The Idaho Public Charter School Commission renewed the charters of six schools, four with academic and financial conditions, and discussed the merger of two Idaho charter schools during a regular meeting on Thursday.

In a first for Idaho, Rolling Hills Public Charter School, which has struggled with declining enrollment, has plans to merge with North Star Public Charter School next fall.

The two schools discussed the plan with the commission and sought approval for an amendment to North Star’s performance certificate to allow for an increase in students and an expansion to two campuses.

The commission is the governing body for the charter schools it authorizes statewide. Typically, charters are authorized for five years, they then return to the commission to ask for a 6- or 12-year renewal.

Boise charters set to merge

Students come first at Rolling Hills Public Charter School, Tara Handy, executive director and principal said.

When Handy decided to retire at the end of the year, she wanted a transition that would be ideal for students.

The school has struggled with enrollment in recent years. Handy went to Andy Horning, the head of schools at North Star, and proposed merging the schools.

“I think at the end of the day this is about children,” Handy said.

Both administrators agree that the schools already have shared values, and in some cases shared families with siblings split between the two schools.

“This is an outside the box opportunity for charter schools,” Horning said.

The two proposed merging at the end of this school year, in essence expanding North Star’s enrollment.

North Star has 945 K-8 applications for next school year and 244 for the high school level. Rolling Hills has about 157 for grades K-8.

If the schools combined, North Star’s current campus would serve as a joint elementary and middle schools with Rolling Star about five miles away serving as the high school.

“It would be a great opportunity for our high school students to create a culture of their own,” Horning said.

Rolling Hills would transfer all assets and debts to North Star, which would eventually refinance the Rolling Hills building loan.

Separate charter schools have never merged in Idaho, commission staff said. However, charter schools already have the legal ability to transfer assets, which is essentially what would happen during the merger.

The commissioners felt it wasn’t their role to approve the merger but was supportive of the plan.

“It seems like a win-win for everybody,” said Vice-Chair Sherrilynn Bair.

The commission unanimously voted to update North Star’s performance certificate with details to be approved by the commission chair as they are sorted out.

Unconditional renewals

Two charter schools received unconditional six-year renewals to their charters on Thursday.

While both schools asked for the 12-year renewal option, neither received exceeding scores in all categories on their evaluation, which the commission determined was necessary to qualify for the longer renewal.

Thomas Jefferson Charter School serves nearly 350 students in Caldwell. Thomas Jefferson recently expanded its building, which dropped it below the exceeds standard metric for cash flow in 2022.

Mosaics Public Charter School, also in Caldwell, is a STEAM focused K-8 school that opened in 2020. Mosaics also expanded its building, which led to a drop in cash flow.

Commissioner Paul Amador suggested the commission revisit the guidelines for the 12-year extension to avoid punishing schools that are successful enough to expand.

Both schools unanimously received a six-year renewal to their charters.

Conditional Renewals

Four schools Thursday received conditional renewals based on failures to meet operational, financial or academic standards. The schools were all approved in 2019, so their early years were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, a factor that school leaders and commissioners repeatedly noted. The schools must achieve a “meets standard” rating for two consecutive years to meet the conditions.

If schools fail to meet the standards they must again appear in front of the commission, which will determine whether or not to start a charter revocation process.

Pinecrest Academy of Idaho

Pinecrest Academy in Twin Falls met all operational measures, four-of-six financial measures and three-of-five academic measures.

The school approached the standard for English language arts proficiency and growth and literary proficiency. It failed to meet the debt to asset ratio standard. The school met or exceeded all other academic, financial and operational standards.

The school has grown from 130 students to over 400 with staff growth to match.

That rapid growth of both students and subsequently staff has contributed to the failure to meet standards, said Principal Andy Mirhaj. The school also moved from renting a church to its own building in 2022 which led to the negative debt to asset ratio, which they expect to resolve slowly over time.

• Must achieve a minimum 2% year-over-year increase in English Language Arts Proficiency.
• Must achieve a minimum 2% year-over-year increase in English Language Arts Growth.
• Must achieve a minimum 3% year-over-year increase in Literacy Proficiency.
• Must achieve a positive trend in the Debt to Asset Ratio measure annually until this condition is satisfied.

Mirhaj said the school has doubled its number of weekly interventions including adding iReady, a diagnostic and intervention software. They’ve added two additional hours of English Language Arts instruction weekly, hired more experienced and qualified teachers and are using a new school-wide writing curriculum.

Commissioners were pleased with Mirhaj’s plan to address the conditions and unanimously voted on the six-year extension with conditions.

Doral Academy of Idaho

Doral Academy in Meridian had significant trustee and leadership turnover in recent years, which board chair Sara Frost said led to instability and lower academic performance. Doral is part of a group of arts integration schools across seven states that includes 17 schools and serves 15,000 students.

The school did not meet the standard in math proficiency and growth, English language arts proficiency and literary proficiency. It approached the standard in ELA growth.

The school also did not meet the debt-to-asset ratio standard but met or exceeded all other operational and financial standards.

The school has six conditions including:

• Must achieve a minimum 3% year-over-year increase in Math Proficiency and Math Growth for the duration of this Performance Certificate term.
• Doral Academy must achieve a minimum 3% year-over-year increase in English Language Arts Proficiency and Growth.
• Doral Academy must achieve a minimum 2% year-over-year increase in Literacy Proficiency.
• Doral Academy must achieve a positive trend in the Debt to Asset Ratio measure annually until this condition is satisfied.

Since the school opened in 2020, there have been four board chairs and three principals. While enrollment has increased up to 337 students grades K-8 this year, test scores have dropped since 2022.

That coincides with the school moving to a four day week in 2022.

“We have determined that has not been a successful experiment,” Frost said.

The school will return to a five day week for the 2025-26 school year. Frost said she’s committed to the school with three kids in attendance and a year under her belt as a substitute teacher.

The prior board was a bit more of a cheerleader for the school than asking tough questions.

“We have asked more critical questions and I think found more opportunities for growth,” she said.

Principal Michael Shapiro has experience at other Idaho charter schools and has begun working with Doral teachers to improve their understanding of state standards, he said.

“A lot of our teachers were not as educated on Idaho standards as we needed them to be,” Frost said.

They found that young teachers struggled to balance classroom management and teaching to standards, Frost said. Commissioners asked for more information on the issue in hopes of passing the information on to the state board to improve teacher certificate programs.

The commission unanimously approved the renewal with conditions.

Mountain Community School

Nestled at the foot of the Tamarack Resort near McCall, the Mountain Community K-8 school serves 72 students. Jenny Shon, founder and head of schools, said they are still learning the best way to run the unique project-driven rural school.

The school scores do not meet standard in math proficiency and growth, English language arts proficiency, and literacy proficiency. In all other categories, the school met or exceeded standards.

The school has four conditions on its charter:

• Must achieve a minimum 3% year-over-year increase in Math proficiency and growth.
• Must achieve a minimum 3% year-over-year increase in English Language Arts Proficiency.
• Must achieve a positive increase from Fall to Spring Literacy Proficiency annually –AND- the school must achieve a minimum 5% year over-year increase in Literacy Proficiency.

While Mountain was approved in 2020, the school didn’t open until 2022 so there was less data for evaluators to consider. The school operates four combined classrooms, K-1, 2-3, 4-5, and 6-8.

The school is also part of the increased charter support program, which started this year to provide support to struggling charters.

“It has been an absolute blessing to us in every way,” Shon said.

The school has been in a trial and error phase she said, but recently hired a title 1 teacher and doubled their English Language Arts time in hopes of meeting learning targets.

“You just don’t know until you start doing the work,” Shon said.

While the students love skiing at the resort for physical education, Shone said they hope to move to a more centrally located area to serve more students.

The commissioners were supportive of the school and its planned changes, noting that the school is a test case for rural charters.

It can be difficult to measure success when one family leaving can drop enrollment by 10%, Commissioner Wally Hedrick noted.

“Your success is critical to being able to give other communities this opportunity,” Commissioner Pete Koehler added.

The commission voted unanimously to renew the charter with conditions.

Hayden Canyon Charter

Hayden Canyon is an expeditionary school for arts and sciences in Hayden. The school opened in 2020 and now serves 560 students.

The school expanded its building in 2023 adding eight classrooms, which led to an increase in students.

The school failed to meet English language arts growth and literacy proficiency standards along with debt service coverage ratio and debt asset ratio standards. The school approached the standard in math proficiency and growth and ELA proficiency. The school approached the standard number of days of unrestricted cash on hand.

The school met or exceeded all other financial and operational standards.

The school has six conditions:

• Must achieve a minimum 3% year-over-year increase in Math proficiency and growth.
• Must achieve a minimum 3% year-over-year increase in English Language Arts proficiency and growth.
• Must achieve a minimum 4% year-over-year increase in Literacy Proficiency.
• Must achieve a Meets Standard rating on all financial measures of the Commission’s performance framework by fiscal year 2027, and have a positive trend in all financial measures annually until this condition is satisfied. Financial measures include: Financial Default, Financial Compliance, Current Ratio, Days Unrestricted Cash on Hand, Debt Service Coverage Ratio, and Debt to Asset Ratio.

Bill Rutherford, the school’s principal said previously teachers were really independent which led to too much variation in learning between classrooms. They recently standardized the curriculum and have already seen significant growth.

The commission was supportive of the school’s plan to address the conditions and unanimously approved the renewal.

The Idaho Charter Commission meets every other month. Their next meeting is set for April 10.