EXPERT ADVICE FROM A LICENSED EDUCATIONAL CONSULTANT like this:
http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?to ... tart=20&29Excerpts:
Education consultant Lon Woodbury sends a lot of kids to Elk Mountain - the type who ``when in a safe environment, the decent kid comes out.'' He said that private behavioral schools have to launch aggressive public relations campaigns to overcome the fear factor in the community. ``People assume they're criminals. Most of these kids aren't,'' Woodbury said.
Just months after vowing not to increase their numbers at Elk Mountain Academy, owners Carl and Loretta Olding have asked the county to allow the school to house up to 12 more students at their woodsy campus below Scotchman's Peak.
These are not dangerous kids, the Oldings and their staff insist - despite the neighborhood rumors of gun thieves and worse. ``We don't get crazies here,'' said Mark Rocha, a youth minister and Elk Mountain employee. ``We're talking about youth. We're not talking about a nuclear reactor here.''
``Until they learn how to abide by the laws, they shouldn't have more kids there,'' said Jeannie Roach, one of a coalition of neighbors near Elk Mountain.
Neighbors have a running list of violations at Elk Mountain: building dormitories without the county's blessing or knowledge, exceeding its licensed capacity, housing students in incomplete buildings without proper safety inspections, failing to test water and even a poaching incident.
Most of the problems have been resolved, but any trust between neighbors and the Oldings has vanished. And some neighbors still grumble about the roar of Elk Mountain's dirt bikes in their peaceful outback.
``Who's kidding who?'' said Carl Olding in reference to one vocal opponent to the bikes. ``We'll never be buddies.''
Elk Mountain recently was licensed by the state as a children's treatment facility, which allows for more than 12 students. But the license still is on provisional status. The school also persuaded the county to issue a conditional use permit that allows up to 25 students for two years, when the permit will be reviewed. But that permit didn't include the academy's Base Camp program, which houses as many as 12 additional students for six to nine weeks in an unfinished cabin on the heavily treed mountainside above the main
campus.
It's those students that the school still needs permission to house. Two or three teens were up there this summer, cooking up Campbell's soup for dinner and sleeping on bunkbeds without mattresses.
``They've flaunted the fact that they don't have to abide by the rules,'' Roach said of Elk Mountain. ``If they get away with it, we'll wind up with 100 little schools around here that get away with breaking the rules.''
Olding started planning Elk Mountain Academy while working for less than $8 an hour as a counselor at Eagle Mountain Outpost. He and his wife started their family-based group home in Clark Fork in 1993.
Their group home was allowed under Bonner County's zoning laws only after the county's legal counsel agreed that attention deficit disorder qualified as a disability. Olding claimed that all of his students had the condition.
Northwoods has yet to apply for a permit from Bonner County to operate a school in the Sagle area. It is in the process of applying for a foster care license, which allows up to six unrelated children in a home. Northwoods isn't the only facility expanding. Elk Mountain is moving part of its program across the border.
``To be at Elk Mountain is to be in a bubble,'' Olding said. ``How do you get loaded at Elk Mountain? If anyone smarts off in class, they're out picking rocks immediately. They live in this surreal world where there is no temptation.''
So Elk Mountain has spawned Elk Creek, 86 acres the Oldings just bought near Heron, Mont., where they plan to build another home for boys who progress to their second year at the academy. Those students will go to public school in Noxon, Mont.
The Oldings already have four students enrolled in Noxon, but for now the teens still live at the academy north of Clark Fork.
Noxon High Principal Bob Goodrich has had students from other group home settings. Northwest Montana seems to be a magnet for the behavioral school industry, he said.
One well-known school is the boot-camp style Spring Creek Lodge near Thompson Falls, which is expected to soon have more students than the entire Noxon School District. Those students never leave the facility.
``It's one of the enterprises of Sanders County that's somewhat lucrative,'' Goodrich noted.
Elk Mountain's move to Montana was partially motivated by pressure from neighbors. Montana has fewer restrictions on group homes and private schools.
``We get a lot of, `Well, we'll just move to Montana,''' said Puett, the Idaho state licensing specialist.
In Montana, Olding sees an opportunity to offer more services to students who aren't ready to leave the support system that Elk Mountain offers. He also has 86 acres to play with - plenty of room for a dirt bike track that won't bother anybody, he said.
``No matter what happens,'' Olding said, ``I'm going to continue to do this work, whether it's in Montana or Idaho.''
