LPOHS staff, programs aid in student success

SANDPOINT — The average graduation rate for alternative high schools in Idaho is 38.33 percent, with 35 of the 44 alternative high schools in Idaho are below 50-percent graduation.

Lake Pend Oreille High School has beat those odds, however. Principal Geoff Penrose said LPO was not only in the top 10 of the state’s 2017-2018 cohort, it was second from the top with a 68.63-percent graduation rate.

“We are very, very proud of this number, because it bucks the trend for alternative schools in the state and it is attributed to the way we set up our program — being a school of choice, working hard for kids individually, looking at trauma informed teaching and learning every day,” Penrose told Lake Pend Oreille School District officials during the Dec. 10 board meeting.

The official percentage represents students who graduated within four years, but the state has started tracking five-year graduation rates, Penrose said. Thus the five-year graduation rate at LPO for the 2017-2018 school year was much higher at 84.6 percent. In addition, Penrose said the state had just released the four-year numbers for the 2018-2019 school year, and LPO landed at 73.8 percent.

To emphasize how the school’s programs impact the students, Penrose had six students talk about the different aspects of the school that have impacted them the most.

LPO senior Leilani Henry, for example, said the quarterly grading system has made a huge impact on her. Under that system, the grades and schedules start over each quarter rather than each semester. Also, because they only have four classes each quarter, they are able to get a semester’s worth of work done in that quarter, making everything “easier to manage and understand,” she said. The teachers also give them leeway to make up assignments, and a “fifth period” on Wednesdays that allows them time to catch up if they have a 75 percent or less in any class.

“LPO has been such an amazing blessing in my life,” Henry said.

Henry’s classmate Darrell Dunaway also said the schedule has helped him both personally and academically. The time between classes is “perfect” for walking all the way across campus for the next class, the period lengths are good for the curriculum, and how the teachers set up their class to work with the length of class time works better than Dunaway thought it would when he first came to LPO, he said. He also said the “fifth period” time helps him keep his grades at As and Bs.

“If you use your time wisely, you can excel really easily in this school, and the class schedule helps with achieving those goals … it can really skyrocket your learning process, and can open up a lot more opportunities to help each individual achieve their academic goal,” Dunaway said.

LPO senior Madison McNall said she has been attending the school for two-and-a-half years, and has been “fortunate enough to experience many of the incredible opportunities” the school has to offer. In addition to standard academic classes, they offer a number of career-technical education programs, she said, including Randy Wilhelm’s graphic communications class and culinary arts with Rand Rosecrans.

Graphic communications is part of a program called Create Idaho, McNall said, which provides complimentary access to all Adobe products for staff and students. At the end of each software class, such as InDesign, PhotoShop and Illustrator, there is an Adobe certification test. If a student passes the test, it is worth three credits at Lewis-Clark State College. McNall has passed both PhotoShop and InDesign, for a total of six college credits, and is considering attending LCSC for web design. She also acquired her food handlers card through the culinary arts course, and worked to solve a water quality issue in Brenda Woodward’s water chemistry class. Woodward also teaches a hands-on forestry class.

“We are all so fortunate to be able to experience these opportunities,” McNall said. “I personally never imagined myself completing any CTE programs, creating a solution to a water chemistry issue, and earning my food safety license. I would have never been able to do this without the help of the amazing staff at Lake Pend Oreille High School.”

All of the students spoke highly of the staff, including Keona Studt, who is fairly new to LPO as she started at the beginning of this school year. At first she said she was nervous, but the staff and the other students helped her through it.

“It has been a true blessing to attend such an amazing school. I have been passing classes and my attendance has improved — a lot. I wake up motivated to be a better person inside and outside of school,” Studt said.

For Studt, the size of the school had the most impact on her, because the staff cares about each student, making them feel “safe, comfortable, loved and heard.”

Tyler Wanner said he has been attending LPO throughout his entire three-year high school career, and also said it is the staff and the small-school, family atmosphere that has kept him there. Being a small school, he said he could name every student who goes there, and LPO has helped him grow as a person, because the staff “actually cares” and can take time with each of the students individually.

“The teachers, staff and principal all support you in everything that you do and want in life — obviously within reason,” Wanner said. “... These are just a few of the reasons why LPO is one of the best schools that I have ever seen. It is different from all the rest and that’s because we are a family.

LPO senior Hanna Dowd has been attending LPO for two years, she said, and is in Woodward’s advisory class. During advisory, Dowd said they plan positive, motivating uplifting activities to add to the everyday school life at LPO.

“It not only makes going to school everyday more fun for the students and teachers, but also encourages a good, positive and family-like energy throughout,” Dowd said.

During the month of November, for example, they did turkey-grams, spreading positive messages throughout the school, and for the Christmas season there is a secret Santa exchange between the students and staff. Also, she said, the staff provides motivation for the students for things like attendance, including doughnuts and coffee on Fridays for those who have attendance of 90 percent or higher.

“This and countless other things are done throughout the school year just to put in that little bit of extra effort to make LPO what it is — an incredible school that puts its whole heart into every student who is part of it,” Dowd said.

Before departing, LPOSD board members presented each of the students with a certificate of recognition for their various academic achievements.

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.