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Idaho School Districts Utilize Federal Charter School Program Grants to Serve Students
By Alan Gottlieb
West Ada, Idaho’s largest public school district with 40,000 students, rarely authorizes charter schools. They recently made an exception for Pathways in Education (PIE), an alternative high school opening next month in Meridian. Pathways has run a successful school in nearby Nampa School District for the last eight years.
PIE, West Ada’s third district-authorized charter school recently received a $529,000 grant from Bluum, part of the nonprofit’s federally funded Building on Success charter school program, serves students facing a range of challenges that makes dropping out a likely outcome.
The funding for the Bluum program comes from the U.S. Department of Education Charter School Program. Last year, Bluum received a $24.9 million CSP grant. That follows on the $22.5 million grant it received in 2018 and successfully administered over five years.
Two other district-authorized charter schools also received grants from Bluum recently: RISE in Kimberly ($200,622), and Fernwaters in Salmon ($247,500). Bluum CEO Terry Ryan said he places a high value on working with districts to recognize charters as complementary rather than competition.
West Ada Superintendent Derek Bub said PIE offers programs and services that don’t currently exist in the district. And that, he said, is the most important factor his staff and board consider when reviewing charter school applications.
“What we always look at with our charter school applications is, does it offer opportunities for our students that we currently either don’t have the capacity to offer or don’t currently offer? PIE really is that opportunity,” Bub said.
PIE schools offer a blended learning model that combines small group instruction, independent study, online courses, and experiential learning opportunities. The program is designed to re-engage at-risk students and those who have struggled in traditional school settings.
Some of PIE’s key features include:
- Flexible scheduling to accommodate students’ work and family responsibilities.
- Personalized learning plans tailored to each student’s needs and goals.
- One-on-one support from teachers and tutors.
- Credit recovery options to help students get back on track for graduation.
- College and career preparation, including dual enrollment opportunities.
- Experiential learning trips and programs at no cost to students.
PIE schools aim to increase high school graduation rates and prepare students for success in college, career, and life after high school. The program currently operates in multiple states other than Idaho, including Illinois, Louisiana, and Tennessee.
While West Ada offers alternative high school programs, none resemble what Bub described as PIE’s “hybrid” approach, in which students check in daily, but don’t necessarily have to show up five days per week at a physical location. This helps, for example, students who have to work full-time to help support their families, or students who are pregnant or are raising small children.
“What PIE offers is a model in which students have to show up on a consistent basis, once a week, twice a week, and they work one-on-one with peer tutors,” Bub said. “They also work one-on- one with counseling tutors, and they get through their coursework. There is some opportunity for in person classes within pie. So it’s just a really unique system that, to be honest with you, we don’t have. I think our system offers kids opportunities in different circumstances.”
For example Bub said, “we have a school that is 100 percent virtual, but students don’t check in every day. Oftentimes what we see is students that have those extra, challenging circumstances end up dropping out or walking away from education totally, and we feel like there’s a responsibility to offer opportunities for all of our students to walk across that stage at the end of 12th grade. PIE offers that opportunity.”
The other two charter schools authorized by West Ada have been around for more than 20 years. Meridian Technical Charter High School opened in 1999, and Meridian Medical Arts Charter High School opened in 2003. Both, Bub said, provide programs not available in district-run schools.
In the 20-plus-year gap between charter approvals, West Ada has reviewed and rejected several charter applications, either because they seemed redundant of district programs or didn’t appear to be financially viable, Bub said. “We just haven’t had anybody come forth with something we don’t currently offer. Being a large district, we have almost everything. PIE happened to be the one thing that we don’t have right now.”
Several charter schools authorized by the Idaho Charter School Commission operate in West Ada, including some supported by Bluum. Bub said his district has collegial relationships with those schools, some of which the district declined to authorize because they were seen as duplicative.
Meanwhile, RISE Charter School in Kimberly, a small community in southeastern Idaho, was authorized by the Kimberly School District and opened for the 2021-22 school year. Founders initially envisioned RISE as serving students in grades 4-12. And that’s the charter the district approved.
More recently, however, the RISE board recognized an inherent flaw in that plan, and convinced the Kimberly school board to amend the charter so that the school will now, after full roll-out, serve students in grades K-12. Blum recently awarded RISE a $200,622 grant to help fund that expansion.
Kimberly Superintendent Luke Schroeder said he supported the grade expansion because it became clear that many students, once settled in a school for their early elementary years, did not want to switch schools, leaving friends and a familiar environment behind.
The 1,960-student district had initially welcomed RISE during a period of rapid enrollment growth, which put strains on district schools. More recently, that growth has plateaued, Schroeder said.
But RISE offers some courses the district does not, including a high school health occupations class. Rather than duplicate that class, the district plans to send 15 of its students to RISE to study health occupations.
Conversely RISE, which, when all grade levels are up and running, will serve 325 students, has no athletic programs. Students who wish to participate in sports can do so at the district middle and high schools.
Schroeder said that while RISE leaders and district officials work well together, there have been “bumps in the road” and competition for students at times. Eventually, those bumps were smoothed over.
“We just did a lot of sitting down and having real frank conversation about what is best for the community, and now we’re past that, over that, and we have a better relationship,” Schroeder said.
RISE, which employs a mastery-based approach to education (students move on to more advanced work only after demonstrating mastery of subject matter) was authorized by the local school district as a needed alternative to the more traditional learning approach offered by district schools.
Kimberly opened a new elementary school recently and left the old building empty, which created an opportunity for RISE and its different kind of school to occupy the space.
RISE Director Heidi Child used to work for the Kimberly district and has strong ties to the district still.
“Essentially, RISE wasn’t started in spite of the school district. It was started by the school district,” Schroeder said.
Both Bub and Schroeder said having large federal grants supporting the two charters helps strengthen them and pave the way for a successful future.
“It creates stability,” Bub said. “There’s a lot of good that can come from some solid financial backing, and I think that Bluum does a really phenomenal job of providing that backing and also of monitoring progress.”
Alan Gottlieb is a Colorado-based writer, editor, journalist, communications consultant, and nonprofit entrepreneur who owns Write.Edit.Think, LLC. He founded EdNews Colorado, which later merged with Gotham Schools to form Chalkbeat. He does consulting work for Bluum, an Idaho-based non-profit education group.
