Columbia Falls graduation rate less than 80 percent

Last week Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau celebrated a statewide high school graduation rate that was 86 percent last year. But Columbia Falls’ graduation rate actually went down by several percentage points.

Columbia Falls showed a graduation rate of 79.73 percent, a 4 percent drop over 2014.

But the rate is prone to fluctuation.

The graduation rate in 2013 was 79.78 percent, in 2012, 87 percent.

Countywide in 2015, Bigfork had the highest graduation rate at 91.55 percent, Flathead was 88 percent and Whitefish was 89.6 percent.

Columbia Falls used to have higher graduation rates than other county schools, save for Bigfork, which has led the county in the past five years. Back in 2011, for example, Whitefish had a graduation rate of 81 percent and Flathead’s was 79 percent, while Columbia Falls has a 83.6 percent graduation rate.

Columbia Falls High School principal Scott Gaiser said the bottom line was the school isn’t happy with the current graduation rate.

“I’m a scoreboard guy and that’s a scoreboard issue,” he said.

The school is taking steps to work on the problem. This year they hired a graduation counselor, Leslie Fant, who works with students identified as having problems in school. The initial screening process actually begins in junior high, Gaiser explained. Students are then helped when they get into high school in an attempt to get them through school. Fant also works with students on “credit recovery” by making up lost credits, such as failing a class, that they’ll need to graduate.

While the graduation rate is a concern, the district also doesn’t want to lower its graduation standards just so more students graduate, Gaiser said. The school also has a host of other social issues to contend with.

Districtwide, about 40 percent of all students and their families meet the federal poverty guidelines that make them eligible for free and reduced lunch. 

The district also a student population that’s homeless. School counselor Linda Kaps said there’s about 30 students in Columbia Falls that meet the legal definition of homeless — where they don’t live with their legal guardian or are in an unstable housing situation. Of those, about four or five students are truly homeless — they live out of their cars or they spend a night here and there every week with friends.

“They never know from week to week where they’re going to live,” she said.

Kaps said right now, she has no place to put those students. In some cases, churches or other nonprofits help. Kaps is on the board of directors of Sparrow’s Nest of Northwest Montana, a Flathead Valley nonprofit that hopes to put teen homeless shelters in every major community. The hope is to open a home in Whitefish soon that was donated by St. Peter Lutheran Church and it owns a house in Kalispell as well, but that home needs a lot of renovation work. The organization does not have a home in Columbia Falls as of yet.

Running the shelters will be an expensive proposition — about $250,000 for staff and other expenses annually, Kaps notes. Recent valleywide fundraisers have helped the cause, however. 

But the investment is worth it, she said. Students in the homes will have to attend high school to stay in them.

“We can be proactive or we can pay for them the rest of their lives,” she said.

The teens are not part of the criminal or foster care system. They’ve simply had family troubles, from parents with drug and alcohol problems, to sexual abuse, Kaps said.

“These kids fly under the radar,” she said.

Some students are trying to hold down full-time jobs, pay rent and still go to high school, she noted.

But homeless students aside, high school is also what a student makes of it. Columbia Falls students proved very successful last year as well. The class of 2015 garnered more than $4 million in scholarships, an all-time record. The challenge, school officials note, is to get the entire student body enthused about school and their education.