Swan River School to offer more options for students

Students returned to class at Bigfork schools Tuesday, and Swan River School principal Marc Bunker is excited for the new year.

Swan River school is trying some new things, working with ACES after school program, trying to reach more kids who need help and offering more electives for middle school students.

Swan River School is one of a few rural schools that falls under the 21st Century grant that funds ACES.

In the past, Swan River school has worked with ACES by shuttling students to the location in Bigfork, but this year students will be able to participate in an after-school program without ever leaving campus, and will work with Swan River faculty. Bunker is in the process of hiring two people to help run the program.

The program will start immediately after school and last until about 6 p.m. It will have a structure starting with a snack and a break before some academics and an opportunity to work on homework. Bunker said one of the most common questions they get during registration was about an after-school program.

“We're excited to say yes, absolutely,” he said. “I expect we'll see a lot of participation in that.”

Swan River brought on two new faculty members, Denise Douglas for fourth grade and Erin Rohde as the new Title teacher.

Title is a federally funded program designed to help students who are struggling, but don’t qualify for special education. The previous title teacher at Swan River retired last year, and Bunker said he’s excited to work with Rohde and hopefully serve more students.

In the past the title teacher would work with about 10 students, and give them one-on-one assistance. “That was very effective,” Bunker said. “But what we’re finding here is there are more than 10 students that need help.”

The goal is to work with small groups, to provide students with the extra instruction needed to help them succeed.

“We're going to try and help more students in more grades,,” Bunker said.

The other exciting change Bunker said, is the faculty has worked together and now can offer more electives for students in grades six through eight.

Bunker said students in that age range are still developing talents and interests. “We really want to expose them to some of these areas and let them choose,” he said. He thinks it gives them something to build on when they get into high school.

“We’ve crafted, with the help of the teachers, a very innovative middle school schedule,” he said.

Students will be able to choose from more electives inducing two art classes, band, choir, French, outdoors, mentoring and literature.

“It’s really neat,” Bunker said. “In past years there’s really only been a choice between basically two classes.”

Rather than have students pick a class that they take every day, all year, they will have options to choose a class they take Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and another class they take Tuesday and Thursday. Seventh and eighth graders will get to fill two class periods that way, and sixth graders will get one.

One of the advantages to Swan River being a smaller school, Bunker said, is at the end of last year he was able to go around and interview the middle school students about the electives they’d like to take.

“We’re looking at a great year,” Bunker said.