Paradise Creek staff describe intensive nine‑week courses, community partnerships and $780,000 grant for expanded supports

Paradise Creek (PCR), the district's alternative high school, runs compressed, 9‑week courses and relies on a small teaching staff and community partnerships to get at‑risk students to graduation, PCR and district staff told the Moscow School District Board of Trustees on March 26.

Bridal Smith, PCR high school lead and district CareerTech coordinator, told trustees PCR operates with three teachers and two classrooms and schedules four 110‑minute classes per student every nine weeks to deliver full course standards in a shortened format. "It's 110 minutes of go, go, go with high rigor expectations," Smith said.

Smith said the school accepts students who are sophomores and older so they can enter the school's accelerated, integrated math sequence; she described large variation in incoming skill levels, saying a single PCR class may contain students performing near fifth‑grade levels alongside students at 11th‑ or 12th‑grade levels. To address that range PCR uses differentiated instruction, co‑teaching with a Title I teacher and paraprofessional…