4J board to decide fate of Family School Feb. 4

Nancy Forrest (KEPW) For KEPW News, this is Nancy Forrest. This is an update on a story the KEPW News Team has been covering since November of last year. 

With the 4J School District facing a $30 million shortfall, at the Dec. 10, 2025 meeting Family School parents and students turned out in large numbers to ask that the district preserve and protect a vital alternative school that has served thousands of Eugene families effectively for over 37 years.

Parent Blake McWilliams highlighted the value that Family School provides for the district:

Blake McWilliams My name is Blake McWilliams. I’m actually a new Eugene resident as of about a year and a half ago. And I’m also a parent of two students at Family School. I’m here because Family School is more than just another program. And as I’m sure you’ll hear from other folks tonight, we’re kind of here to advocate for that.

Family School is one of the most successful models in the district for supporting the whole child. Closing it would not simply relocate students. It would dismantle a learning community that is working and flourishing. 

Family School provides something that’s increasingly rare: a stable, collaborative learning environment where families are directly engaged in classrooms, where teachers have long-term relationships with students, and where children who might struggle in larger, more traditional settings thrive. 

This is not theoretical. You can see it in the attendance data, the behavioral outcomes, and the academic growth of our students. When a model is producing strong results with fewer disciplinary issues and higher parent participation, it deserves to be strengthened, not eliminated. 

I also ask you to consider the cost. Closing Family School would disrupt about 100 students, many of whom rely on its structure, its relationships, and its consistency. The research is clear: School moves like this hurt performance for 12-18 months. 

Eliminating Family School doesn’t reduce need. It shifts the burden to other schools that are already strained. This is not a cost-savings measure. It redistributes challenges. 

More importantly, Family School aligns deeply with the district’s stated values around equity, engagement, and student-centered learning. If we close a program that embodies these values simply because it is small or different, we send a message that innovation is expendable. 

Instead, I urge you to partner with us. Family School families are eager to collaborate, to be part of solutions, and to help build a sustainable path forward. Give us the opportunity to work with you rather than lose something that has served this district and its children so well. 

Co-location and other options are available. You have levers that you can pull. Please choose the option that protects students, strengthens families, and preserves a model that works. Please keep Family School open.

Nancy Forrest (KEPW): Parent Valerie Munthe spoke to the lifeline Family School provides for many families that struggle to find other schools in the district that are the best fit for their children.  She suggests co-location might be a good option to consider:

Valerie Munthe My name is Valerie. I am a parent. I had two former 4J students who were not very successful in the public school system. And then I have one current student in 4J. She is a Family School student. 

The bottom line here is that Family School for many of us is not a preference. Our families are not passive recipients of what is being told to us that is available. And we had the honor of having Miss Dr. (Miriam) Mickelson to our school last week during our council meeting, and that was when she broke the news to us, the very, very difficult conversation. 

And the thing that I wanted to highlight here is we have countless testimony on the impact that Family School has made on our students, and we wholeheartedly believe in its message and in its program, and also wholeheartedly believe that this is a program that needs to be emulated and echoed to all corners of 4J School District. And as we can see from my colleagues and my fellow parents, that this is not the case. 

And that’s why we have all found community at Family School. I want to say that we recognize the district’s financial issues and the financial realities, and we know it’s difficult. You know, it breaks my heart to hear about things like the color guard being cut for a regular neighborhood school. That blows my mind. 

But this is exactly why you have this cohort of parents here before you today who want you to hear our voices, but also to hear that we are here because we want to partner with you. We want a cohesive collaboration with 4J School District. We are not going to take closure of our school laying down. We are going to come up with solutions. 

One of which is we would like to ask the board to reconsider and rescind the decision to not allow alternative schools to cohabitate in neighborhood schools. I think now more than ever, the district needs to abandon what’s considered more traditional means and address things in a more efficient manner. 

Nancy Forrest (KEPW) At the Dec. 10 meeting, parent Beth McWilliams highlighted the unique nature of Family School and the academic and economic benefits that volunteer parents and family members bring to the program:

Beth McWilliams So I’m going to end us this evening still talking about Family School, but on a very specific piece of the puzzle here, which is volunteerism. 

My name is Beth. I have two kids at Family School, and I really want to highlight one of the things, and maybe the most important thing, that sets Family School apart from other programs and what makes it, frankly, in my personal and professional life, something I’ve never seen before, which is a level of commitment to the mission and to the organization itself from everybody involved for the betterment of each individual child. 

It’s really beautiful at Family School. Volunteer volunteerism is not an add on or an optional thing. It’s a core part of how we operate. It’s how our students learn and it’s how our teachers are supported. Families contribute in classrooms every single day, whether that’s outdoor education, indoor education, literacy support, handouts, snacks, activities.

Teachers at Family School count on this, and they’ve consistently said that these volunteers allow them to offer instructional depth and individualized attention that they would never be able to do if they weren’t sure that they had that many other hands in the room. 

The volunteer culture is also one of the reasons that we can serve such a huge range of learners. So we serve students with disabilities, students with sensory and behavioral needs, students who are high academic achievers or intellectually gifted.

Families work with the teachers one-on-one, so we can really figure out what makes the most sense for this individual child and then for this classroom that this child’s learning in. It’s really rare. It’s so collaborative. It’s so meaningful. And the kids feel it. I know they do. 

It’s kind of the wraparound sense that most communities are trying to offer in districts with this level of engagement, where problems can get solved more quickly. If there are issues going on, we’ll know about it, because we’re all watching the kids. We all have a sense of who they are. They know who we are. 

So the district benefits directly from this. According to the National Clearinghouse of Data, they would pay us $35 an hour for what we’re doing, and we would do it for free (happily, I promise you). And we all tried to look at numbers for what this actually equals, and our most conservative guess—this was us being like ultra-Family School, like, ‘Let’s not say anything that’s not true,’ because that’s who we are—conservatively, we think there was about 6,000 hours recorded in volunteer time last year, and if we were paid our very well deserved $35 an hour, that’s $210,000 that we saved the district in helping these kids achieve incredible things. 

You don’t have any issues with behavior test scores, anything. We’re doing quite a bit there, and I know I’m out of time and I’ve got so much more written, but really, I can’t put into words the passion we feel for this school.

Nancy Forrest (KEPW) At the Jan. 21, 2026 board meeting, Family School was on the agenda again. 4J Superintendent Mickelson suggested closing Family School at the Dec. 10 meeting, but after listening to parents and considering many factors, she offered a new proposal. At the 4J school board meeting Jan. 21,  Superintendent Dr. Miriam Mickelson:

Dr. Miriam Mickelson (4J, superintendent) First, I just want to say that any conversation about changes to schools or programs or location can bring so much uncertainty and concern for families and staff and students, and our top priority will always be the well-being and success of our students. And we approach these decisions with care. 

So with that in mind, we are sharing a proposal regarding the co-location of Family School at Camas Ridge. This means that both would operate on the same campus with separate identities, while sharing space in a way that preserves each school’s mission and student experience. 

And early in the budget process, I did consider Family School’s closure as one of the possible options for addressing our financial realities. And as we continued to engage with families and staff and community members, and as I spent more time understanding both the strengths of Family School and the available capacity spacewise within our system, I came to believe that there is a way to preserve the program while addressing still our budgetary needs. 

So that is why I am bringing a recommendation to the board of a co-location instead of closure. The co-location is what the board will be taking action on. Related actions such as the transition and leadership decisions are operational and are within my purview as superintendent and that of the staff. 

Family School is a program with 111 students approximately this year, and the program emphasizes strong relationships, student voice, and active family partnership. We also want to note that in previous school locations that Family School has experienced, they have established a very positive track record as a good neighbor, working very collaboratively with host schools and communities to ensure a smooth co-location. 

When we looked at the capacity of Camas Ridge, the school was designed to serve approximately 450 students. Current enrollment is 263 students, and projections for next year show an estimated 250 students at Camas, so there is capacity there. 

Camas is among the smaller elementary schools in our district, with five elementary schools currently enrolling fewer students than Camas, and we have a total of 19 elementary schools. And like many of those schools, Camas is a newer facility and was designed with significantly greater student capacity. 

If we colocated Camas and Family School, they will have a total of about 360 students next year, and that enrollment would still be smaller than at least 10 other elementary schools. So this makes Camas a viable site—from that perspective—for co-location without creating an oversized or overly dense campus.

In addition to having the physical capacity to support co-location, Camas share similar values with Family School around strong family engagement and a philosophy of learning that emphasizes collaboration, inquiry, and problem-based learning. 

While all of our schools welcome and value family engagement, the values alignment between Camas and Family School makes this co-location a particularly strong fit. 

As with any co-location, there are several key areas that we will need to very carefully analyze and address to ensure a successful and smooth and safe transition. How are shared spaces such as a cafeteria, the gym, playground, classrooms going to be managed and utilized? 

How will staffing levels and impact on class sizes be equitably distributed? Schedules for arrival, recess, lunch and dismissal—that’s also a very important consideration. Health and safety considerations of our students, as well as resource allocation and structures for fundraising or program-specific accounts. 

And in all of this, it is very important to consider the needs of our life skills students at campus. 

If the board approves the co-location, we will form a transition committee representative of both school communities as well as district leaders to ensure that we are being very deliberate and thoughtful in addressing each of these questions, and more so that the needs of both Camas Ridge and Family School are fully considered. 

I also want to share that I realized that the timeline may feel truncated, especially when we consider the conversations that we’ve had with Camas Ridge only recently. But the board is not taking action on this until Feb. 4, so I encourage families to continue to advocate for your schools and students until the board takes action on this on the fourth. 

And I want to extend my very sincere gratitude to both the Family School and Camas communities for the way you have engaged in this conversation—thoughtfully, respectfully, and with a clear commitment to students at the center. There is no perfect solution to the budget shortfall that we are facing, and I know that uncertainty can be difficult. 

And yet I feel genuinely encouraged by what I have seen and heard. The care and willingness to listen across both communities give me confidence that if the board approves this direction, the adults in these two communities will come together and figure out how to make it work for the sake of our students.

Nancy Forrest (KEPW) Camas Ridge parent and member of the parent organization Camas Ridge Community Organization spoke on behalf of the group’s Board of Directors. She highlighted issues that are important to the Camas Ridge community in light of the proposed co-location:

Camas Ridge parent My name is [M]. I’m a parent at Camas Ridge and a board member of the parent organization, Camas Ridge Community Organization. And I’m sharing this statement on behalf of our board of directors.

As you consider the superintendent’s upcoming recommendation of co-location, please remember that at Camas Ridge, there are 260 very real, very wonderful children and their families who will experience impacts from this decision. 

You have heard from our peers at Family School, and we want to ensure that you hear from us as well. While we enter this conversation centering the Camas values of inclusivity, love, and belonging, please note this is also a scary, new, and very fast-moving proposal that could bring change to a community who has already experienced a lot of change.

In the past six years, we’ve had four different principals and three different physical buildings. 

The wider parent community of Camas just found out about this potential co-location and leadership reset via email two weeks ago on Jan. 8. As a board, our statement is not for or against co-location, but it does address some key important topics for our community that have been brought up in this potential change. If you are considering a ‘Yes’ vote for co-location, we look to you, the board, and to our district staff to set us up for success. 

Four key items we urge you to consider:

#1. To support equitable resources, policies and practices between both schools. Matching classroom sizes, proportionate distribution of shared building funding and staff resources between the two schools, and to consider within budget realities what, if any, extra resources are needed for short-term support during a potential transition. 

#2. Camas is also home to a strong life skills program for students with specialized needs that need to be carefully considered and accommodated for. 

#3. If leadership transition is inevitable, our schools will require an experienced leader who excels in complex building operations, transparent collaborative communication, and compassionate behavior management. We also have a large number of Spanish-speaking families here at Camas, so ideally, our core leadership team would have staff bilingual in Spanish with strong cultural competency. 

#4. Our parents have shared a wide variety of opinions on what would be the best outcome for our students, and especially given the short timeline we’ve known about this, we’ve let our parents know to reach out. So please take pause. Read all the emails in your board email and consider all these points of view before you make your final vote. Thank you very much.

Nancy Forrest (KEPW) 4J staff spoke to questions and concerns raised by Camas Ridge parents and School Board members. Jeff Johnson provided a road map of sorts, describing a process that allows for all stakeholders to participate with the goal of a successful transition:

Jeff Johnson (4J) Very good question… and should this be something that is approved at that Feb. 4 meeting, it’s really important that we start with each of those individual schools, around: What are the core values that are really important to maintain, and what is key and non-negotiable about the school to maintain? 

And really working with schools separately, coming together, really, with representative staff that really represent the teachers, the classified, the parents, and enabling some student voice in there as well, to come together to really start to look at how decisions will be made moving forward with a transition team, really looking at agreements of how this transition team of the two schools would work together. 

And then really starting to take a look at some of those questions that that come up here around shared space, classrooms, locations, whether or not we stagger schedules, or engage in the same level of scheduling. 

So it’s a definite process and a process that would continue through the start of the school year in terms of, ‘Okay, we’ve made these decisions, this is how we’re going to operate. And is it going the way that we intended that it would go?’ and that we would continue to engage in decisions moving forward from there.

Nancy Forrest (KEPW) Melissa Ibarra added:

Melissa Ibarra (4J) I would just add that communication is going to play such a vital part if this is the direction that we move, in order to be sure that all of our stakeholder groups are informed about the process along the way, and about some key decisions that we are considering with the committee and additional opportunities for input as well.

Nancy Forrest (KEPW) Superintendent Dr. Miriam Mickelson followed up on questions raised by parents at both schools regarding colocated school leadership:

Dr. Miriam Mickelson On the topic of leadership, if the two schools were to colocate, my very strong inclination right now is to have a leadership reset, because that helps ensure that neither school’s existing culture or practice or priorities are seen as being favored, and it helps build trust and a sense of fairness from the outset, which I think are critical to having a successful co-location. 

And I understand that that causes quite a bit of angst to both the Family School and the Camas Ridge Community School. I recognize that. Please continue to advocate and ask questions and we will listen and consider all of the different perspectives and insights and voices as it pertains to this particular topic. But I want to acknowledge that we have very dedicated leaders at both schools, and if the path forward is that we have a leadership reset, it really is to help the co-location work for both schools.

Nancy Forrest (KEPW) Knowing that the 4J Board will vote on the proposal to colocate Family School at the Camas Ridge School site, we heard from a Family School parent, Ashley Potter, on Feb. 2:

Ashley Potter  First, thank you so much for your interest in Family School and in these conversations surrounding the proposed closure of our program.

Over the past few weeks, it has been really incredible to see our families come together here at Family School—parents and caregivers and community members. We’ve all been part of problem solving and listening and sharing stories about what makes family schools such a special place for these kiddos.

This has really, truly been a group effort and it just speaks to the strength and the care within our community. We also just want to express our appreciation to district leadership and the superintendent for really taking the time to hear those stories and work towards a solution. We are deeply grateful for the consideration of co-location as a way to keep the Family School program open and continuing to serve students.

Family School is a public school choice school. With a long history of strong family involvement and hands-on learning, and just a really deep sense of belonging that these kids feel, our model works because of that partnership between educators and families, and because students feel so well known and supported in every corner of the building.

We are hopeful that the school board’s vote on Wednesday will support co-location so that we can move forward. Our focus now is on building a positive relationship with the host school community and working together to make this transition thoughtful and successful for all students and families. At the heart of this, all of the kids and Family School is committed to making sure that they continue to have a safe, supportive, and engaging place to learn.

Nancy Forrest (KEPW) After months of proposed cuts and difficult discussions, Superintendent Dr. Miriam Mickelson asks us to consider this:

Dr. Miriam Mickelson In a world where dialogue and discourse are often fractured and where divisions can come too easily, this proposal offers something powerful. It is an opportunity for us to show our students what it looks like when adults take on hard issues with integrity by seeking common ground, honoring different perspectives, and working collaboratively toward shared solutions. 

Education is the great unifier. This proposal, while not perfect, gives us the opportunity to exemplify that truth, and I firmly believe that the strength of our schools is rooted not only in our programs, but in the way we show up during challenging moments.

Nancy Forrest (KEPW) The 4J Board of Directors will meet on Feb. 4, 2026 to vote on the proposed co-location of Family School and Camas Ridge Elementary School. 4J Board Members and the superintendent have encouraged people to weigh in on this proposal by emailing the board at board@4j.lane.edu.

If you would like to contact individual board members you can do that by going to Eugene School District 4J – Meet Your School Board. If you click on individual board members, you will find their official 4J email addresses.