HELIX — The Helix School District is considering significant changes for Helix School, the only school in the district, to push up enrollment.

Brad Bixler, district superintendent and principal, said enrollment is down 12% in the last two years, and to reverse that trend the district is investigating making the school a charter school.

“As of right now, we have a commission looking into it. That commission is made up of staff, faculty and parents,” Bixler said. “One of their considerations is to investigate whether becoming a charter would attract families and students to Helix. Another consideration has been to look at a four-day school week.”

Since the coronavirus pandemic, Helix School District has struggled to bring its enrollment to a point where it matches Bixler’s expectations, hovering between 20-40 students under prepandemic averages, he said.

“Our total enrollment was around 167 students two years ago, but now that we’re coming out of the coronavirus pandemic, we’re at 147 now,” he said.

Bixler explained it can be hard to determine how many students the school district is “missing” since the pandemic, and whether or not the fluctuation is part of a natural ebb and flow of enrollment.

Regardless, he said, the Helix School District is trying to address its enrollment woes by investigating solutions that could come into effect quickly.

“I think there’s a real possibility that we could be putting in an application to the school board for charter status this spring, and go through the process of allowing public input and discussion to make a final decision later on in the summer,” Bixler said. “If the data supports it and everyone agrees, that would allow us to become a charter by the fall semester.”

The ways in which transition to a charter school might help the Helix School are speculative and will require a thorough exploration by the commission, but Bixler said he didn’t think the transition would pose much of a disruption to school and district administration.

“I don’t believe much about how the school is run would have to change,” he said. “The way single charters are set up in Oregon, there’s no required changes in leadership or required changes in how the school would function.”

There are 132 charter schools in Oregon, including one, Community Charter School, in Morrow County and two, Nixyaawii Community School and Ukiah Charter School, in Umatilla County. All of the charter schools operate under the Oregon Department of Education as public schools that groups of parents, teachers and/or community members operate as a semi-autonomous school of choice within a school district.