Oak Harbor Christian School, a cornerstone of the community for more than 75 years, plans to eliminate classes for students in second through eighth grade next year.
The school’s board of trustees told parents in an emergency meeting last week that declining enrollment made it impossible for the school to pay for the costs associated with running the school, including teacher contracts.
Two teachers and the principal are losing their jobs.
“This is our home school and has been for eight years,” said Karey Smisek-Bachman, a parent. “I am disappointed to think of my kids having to move to a different school after all this time here.”
“We’re heartbroken.”
The school plans to continue to offer preschool through first grade classes with a barebones staff, said Steve Thompson, a member of the school’s board of trustees.
“Enrollment is our primary source of income,” he said. “We need enrollment.”
The school is the largest Christian private school in the city, at its height serving more than 200 students. Oak Harbor parents involved with the Christian Reformed and Reformed Churches established the school in 1938.
In recent years, enrollment nosedived. This year, 70 students enrolled in kindergarten through eighth grade. Fifty enrolled for next year.
David Zylstra, principal for 24 years, attributes the decline to a number of factors, including fewer military families and a shift toward more Christian families opting to homeschool.
The recession also made the $5,500 annual tuition difficult for some families.
“We need families to see the value in a Christian education here at Oak Harbor Christian School,” he said.
Parents at the school are considering one-time donations, fundraisers and paying higher tuition, said Stacey Hotter-Knight. If they can raise enough money for classes next year, they can look at longer-term strategies.
“I’m optimistic we can keep the grades open next year,” she said.
Parents set up a GoFundMe account with a goal to raise $46,000 in donations.
Tammy Bright said the school offers an academically-rigorous curriculum that leads to many of its eighth grade graduates moving onto advanced classes once they reach high school.
A lack of marketing may be part of the reason for dwindling enrollment, she said.
To drum up support from the community, she wrote a letter to the editor of the Whidbey News-Times.
“Three years ago another of Oak Harbor’s unique attributes was in distress, and our community rallied to save a dying drive-in theater,” she wrote. “If we can save a drive-in, we can certainly save a school that has been of utmost importance to our community for 76 years.”
