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CHARTERS SHUT DOWN
Ripple effect from school closures felt across Sisters
x
Lessons in
Demise of 3 schools leaves teachers without jobs, students in limbo and parents scrambling
survival
By Patrick Cliff and Sheila G. Miller The Bulletin
Suzanne Moore spent almost two years teaching at Sisters AllPrep Web Academy, but what she described as the “best job in the whole world” became a precarious one in mid-March. That’s when AllPrep/EdChoices administrators told Moore, who taught at the school until it closed in April, that the Clackamas-based company was struggling to pay her March salary. Then, later in March, Moore was told to expect a paycheck in her bank account by April 5. The paycheck never appeared, and on April 9, the school closed. Moore says she still has not been paid for her work in March and April. When she called the company headquarters, there was more bad news. “‘Oh yeah, we canceled your insurance on March 31,’” Moore said an administrator told her. Moore is one of dozens of people affected by the closure of three charter schools in Sisters, which shut their doors in March and April due to financial problems. Not only have those schools closed, but their parent company was recently locked out of its Clackamas headquarters. Since citing financial trouble and closing their doors in the past two months, teachers have lost jobs and some students are missing classes while parents work to find new schools that will accept their kids so late in the school year. The Sisters Web Academy, Sisters Charter Academy of Fine Arts and Sisters AllPrep Early College Academy closed in March and April. All of the schools were run by EdChoices/AllPrep, which is currently under investigation by the state departments of Education and Justice for questionable finances. See Sisters / A5
La Pine teacher who fought cancer shares her experiences with students La Pine Middle School teacher Emily Parker, 56, demonstrates walking with her new prosthetic leg, at top, and shows the leg to students, right, during class on Monday. Parker was away from the school for more than five months fighting a malignant melanoma on her right heel, which resulted in an amputation below her right knee. Photos by Pete Erickson The Bulletin
By Sheila G. Miller • The Bulletin
M
onday’s was an unusual show-and-tell in Emily Parker’s classroom at La Pine Middle School. Her students came in and sat down, several exclaiming in delight that Parker
was back at school for the first time since October. Then she sat down, rolled up her pant leg and, explaining the details of how her malignant melanoma had cost her part of her right leg, Parker showed the kids her new prosthetic leg.
Aubrey Opdyke, of West Palm Beach, Fla., shown with her daughter Hope, spent three months in the hospital because of complications from swine flu.
It’s another stop on a long journey that started last fall. Parker, 56, had something on her right heel that over a period of time appeared and then disappeared. It never looked like much, although from time to time she would take a step and feel a sharp pain travel through her foot. Often, she said, it looked like she’d stepped on something. In September, the bump on her heel started looking odd. So she went in and the doctor took a biopsy. See Teacher / A4
Jim Rassol (South Florida) Sun Sentinel
Still healing, still learning after a year of swine flu
More on local schools Tree-planting project lets students from Sunriver, La Pine earn money and help the environment, Page C1
By Bob Lamendola (South Florida) Sun Sentinel
N. Dakota offers plenty of jobs, but little housing By Monica Davey New York Times News Service
WILLISTON, N.D. — When Joey Scott arrived here from Montana, he had no trouble finding work — he signed almost immediately with a company working to drill in the oil fields. But finding housing was
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another matter. Every motel was booked. Every apartment complex, every mobile home park, had a waiting list. Scott found himself sleeping in his pickup in the Wal-Mart parking lot, shaving and washing his hair in melted snow. See Homeless / A4
Pentagon’s mission: Go green Inside • Tax and drilling foes put up hurdles to climate bill, Page A2
By Renee Schoof McClatchy-Tribune News Service
WASHINGTON — The Navy plans to test-fly its main attack aircraft, the F/A-18 Super Hornet, on a biofuel blend this Earth Day, part of an ambitious push by the Pentagon to increase U.S. security by using less fossil fuel. While deliberations grind on in Congress about how to shift
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the nation’s energy away from fossil fuels, the Defense Department is putting plans into action with such things as electricdrive ships that save fuel costs, solar-based water purification in Afghanistan that reduces the need for dangerous convoys, and solar and geothermal power at U.S. bases. See Pentagon / A5
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INDEX Abby
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Crossword
Classified
F1-8
Editorial
E4-5 E5, F2 C4
Environment Local Movies
A2 C1-6 E3
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Some people view swine flu as a hyped health scare created by the government and the medical industry. Aubrey Opdyke isn’t one of them. One year after the H1N1 virus touched off a world epidemic, the former waitress from West Palm Beach, Fla., is still healing from a bout with the flu that claimed the life of her unborn baby, almost killed her and kept her in the hospital for three months. “It just seemed like one of those things, it won’t happen to me. I figured if I get it ... I’ll handle it,” said Opdyke, 27. “Now I know better.” Health officials and scientists learned, too, from the epidemic sparked by the new virus identified in late April 2009. See H1N1 / A4
Obituaries
C5
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Shopping
E1-6
TV listings
E2
Sports
D1-6
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C6
SUPREME COURT: Justices reject ban on animal cruelty videos, Page A3