Bennet
Mountain Alternative School, Mt. Home, Idaho
Creating a Culture of Acceptance and Achievement
How many alternative schools can boast receiving the following parent comment? “I LOVE this school. By far the BEST school in (the) Mountain Home School District. Thank you for allowing (italics added) my child the opportunity to attend this wonderful school!” Or this one, “I love Bennett. Currently I have my 3rd child attending Bennett. I love how Bennett treats you like family. My children have thrived since they have been at Bennett. You are awesome.” Those comments were received by the Bennett Mountain Alternative School in Mt. Home, Idaho. They represent the feelings of parents about the culture the staff of Bennett Mountain have created for their children.
Bennett Mountain Alternative School |
BM Principal Stehvn Tesar |
Contributing to their student centered approach, Bennett Mountain provides day care for its teen parents which helps prevent students from having to drop out of school. They have a food pantry for students and their families needing some assistance. Students can pick up personal hygiene products that have been donated. The school works with a local organization to provide counseling and mental health services on campus. And every student has a mentor who checks in with them twice daily.
The community of Mt. Home is in full support of Bennett Mountain. Local non-profits and businesses, a Mt. Home Air Force base auxiliary and anonymous donors have contributed funds to allow the school to add handicapped access to the building, provide funds and supplies for their annual Turkey Bowl, where they serve a Thanksgiving meal to all the students and their parents and then send a Thanksgiving dinner box home for every student and their family. Donations help provide a dinner for students and their parents during parent-teacher conferences in the fall, breakfast for students every Friday, and a pancake breakfast once every eight weeks and student birthdays which are celebrated monthly. Because of the support for their students and families, Bennett Mountain has received recognition for being one of the top 10 schools for student engagement on the ISDE annual survey. Their parent engagement and satisfaction score was 92.9%. The Bennett Mountain staff registered a 98.2% level of satisfaction on the staff survey. Principal Tesar does not have difficulty filling openings, which rarely occur.
Bennett Mountain Alternative School, named after the most recognizable geographic landmark in the area, represents one of Idaho’s gems in education where achievement and satisfaction are not measured by test scores, but by the staff-student relationships that lead to individual achievement and accomplishment in the face of personal adversity.
Bennett Mountain Alternative School Day Care room and Graduate Wall |