Mike Turner, director of Swain Academy, told the Swain County Board of Education the alternative school served 72 students over the year and graduated 16 students — a 100% graduation rate among 16 eligible seniors — while reporting an overall program “success” rate of about 65 percent based on graduation, transition back to the high school or meeting individual goals.

Turner described the program’s enrollment and individualized planning process: students are referred after meeting Tier 2/3 MTSS criteria at the high school, and each student, parent and guardian meets with staff to create a personal education plan (PEP) before enrollment. Turner said teachers meet weekly with students to track goals, and Friday activities and career‑readiness experiences are contingent on weekly academic, attendance and behavior goals.

On student outcomes and instruction, Turner said the program offered the same state standards as the high school but delivered them with different, applied instructional approaches. He reported 292 course enrollments across students, with 67 online classes (about 23% of offerings) and said online classes produced disproportionate failures: 15 online class failures accounted for roughly 51% of total failures while in‑person failures were far lower.

Turner flagged discipline and attendance as key issues: the school recorded about 120 total in‑school and out‑of‑school suspension days, 94 of which (78%) he said were linked to vaping incidents, including THC vapes that sometimes produced multiple violations per student. He reported one fight during the year and around 20 days of ISS for insubordination. Attendance averaged about 80%; Turner said removing excused absences would raise the rate to about 86%.

Turner also outlined program initiatives to improve retention and outcomes: developing elective courses tailored to students who plan to remain at Swain Academy, piloting a “Mountain Guides” tier‑3 support program that pairs students with outside mentors or community club leaders to increase engagement, and continuing weekly PEP monitoring and extensive parent and teacher contact logs (Turner said staff recorded 271 teacher contacts, 496 office contacts and about 714 support contacts during the year).

Questions from board members focused on graduation communication (Turner said staff extensively communicated with families and used the PEP to show students how many credits they needed) and whether Swain Academy diplomas are equivalent to the high school’s (Turner said the diploma is the same because the school has its own LEA and issues “the exact same high school diploma”).

Why it matters: Swain Academy functions as the district’s alternative high school for students behind academically or facing attendance/behavior challenges; its performance and discipline trends affect district graduation rates and program planning.

Board direction and next steps: Turner said he would provide draft materials about the Mountain Guides program and elective proposals for board review; no formal board action on the program was recorded.