Creston School Looking to Tack on Seventh and Eighth Grades

As smoke billowed out of a glass bowl in a Creston School classroom Friday afternoon, a member of the Big Sky Astronomy Club explained to students that the chemical reaction of dry ice and water was meant to emulate a comet’s tail. A comet’s tail, she said, always points away from the sun — similar to how the smoke was moving away from her body.

The demonstration was part of a schoolwide activity at Creston. Those are the types of activities Cheryl Peterson, in her first year as principal, has tried to introduce more regularly to offer students hands-on educational experiences and to build partnerships within the community.

When Peterson first took the helm of the school in August, she told the Beacon one of her major goals was to maintain Creston School’s identity as an “anchor” in the rural east valley. Over the course of the year, bringing in groups like the Big Sky Astronomy Club has helped with that mission. Peterson said in addition to offering an experience to the students during the school day, the amateur astronomers would host a presentation for Creston residents in the evening too. They also planned to host a stargazing session, as long as clouds didn’t cover the sky.

But as the year has gone on, Peterson said a topic bigger than simply bringing in groups like the astronomy club has cropped up as a community ask. Creston School wants to begin offering middle school.

The school currently offers kindergarten through sixth grade. Once students reach seventh grade, they transition out of Creston School. Typically, they attend either Cayuse Prairie, a neighboring east valley district, or Kalispell Middle School.

In a survey the school sent to families and community members in December, 45% of respondents said they would support adding a junior high program to Creston School. Another 35% answered they were unsure; only 20% of around 60 respondents were unsupportive of the idea.

It’s an option Peterson and her board are now pursuing, working with the state in the hopes of earning accreditation to teach seventh and eighth grade next school year.

“It would be wonderful if this was another option,” Peterson said. “So, we’re not looking to compete with any other school. KMS is still an amazing option for our kids. Cayuse is also, you know, we send some of our families to Cayuse — great situations. We love those, and some families, that’s exactly what they need.”

She continued: “We’re just trying to offer something different. We’re just looking to allow our kids to grow up in the system.”  

The vision for the middle school level — should the accreditation come through — is to offer a module format where students’ academics will align with a specific career field, like engineering or medical careers, trading off at each trimester. And as students are studying those career fields, business partners from within the community would come into the classroom to offer students a real-world glimpse at how their lives would look if they pursued that pathway. Peterson said that vision is based on the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme model. She hopes it will ensure the school meets career and technical education standards from the state, while maintaining academic rigor for students.

“You know, part of this is we’re gonna teach the kids how to do a business budget,” Peterson said. “We’re going to teach the kids how to do interviews and, you know, some of those kinds of things so that when they do get to high school, if they’re going the career way, they’ve had experience with the careers.”

Plus, that type of programming would fall in line with the high school model students would eventually enter. Most students at Creston School matriculate to Flathead High School, in Kalispell. IB programming has long been a cornerstone of the educational experience at Flathead High. And, in recent years, Kalispell Public Schools has homed in on a Personal Competency Based Education approach as well. Part of that is offering students options to explore career and technical education, in addition to more typical academic offerings.

“I mean, obviously we’re not gonna move forward without the state blessing of accreditation,” Peterson said. “You know, so, it’s really a trial. The key piece to all of this is that we want to meet the needs of Creston folks.”

Still, she described excitement at the prospect. So did Sarah Motley, a parent of a Creston School sixth grader and office assistant at the school.

Motley discovered Creston School mostly by accident. When she worked at Logan Health years ago, she would take her three children to her mother-in-law’s house for childcare. Her mother-in-law, a Creston resident, lived across the street from the school. Sending her own children there made Motley’s drop-off and pickup situation easier.

But as her three children — now a first grader, fourth grader and sixth grader — have grown up in Creston School, Motley and her family have grown in their love of the small school’s offerings and teachers, too. Should Creston School achieve accreditation and begin offering seventh and eighth grade classes, Motley said she would keep her daughter there next year.

“It’s hard at grades six, seven, eight — it’s just such a pivotal time in your life,” she said. “And to move schools in the middle of finding yourself and you’re going through all these changes … it’s hard enough to just live your life. So, the less change, the more stability that you can give them, I want to give my daughter.”

She points to her daughter maintaining the same friend group, making transportation to and from school easier on her family, and her love of the small school feel as benefits of a potential option to stay at Creston School.

Peterson didn’t offer specifics as to when the school will have a definitive answer on the accreditation question. That choice will have to go through the state’s superintendent of public instruction and the Board of Public Education, per the Administrative Rules of Montana. It’s a process Peterson said she and the board are actively working through. She’s hopeful it will come to fruition.

“The potential in Creston is very precious,” she said.

[email protected]