12A • September 22, 2017 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com
CANNON BEACH ACADEMY
Long climb to reach final destination
After nearly
five years of
pursuing a
charter school,
supporters
reach their goal
By Nancy McCarthy
For Cannon Beach Gazette
P
hil Simmons is a rock
climber. He told me
once that sometimes,
when he climbs a rock,
he can’t always see the
path to the top. But, he added,
others who have been there
assure him that a path exists.
So he starts his climb, one
step at a time. Eventually, he
starts to find his way, and the
path begins to appear; Sim-
mons follows it, until his long,
unsure trek is completed, and
he reaches his destination.
The Cannon Beach Acad-
emy opened for the first time
last week. Parents, their chil-
dren in tow, rang the buzzer,
and school Director Amy
Moore opened the doors to the
new school.
It was such an inauspicious
beginning to an effort that be-
gan nearly five years ago and
took so many twists and turns
that anyone following the sto-
ry could get dizzy trying to
keep up.
In a Seaside School Board
budget meeting in April 2013,
then-Superintendent
Doug
Dougherty announced that the
Cannon Beach Grade School
— which had been the vil-
lage’s educational and com-
munity center for 100 years
— would close in two months.
The reason was clear, he
said: The district had a budget
shortfall of $1.5 million, and
the cost to teach each student
at Cannon Beach was $2,500
more than the cost to teach
PHOTO BY NANCY MCCARTHY
Sampling some juice before class begins on the first day at Cannon Beach Academy are,
from left, Jayden Ahlstrom-Woody, Rian Dewey and Hallie Kropf.
Theresa Dennis, first/sec-
ond-grade teacher, starts
her class on the first day of
school at Cannon Beach
Academy. Volunteers are
needed to assist with a va-
riety of functions at the
school.
members needed more funds.
A campaign was mounted
to collect financial pledges
from the community. Another
$10,000 came from donation
jars placed in local businesses.
And every time the school
district denied their proposal
for a charter school — be-
cause they didn’t have an
adequate budget, or they still
hadn’t pinned down a build-
ing, or their educational plans
weren’t entirely complete, or
their enrollment was insuffi-
cient — the charter school’s
supporters insisted that, even-
tually, the Cannon Beach
Academy would be a reality.
Plans to open in the fall of
2015, then 2016, fell through.
Those who weren’t active
with the charter school doubt-
ed it ever would open.
Finally, though, persever-
ance paid off. Last October,
the Seaside School Board
approved the school’s plan to
offer classes from kindergar-
ten through second grade. In
March, the school received a
$100,000 federal grant. Sim-
mons thanked the Seaside
School Board for its assis-
tance in securing the grant.
But before the academy
could open, it needed a build-
ing. The academy board set-
tled on the former Cannon
Beach Athletic Club space
and put aside money for reno-
vations. But the estimate came
in at $240,000, and that was
too much, especially when the
building lacked an adequate
playground and was still in a
tsunami zone.
The board turned to the
Cannon Beach City Council
(full disclosure: This report-
er is a city councilor) and
requested the use of the city-
owned building that, until
last year, housed the Cannon
Beach Preschool and Chil-
dren’s Center. The city leased
the building to the academy
and granted the school a tem-
porary occupancy permit until
November.
When the academy se-
cured the building, volunteers
rushed to help in the month
the academy had left to ful-
PHOTO BY NANCY MCCARTHY
students at Seaside Heights or
Gearhart elementary schools.
Cannon Beach had 80 stu-
dents, far fewer than the other
two schools.
But Phil Simmons, who
was already leading an ef-
fort to build a school outside
the tsunami zone, had some-
thing to say when the school
board agreed to close Cannon
Beach.
“You’re sacrificing our
local school, and it frustrates
me,” he said.
“We had this plan,” Sim-
mons added. “It really feels
the rug was pulled out from
under us. Whether you like it
or not, there will be a charter
school. I’m confident of that.”
That June, hundreds of
former students, teachers
and community members bid
farewell to the school during
a barbecue on the school’s
playground. They shared
many memories: Debbie Nel-
son, who runs a florist shop
in town, recalled all of the
plays the students staged.
Her father, Jim Webb, class
of ’44, remembered being in
a one-room schoolhouse be-
fore the current campus was
built in 1951. Marlene Laws,
who attended the school from
1945 to 1953, said she had re-
mained friends with several of
her Cannon Beach classmates.
The push to replace the
village school continued in
earnest. Parents filled the
city council chambers sever-
al times to urge the Cannon
Beach City Council to support
the creation of a new char-
ter school. They formed task
forces to search for buildings
to house the school. They
examined educational plans,
they researched state and fed-
eral laws governing charter
schools, and they met with
officials from the state De-
partment of Education and the
Seaside School District.
Although they knew that,
by law, the school district
would have to reimburse the
charter school the amount it
would cost to educate each
student at Seaside Heights,
the charter school board
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fill the deadline the Seaside
School District had given it.
Just before the first day of
school Sept. 5, the Cannon
Beach Academy was opened
to the community. Bright
posters saying “welcome”
and other greetings for the
new students were taped to
the newly scrubbed and paint-
ed walls. In the kindergarten
room, desks replaced the cribs
from the former preschool.
“Excellent academics” is
what parent Jessica Staple-
ton expects for her 6-year-old
daughter, a first-grader. “And
great friendships,” she added.
The school opened with
20 students, all from Cannon
Beach. Moore is optimistic
that more students will enroll
once word gets out that the
public, tuition-free school is
open.
Academy board President
Kellye Dewey has worked
alongside Simmons ever since
parents began meeting at the
fire station in Cannon Beach
to discuss the possibility of a
charter school. Her daughter,
Rian, 8, will attend second
grade there, and Dewey hopes
that Rian will benefit from the
same small classes and good
teachers that Dewey experi-
enced as a student at Cannon
Beach Grade School.
The academy, Dewey said,
is the “heartbeat of the com-
munity.”
“We’ve seen a change
since our school shut down,”
Dewey said. “Families have
moved away, and we’re hop-
ing that bringing a school
back will revive that part of
the town that’s been missing.”
Phil Simmons wasn’t at
the Cannon Beach Acade-
my the morning of the first
day of school. He has said he
wants to pull back, now that
the path has been cleared for
Cannon Beach Academy, and
the community has reached its
destination.
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