Green in supervising district transportation. The transportation requests may have been lost during the transition, Robinson said.

Lebanon buses run past the South Main and Sodaville Sand Ridge campuses well before school starts. There are staff at both campuses to supervise students dropped off early or who stay to catch a later bus, Northern said.

After school, "we're asking that they drop our kids off at the Boys & Girls Club. It's right where the buses turn into the bus yard," Northern said.

The district has no objections to Sand Ridge students arriving at the charter school early or leaving late as long as there is staff on site,

Robinson said.

The Lebanon School Board renewed Sand Ridge's charter for five years on Dec. 3. Negotiations over a new operating contract necessary to keep the school open past June 30 did not begin for nearly two months and stalled over what the district said were unresolved contract breaches in the old contract.

On June 16, the Lebanon School Board extended Sand Ridge's contract for one year to allow more time for negotiations. The extension came less than two weeks before the current contract would have expired, leaving the future of the school in doubt.

The district is optimistic it will have a contract acceptable to both sides to present to the school board on Nov. 3, Kelley said