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Blackfoot Charter attributes curriculum, behavior systems and new facility to rising scores
Summary
Board member Janelle Hill and Executive Director Craig Girard told the Senate Education Committee that Blackfoot Charter School turned around performance by aligning governance, adopting multi-tiered behavior supports, updating curricula, and building a new 52,000-square-foot facility; they reported measurable gains in literacy and state tests.
Janelle Hill, a board member at Blackfoot Charter, and Craig Girard, the school's executive director, told the Senate Education Committee the charter school's multi-year turnaround combined governance changes, behavior supports, curriculum selection, and a new facility to produce measurable student gains.
Hill said the board identified system-wide weaknesses about five years ago—stagnant academics, staff turmoil, facility issues, inconsistent behavior and disconnected systems—and engaged ISBA and other advisers to rethink governance. "Through our governing conversations we recognized many pieces were already in place to support a strong educational system but they were not organized and supported effectively," she said.
Girard said the corrective plan included multi-tiered systems of support for behavior (MTSS), adoption of new math, ELA, social studies and science curricula, professional learning communities and a daily academic intervention block so students receive targeted remediation, enrichment or acceleration. He described a schoolwide behavior culture anchored in a "Knights Oath" (ownership, attitude, teamwork, honor) and schoolwide celebrations and said out-of-class consequences and suspensions decreased by "nearly 60%" from the prior year.
The school financed and completed a new 52,000-square-foot facility through private bonding, added an on-site kitchen to support child nutrition, and reorganized scheduling to embed interventions. Girard reported assessment gains: early-reading IRI proficiency up about 20 percentage points year-over-year, ISAT ELA proficiency up 7 percent and ISET math proficiency up 6 percent. The school said some grade cohorts have shown individual gains of as much as 40 percentage points in proficiency.
Hill and Girard emphasized that the board's role in setting goals, allocating budget and providing oversight was central to supporting the changes and that lasting improvement depends on buy-in from staff and the community.
