Creston School Enrolling Students for Seventh and Eighth Grades
The state’s Board of Public Education approved the school’s provisional accreditation, which means Creston falls in line with the Office of Public Instruction’s standards as it begins its first year as a K-8 school, instead of a K-6
By Mariah Thomas
It’s official: Creston will move from being a K-6 school to a K-8 for the 2026-2027 academic year, as the school accepts students for its new seventh and eighth grade classes.
On Friday, it received approval for its provisional accreditation from the state’s Board of Public Education. The designation means the school has demonstrated it meets educational and operating standards from the state’s Office of Public Instruction.
“We’re really excited,” said Cheryl Peterson, the school’s principal. “Everybody here is excited about this transition and it’s good for the community to have this option.”
Creston School first began pursuing the process to tack on seventh and eighth grade options after receiving results from a December survey soliciting the public’s opinions about how the school could better serve Creston residents. Around 60 respondents took the survey. Of those, 45% said they would support adding a junior high program at Creston School. Historically, Creston students have either gone to Kalispell Middle School or east valley neighbor Cayuse Prairie for middle school. Peterson has said both options remain for Creston students. The school’s intention in pursuing a middle school option is simply to offer another choice for its families.
Peterson said a handful of students have already registered for the seventh and eighth grade classes, and the school plans to cap its new middle school programming at 15 students, aiming to keep class sizes small in its inaugural year.
The district will use Project Lead the Way as its middle school curriculum. Project Lead the Way offers instruction that includes activity, project and problem-based learning, which blends both career readiness and STEM topics at the middle school level.
That was something Peterson previously said was a goal for Creston’s middle school programming. The school aims to align with the academic programs students would encounter at the high school level in Kalispell Public Schools. Most Creston students matriculate to Flathead High School. KPS has increasingly embraced personal competency-based education and expanded its internship opportunities in recent years.
While Creston’s schedule for the year is still being finalized, Peterson said she doesn’t plan to have to add new staff to accommodate the additional middle school offerings. She said middle school courses will happen on a block schedule, with students taking different classes each day.
And while students will have their core classes offered — including from Peterson, who will return to the classroom to teach English this year — they’ll also have course options including P.E., journalism, Spanish and leadership, with teachers who already have the credentials necessary to teach those subjects.
“So, I have specialists on staff already and we are utilizing those specialists,” she said.