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Bennett Mountain opens junior high intervention center
Three years after it opened its doors to help at-risk students in the local area, Bennett Mountain High School expanded its outreach to help those struggling at the junior high school level.
The Mountain Home Junior High Intervention Center opened at Bennett Mountain on Jan. 6 with 10 seventh- and eighth-grade students currently enrolled.
Plans for the center began taking shape several months ago after Bennett Mountain principal Stehvn Tesar met with district officials to find ways to help these junior high students.
Every year, a number of junior high students watch their grades drop because they struggle with their studies or have outside factors that affect their academic progress.
Many of them ended up with two choices -- being held back and having to retake the grade level or face expulsion. At the time, there was no alternative in the school district, Tesar said.
"With this intervention in place, they can continue to go to school," he added.
The junior high intervention center mirrors the existing academic program at Bennett Mountain, which opened in January 2013 to provide an alternative to at-risk students at the high school level. It offers classes in core subjects like math and science along with some elective programs.
A majority of the lessons are done online with the teacher Paige McCombs providing these junior high students with supplemental programs like science labs. Each class is helping these students earn credits they can apply to their academic record and allow them to move on to high school.
Three weeks into the second semester, Tesar is already seeing the grades of these students turn completely around.
"Just looking at their grades so far and conversing with them every single day, the kids seem they are reengaged and excited," he said. "Their scores and academics are reflecting that. They're passing all their classes."
At the same time, Tesar said these students are showing renewed pride in themselves and their school. He believes many of these junior high students will remain at Bennett Mountain and go on to graduate during their senior year there.
Among these students is Haley Hinton, a seventh grader who dropped out of the junior high school less than four months into the academic year. She admitted that she wasn't doing well in that environment and didn't get along with her teachers there.
Her biggest struggle involved math classes, which caused her to be held back twice. By the time she was in sixth grade, her math skills were still at a fourth-grade level, she said.
Part of the problem dealt with the number of students in each classroom, Hinton added. When she got stuck on an assignment, the teen kept asking for help but ended up having to wait in line behind the other students.
By the time the class ended, there were times she still didn't get her questions answered, Hinton said. In addition, the teen struggled with her history classes because she couldn't comprehend what was being taught.
That all changed once she moved over to Bennett Mountain. In just three weeks, the grades in her core classes went from being all Fs to three As and one B.
Hinton said the one-on-one help she receives from her teacher was behind that academic turnaround.
"She'll get to all of us," Hinton said.
Kyla Kelly was having similar academic problems. At one point, the best grade the seventh grader had earned was a C. Her others grades were much worse.
Kelly struggled comprehending the basic concepts taught in these classes because it was tough putting them into her own words. She also admitted that social studies was, to put it bluntly, boring.
"I was failing, and homework was very hard for me," she said. "I had the option to come here and decided to try it out."
With the exception of a quiz that brought one grade down to a C so far this semester, the rest of her grades are As. She credits that to the school's focus on requiring students to take more extensive notes, which she uses to help her understand more complex subjects.
"I really like it here," she said. "I hope to be here next year and into high school."
While these junior high students have the option of spending a half day at Bennett Mountain and the rest at the junior high school, all of them choose to stay at the intervention center. Currently, it can accommodate 15 junior high students, although Tesar hopes that number can grow at the start of the next school year.
To date, Bennett Mountain has 87 students with a limited amount of growth still available. Tesar hopes the school can reach a maximum enrollment of 100 students, although it'll require hiring another teacher to ensure it maintains the proper student-to-teacher ratio.
However, he emphasized that the school needs to grow since there are a number of students in the district that fall into that "at risk" category. Currently, it has a number of students on a waiting list, all of them hoping to make the transition to Bennett Mountain.
"There is a need," he said.
Expanding the school to include the junior high students will lead to a name change at the district's alternative school. It will start the next school year as Bennett Mountain Junior and Senior High School.