‘We will fight’: West Ada to restructure alternative schools despite parental pleas
In the two months since the West Ada School District unveiled a plan to restructure its alternative-education high schools, community members have raised alarms about the proposed changes.
The proposed restructuring, announced in a letter from the school district on Jan. 11, would consolidate the district’s three alternative high school academies for at-risk students into two, closing Central Academy in Meridian at the end of this school year.
Since then, parents and community members involved in West Ada’s alternative school system have met with district leaders at three public meetings and filed 67 responses to a district Google form asking for input.
On Monday evening, a small but passionate group of parents, students, and teachers gathered at a school board meeting to once against ask officials to pause the plan and look for other options that would allow Central to stay open.
Alternative-education schools for ‘at-risk’ students
The school district is home to four alternative high schools serving students in grades nine through 12 considered “at risk” of not graduating. Three are part of the academy system — Central, Eagle, and Meridian Academies — and a fourth, the Rebound School of Opportunity, takes a different instructional approach.
Kristen Haener, the district’s administrator of alternative education, told the Idaho Statesman that students attend the academies “for a variety of reasons.” Some students struggle with anxiety in a large-school setting, and others may have responsibilities that affect their attendance, like caring for younger siblings or working a job, Haener explained in a February phone interview. Others might need additional support to succeed.
All four offer smaller-school environments for students who struggle at traditional schools. The academies, which enroll roughly 160 students each, follow a “mastery-based” curriculum, where students move through lesson plans at their own pace. Rebound, which serves over 200 students, uses an online program. Rebound is geared primarily toward 11th and 12th graders and is considered a “credit recovery machine” for seniors in earning their high school diplomas, according to Cliff Rice, the district’s director of secondary school instruction.
West Ada’s plan for restructuring
Rice told the school board Monday that Rebound is well over its capacity of 126 students across two daily sessions, morning and afternoon, of 63 students each. With 220 students enrolled, the school is at 174% of its capacity, Rice said.
Meanwhile, enrollment at the academies has been declining in recent years, with each at no more than 75% of their capacity as of 2024. Traditional schools in West Ada have also seen dips in enrollment, with total districtwide enrollment dropping by over 1,600 students since the 2019-20 school year, the Statesman previously reported.
By consolidating the academies from three to two, the restructuring would see Central Academy close its doors and reopen as the new home of Rebound, which now operates in a business center in Meridian. The former Central Academy building would also house a virtual-learning school. That school, the Virtual School House, is considered a West Ada “School of Choice” and is not geared specifically toward at-risk students.
Central Academy students would transfer to either Meridian Academy or Eagle Academy, depending on where they live. They would also have the option to transfer to Rebound or transition back into a traditional high school.
Staff would have the option to move to one of the other alternative schools or to a traditional school in the district, according to a FAQ page on district’s website. “We are committed to retaining all of our dedicated teachers throughout this process,” the page says.
The goal of the restructuring is to improve the “whole system” of alternative schools by increasing capacity at Rebound and allowing more “appropriate student placement,” Rice said at the Monday meeting.
Under the existing system, Rice said some students attend traditional high schools — or the academies — even though Rebound may be a better fit, because there is no room at Rebound. Haener in February said Rebound is “bursting at the seams,” with too-few classrooms forcing students to work in offices and conference rooms.
Under the new system, there would be capacity for 480 students at Rebound — 260 more than are now enrolled.
Rice said that having students stuck in the wrong educational setting not only “decreases their chances of earning a diploma” but also “negatively impacts” classroom experiences for other students and burdens instructors.
“It’s about getting students into the right school,” Rice said.
Rice said the district has identified 122 students at traditional high schools — 70 juniors and 52 seniors — who would be candidates for attending Rebound if space were available.
Flexible schedules, CTE opportunities
In addition to expanding Rebound, the restructuring plan includes implementing a “flexible schedule” at the remaining two academies. The academies would transition to a two-session schedule, morning and afternoon. Students from Central Academy transferring to the Eagle and Meridian academies would have the option of attending morning or afternoon instruction — or carrying on with full-day instruction.
Haener told the Statesman she anticipates that with some students choosing a half-day track, seats will open up that would help the remaining academies manage the influx of students from Central.
According to a survey the district sent to parents and students in the academy system, Rice said that 72% of parents stated they would like their children to remain in a full-day schedule. 28% said they would take advantage of a half-day session. The split among students was more even, with 55% hoping to stay in full-day instruction and 45% hoping to switch to a half-day.
Rice told the school board he believes the flexible schedule would increase attendance and help allow students to participate in the Career and Technical Education, or CTE, classes.
Superintendent Derek Bub said the district was committed to keeping class sizes at Eagle and Meridian academies at or below 20 students after the consolidation, roughly the same as the upper limit for classes among the three academies now.
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Along with the flexible half- or full-day model, Rice said the restructuring would involve more “structure” for at-risk students in the alternative system.
He noted that the academies, while each operating differently, tend to have long blocks without bells or structured time, because students move through curricula at their own pace. The new schedule would “promote competency-based learning with flex, mentor, and intervention time along with dedicated direct instruction blocks,” Rice said.
The academies would transition to a traditional bell structure.
Improved graduation rates?
The school district is focused on tracking and improving three metrics through the restructuring: Student attendance, CTE participation, and four-year graduation rate.
In recent years, Rebound’s four-year graduation rates top those at the academies, Rice also noted, which he said is because academies are designed as an alternative learning environment, while Rebound is specifically focused on “credit recovery.”
In 2024, Rebound’s average graduation rate was 81.5% compared to an average rate of 53.9% across the three academies.
Students in alternative high schools in West Ada need a minimum of 6 credits per semester to graduate. In the 2023-24 school year, students at Rebound averaged 6.9 credits per semester, compared to 3.8 earned on average across the academies.
Still, district data shows that Central Academy has outpaced the other two academies in credits earned per semester for the past three school years. And in the 2021-22 school year, students at Central and Meridian academies earned more credits per semester than those at Rebound.
In 2024, Meridian Academy’s graduation rate was 63.3%, Central Academy’s was 59.6%, and Eagle Academy’s was 38.9%, according to district data.
Asked how school performance factored into the restructuring decision, Niki Scheppers, the school district’s chief of staff and communications, told the Statesman in an email that the board considered “multiple factors, including enrollment trends, operational sustainability, and opportunities to enhance educational experiences across all alternative learning programs.
“While rankings provide one data point, they do not fully capture the range of student needs, support structures, and curriculum offerings that guide district decisions,” Scheppers said.
Parent tells students ‘You are not a number’
Echoing an outcry of concerns over the past two months, parents and teachers at the board meeting Monday questioned if and how the restructuring would improve graduate rates and other metrics for students in the alternative education system — as well as if adverse effects would outweigh benefits.
“On paper, they say it should work,” said Angie Elkington, a teacher at Eagle Academy who has worked for West Ada for 31 years. “Yet when we ask them questions about how specific aspects will work, they cannot provide definitive answers, but tell us they know they can figure it out. That is unacceptable.”
Elkington called on the district to work with teachers at the academies to find “viable solutions that will not sacrifice or jeopardize our students’ education or put anyone’s overall well being at risk.”
“You have staff, parents, and students begging to be a part of this process,” she said, noting the district could risk losing dedicated staff through the change.
Another West Ada teacher stated that disadvantaged students at the academies “are especially disrupted and dis-regulated by change.”
“For Central Academy students, this decision would change everything,” the teacher said.
A senior at Eagle Academy testified that the small size of the academy helped her succeed after transferring from Centennial High School, a traditional high school in the district. She said she worried that the addition of students from Central Academy would make learning more difficult for students like her.
“I think if I had started at Eagle Academy when this change was happening, as many others will, I don’t know if I would have graduated,” the student said.
Kristen Johnson, a Meridian parent, told the school board she and others have felt that their pleas about the restructuring have gone unheard.
“We are done wasting time on people who were never listening in the first place,” Johnson said, tearing up.
She chose to address her remarks to academy students instead.
“We see you,” Johnson said. “We know your value and worth. We have no doubt of the greatness that lies within you. You are not a number. You are not a statistic, and you are not alone.”
Johnson asked the board to table the decision for a year to give students and teachers time to prepare for the change or find alternatives.
School board votes on restructuring
For some members of the school board, the ability to expand enrollment at Rebound, thereby helping more students graduate, outweighed potential problems that the change could cause.
“We, in my estimation, need to do something,” Trustee David Binetti said.
“The longer that we have these rates where they’re at, the longer that we’re not able to serve every student, is something that weighs on me,” Binetti said.
Binetti said he agrees ”mistakes” were made in the process of communicating with parents and teachers, but “that doesn’t change the fact that our goal remains the same” of increasing capacity at Rebound and thereby graduation rates.
He said he doesn’t “discount” any of the challenges that the changes would pose, but said he feels that “enough thought attention and feedback have gone into this that it is something I support.”
”There is a difference between listening and hearing the concerns and agreeing with them, because good people can disagree on important issues,” the trustee said.
“If we can get 268 more kids across the finish line and help them long-term in their lives, then this is worth it,” Trustee Angie Redford said. “Let’s try it.”
Trustee Lucas Baclayon noted that there was only one month between when initial communications about the plan went out and when it was first presented to the board. “Any change-management system would tell you that amount of time is not sufficient,” he said.
In a 4-1 vote, with Baclayon in opposition, the board approved the plan, which would be implemented at the start of the 2025-26 school year.
Next steps
The school district plans to hold parent, staff and student focus groups to help iron out operational details of the plan and address concerns. The district will also hold a bi-monthly operational task force meeting, Rice said at the meeting.
Rice also said he would report back to the school board quarterly on the transition, and Binetti emphasized the desire to see updates on each of the three main metrics in each of those reports: attendance, CTE participation, and graduation rates — for the academies and Rebound.
Johnson, the Meridian mom, emphasized at the board meeting that the fight to support students in the alternative education system would not be over: “We will fight for you today, tomorrow, and always.”
This story was originally published March 14, 2025 at 4:00 AM.
