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Slate Mountain School administrators outline programs, capacity challenges and CTE plans for youth in custody students
Summary
Administrators of Slate Mountain School told the Provo School Board they are integrating PBIS with clinical DBT approaches, expanding CTE and virtual-reality training, and managing staffing and transient-student challenges in juvenile justice settings.
Slate Mountain School administrators presented a detailed report to the Provo City School District Board on operations across its Oak Springs, Vantage Point and Slate Canyon sites, which serve youth in custody and hospital-based placements.
Robert Bunker, a Slate Mountain administrator, and Elanie Bliss, the co-administrator, described a transient student population, specialty programs such as a maker class and greenhouse, and ongoing efforts to align school practices with facility clinical programming. They said each Oak Springs unit has a capacity of 24 beds and reported current occupancies of about 8 (Maple), 13 (Birch) and 15 (Cedar). Administrators reported an average length of stay of roughly 12 to 18 months and high student mobility estimated at about 20–26 percent.
Bliss told the board that one of the school’s central priorities is aligning Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) with the Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) tools used by facility clinicians. “One of the things that we can say with full confidence is that we really care,” Bliss said, describing efforts to use shared clinical language—mindfulness, stop skills and opposite action—so teachers can reinforce therapeutic work in classrooms.
Administrators described curriculum and assessment challenges: standard, district-wide standardized tests are difficult to use because many students arrive and depart mid-term. The school uses alternative measures and is working to embed assessment into daily instruction; the Utah State Board-required STAR 360 assessment remains difficult to administer because many students do not engage with testing.
The presentation outlined career and technical education (CTE) plans including a new auto-shop space, woodturning and a restitution shop model, partnerships with Utah Tech (formerly Dixie State) for college classes, and pilot virtual-reality training for industry certifications. Administrators said they plan a coordinated day that mixes academics, college coursework and CTE experiences to offer meaningful, certificated pathways for post-secondary students. They also noted staffing and security ratios constrain the breadth of programming: ratios cited in the presentation ranged from 8:1 historically to 5:1 depending on current security staffing.
Administrators asked the board to support continued professional development, cross-site staffing flexibility, and partnerships with juvenile justice and community employers to expand certification and reentry opportunities for students.
