The North Star Charter School in Eagle is planning to expand after receiving a sizable grant from an initiative led by Idaho education nonprofit Bluum.
The program distributes grant funding from the Federal Charter School Program (CSP) on a competitive basis.
North Star will receive $800,000 of federal charter funding, which the charter will use to expand its enrollment by up to 259 students. North Star Head of School Andy Horning said he’s excited to be able to fit that many more students into North Star, where the waitlist is over 1,200 students.
In a pair of historic firsts, North Star is merging with Rolling Hills Charter School after becoming the first to be awarded the entire sum of a competitive grant issued by Bluum. While Bluum awarded the money, the winner of the grant competition was decided by third-party reviewers not affiliated with the nonprofit.
Other charter schools to receive funding from the federal CSP grant in 2025 include Alturas Academy North in Rigby, Elevate Academy: Twin Falls, Valor Classical Academy in Kuna and Hollister Charter School in Hollister.
Horning said he thinks the culture of high performance at North Star made them an appealing candidate for the funding.
“North Star is well known for high-performing students,” said Horning. “We have a rigorous school here, a K-12 school. And year after year, we outperform nearly all the schools in the state of Idaho.”
Federal grants like the one awarded to North Star cannot be used for staff, so the money will go toward improving secondary-level classrooms with better furniture, technology and updated curriculum for all grade levels, as well as to market North Star as “one of the top schools in the area,” said Joanna O’Donnell, North Star’s Chief Operating Officer.
North Star considers itself as such for a reason: The school regularly achieves a high percentage of students in the proficient or advanced category on standardized testing.
Horning attributes the academic success of North Star’s students to the teachers.
“We work extremely hard to create an environment where students are known, where their learning styles are met… we do have [paraprofessionals] in the elementary, which helps us to accelerate the curriculum and ensure that all students have the resources they need,” said Horning.
That’s part of why Horning doesn’t expect North Star will seek to expand much beyond these new seats. With a current student-to-teacher ratio of about 20:1, Horning expects it will become closer to 25:1 with the planned expansion.
“We do want to maintain the small school atmosphere, we pride ourselves on every teacher knowing every student, knowing their learning styles, fitting the needs of them on an individual basis,” said Horning.
From now until next year, Horning said North Star plans to grow a little bit. But over the next three years, the charter school will try to balance out its grade levels to maintain 25 to 28 students per classroom.
“We’re extremely thankful to Bluum and this opportunity for the families of North Star and also for charter schools in general,” said Horning.
IdahoEdNews Data Analyst Randy Schrader contributed information to this report. EdNews and Bluum are funded with grants from the J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Family Foundation.
