LAUREL — The last several years have been tumultuous for elementary, middle, and high school students for multiple reasons, from the pandemic to the rise in violence in schools. Teachers and administrators at Laurel High School have found that many of their students aren't able to thrive in a traditional classroom setting, which is why the Laurel School Board approved an application for a public charter school in October, hoping to give kids another option when pursuing their diploma.
Laurel High School Assistant Principal John Stilson has seen the struggles of his students firsthand.
"There's a lot of students who just, for whatever reason, don't feel comfortable coming in or choose not to come into the building," Stilson said Friday. "There was a stretch this year that I was probably having about one to two students a week come talk to me about wanting to move into a different platform just because of the way, you know, the way they feel."
"Our biggest need right away, we felt like, was those students who we've lost to homeschooling or who we've lost to dropouts, for whatever reason, maybe it's medical, anxiety issues, work-related issues, whatever it happens to be, students are leaving the district," said Laurel Public Schools Superintendent Matt Torix. "They're leaving them all over the state of Montana and actually nationally and Laurel's, we're seeing the exact same percentages."
After the state of Montana passed a law during that last legislative session that allows schools to apply for a public charter school, the Laurel School Board saw an opportunity.
"The board has agreed that we do have some needs around the district that a public charter school may help. Not that we can't do some of those things without a public charter school, but the funding that comes with a public charter school is what's going to help us," said Torix.
"I think Montana is really pushing towards parental choice and you see the change in life, we can register in whatever school we want to within the state, you don't have to necessarily live within the boundaries," Stilson said. "And I think that choice is important in the sense that parents know their kids better than anybody. I mean, we work really closely with kids, we know them pretty well, but the parents definitely know what their kid wants to do, what they're capable of and can push them outside their comfort zone as much or more than we can."
If approved, Torix said the public charter school will be called the Laurel Virtual Academy and will be entirely online.
"There may be some kids that are currently going full-time or even part-time, or maybe you're going in the morning to some classes, and then you're going online in the afternoon," Torix said. "We're gonna look at doing a six through eight and upwards, hitting around 40 or 50 kids the first year in the high school. Some that are currently in our district, some that are currently not in our district, but would come back for this program, and then some in the middle school as well. So, we're planning on 60-some upwards of about 100."
Students are already using Chromebooks, which were provided by the district.
"One of the programs we looked at, so Monday through Friday, they have live tutors, so they could get online and zoom with a live tutor and have the whiteboard be brought up and help them through problems," said Torix.
The Laurel Virtual Academy will receive $400,000 in public funding if the Montana Board of Education approves the district's application in mid-January. The ultimate goal is getting students to graduate.
"It's our opportunity to keep them in the educational system and help them, like I said, graduate. Because we know the students who graduate do do do better monetarily when they graduate for jobs and that kind of thing," Stilson said.
