PORTLAND, Ore. — Opal School has been around since 2001. The charter school (K-5) and early learning Beginning School (pre-K) is based on an Italian program that focuses on the arts with a hands-on learning approach.
Students attending the school are picked via a lottery system and parents say it's not easy to get into. Opal School was based out of the Portland Children's Museum which is closing due to financial reasons, according to the museum.
"We got in and it felt like such a blessing," said Kaeleen Kirkpatrick. "We were so excited to have the opportunity and it felt like an opportunity that you couldn't pass up."
Kirkpatrick has three children attending Opal School, one in the early learning class and two in the charter school. She said since her children started, she's seen their minds grow.
"Their creativity, their innovation, their inquiry into the world has expanded in such dramatic ways, I can't stress amazing the transformation the past two years have been," Kirkpatrick said.
Since 2001, the school said over 500 students have attended the school and another 10,000 educators have benefited from the many professional trainings offered.
Elizabeth Shuler-Krause is a teacher at a different school and has two children that attend Opal.
"I had in my mind this dream that someday I might work at Opal," Shuler-Krause said, "That I might be a teacher there because it just was such a beautiful environment for learning, a beautiful environment to just be a part of as a community member."
Shuler-Krause's daughter was put on a waitlist and just before the first day of school, she got a call that there was an opening.
"When we got that call from Opal, there was no discussion. There was no decision making that needed to happen, we were ready to jump on it."
Jane Moisan, whose son attends Opal says she loves how the school takes a community-based approach to dealing with conflict.
"Opal teaches kids that their reactions, interests and emotions are integral to the classroom," Moisan wrote in an e-mail to KGW, "My son, for example, was very upset after getting excluded repeatedly by his friends while playing."
Moisan said her son's teacher called her and said these kinds of bumps in the road, "My son was telling me about, with hurt feelings, are used by the entire class to learn and grow from. The community problem solves together both when someone has a great idea as well as when someone is having trouble and tough emotions. What results is a group of kids that see each other, that step in to suggest ways to keep everyone supported, and that engage together rather than going off in silos."
Maria DeVaney has two children that attend Opal. She said her daughter hated Kindergarten at a traditional school but has excelled at Opal.
"The way that they have children think and question is just so fascinating," DeVaney said.
On Thursday night at a board meeting parents knew the school's future would be discussed, but DeVaney said she figured it was about another year of virtual learning.
"I felt really betrayed, we as parents had zero insight," DeVaney said.
Shuler-Krause said she went for a walk to clear her mind, "I cried and I'm not a crier."
"I burst into tears, I felt robbed." Kirkpatrick said, "I felt betrayed by the board, I felt angry."
June 8 will be the last day of school, that also means these parents will have to find another school for their children to attend and it's already late in the year to join another lottery, which could mean one child getting in while the others sit on the waitlist.
"They've taken away our school and now they're separating our families," DeVaney said. She said her daughter won't go to a neighborhood school next year and may be homeschooled.
"I'm not a teacher, I just want my kids to feel joy in life and I don't know if they're going to get that in a traditional environment."
Kirkpatrick said she may go the homeschool route as well, "I'm scared of charter, I don't want this to happen to my kids again. I don't want them to get ripped out of their school again."