'Boulder Creek Academy Inspires Success'

[Ursus]

Note the copyright at the end of the article. Does Lon own this publishing enterprise as well?

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RuralNorthwest.com — Boundary News
Boulder Creek Academy Inspires Success
Posted: Jan 29, 2009  19:45
By: Kathryn Star Heart
     

Boulder Creek Academy director Paul Johnson (back row) with teacher Claude Bisson ,who took a group of BCA students to Washington D.C. for the inauguration.

Housed on stunning grounds eight miles from downtown Bonners Ferry, Boulder Creek Academy is re-establishing itself as one of the premier therapeutic boarding schools in the United States.

The 180-acre property purchased approximately 30 years ago has gone through several reincarnations. Originally named Academy of the Rockies, it changed to Rocky Mountain Academy before it was renamed Boulder Creek Academy in 2005. Founded in 1994, BCA is a part of Universal Health Services Corporation, a publicly-held, Fortune 500 Company.

School director Paul Johnson, who came to BCA as an outdoor recreation specialist 15 years ago, has seen many positive changes since the school re-opened four years ago. He said the current program is much more clinically-focused and includes a flexible-level system where students earn privileges and activities based on behavior, attitude and performance.

"Many of our students have significant learning issues or clinical issues in their past that have contributed to their making poor choices," said Johnson. "These students have not been successful in their former schools, but at BCA they are making progress and finding value within themselves."

He stressed that the goal of the program is for students to leave BCA with more choices than when they enrolled and are equipped with tools needed to advocate for themselves.

"Our hope is that students leave here ready to work or go to college, have rebuilt their relationships with their families and can make good choices for themselves as they grow older," Johnson said.

An important part of the BCA philosophy is to create a sense of normalcy so BCA feels like a school and not a treatment center.

"We are more than a traditional boarding school," he added. "You can call this an emotional growth school or a therapeutic boarding school. When parents have exhausted all the available resources near their home, they contact us because of our amazing resources and tremendous adult support."

Currently, BCA employs 86 faculty and staff members who work with students in various capacities. About two-thirds of its employees live in Boundary County.

Instead of "rules," Johnson said BCA is based on "agreements" because the students agree to be there and participate in the program. He emphasized that BCA is not a lock-down facility. Students are allowed weekly phone calls to their families, visits from their parents every two or three months, have home visits and can take parent-child adventure education trips together.

The typical length of stay at the private institution where parents pay monthly tuition is 18 months. Students primarily live in dorms or young adult apartments monitored by night staff.

"No staff member lives on-campus," Johnson said. "We have very healthy boundaries between staff and students."

The facility houses an art studio with pottery wheels and a kiln, a state-of-the-art computer tech lab, two libraries, two science labs, a greenhouse and an organic garden. Students eat together in a large, log home-style dining room. Plans are being made to convert the lodge, which formerly housed classrooms, into a recreation center.

Johnson emphasized that students who attend BCA receive an excellent educational experience. With an average of six to eight students per class, teachers can focus on helping students in a productive, individualized manner.

A certified reading specialist assesses students with reading difficulties and teaches skills that have allowed some to increase their reading levels during their stay. Tutors are also available for more one-on-one help.

"Our students have earned their diploma," said Johnson. "We are a fully accredited school, and our teachers hold very high academic standards for our students."

Service to the community is also a vital aspect of BCA's program.

"We look for opportunities to participate in," Johnson said. "Our students do community service at the Restorium, Community Kitchen and assist in elementary schools. They helped build two houses for Habitat for Humanity and have completed several community art projects, such as the 'Welcome' mural painted on the back of the Boundary County Museum."

Shawnale Wilson, Admissions Director, said students have built nesting boxes for the Wildlife Sanctuary, put up holiday lights and decorated Christmas trees in downtown Bonners Ferry. Many volunteer weekly at the Sandpoint Animal Shelter and also participate in activities like skiing, horseback riding and dog sledding expeditions.

Additionally, BCA offers an Adventure Education program such as attending the Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Ore., participating in the Presidential Classroom in Washington D.C. and a paleontology science trip. It also offers parent-child trips which are accompanied by an adventure education staff and a therapist.

"We are always trying to enhance our programs," said Wilson.

Six BCA students attended the Presidential Inauguration in Washington, D.C. through the Presidential Scholars program.

"Success looks different for each student," said Johnson. "We don't want to label kids with diagnoses. We want to give them tools to proceed and succeed in their lives. When students leave BCA, they will lead far richer, far healthier, far more successful lives than they had previously. In many cases, they create the deepest relationships they've experienced in their lives and they take those with them."


Copyright © 1999-2009, by Woodbury Reports, Inc.

[Anonymous]

Well written release.   Usually the PR put out by these groups does not pass the laugh test.      It seems that the school has changed its trajectory: significant learning disorders, one-on-one tutors, after parents have exhausted local options ...  I am impressed.   In my mind, some teenagers do need to be removed from a toxic home environment and DSS is not a good option.   If the PR is valid [albeit, unlikely] then BCA may be an okay choice.  If I had the funds or the time I would enjoy touring the new facility.

[Ursus]

Well written release.   Usually the PR put out by these groups does not pass the laugh test.      It seems that the school has changed its trajectory: significant learning disorders, one-on-one tutors, after parents have exhausted local options ...  I am impressed.   In my mind, some teenagers do need to be removed from a toxic home environment and DSS is not a good option.   If the PR is valid [albeit, unlikely] then BCA may be an okay choice.  If I had the funds or the time I would enjoy touring the new facility.

Well... goes to show, doesn't it, just how well these places can sell themselves, eh?

Here are some facts, right off the bat, that may be less than obvious to the unwary reader: BCA is an offspring of the CEDU family of programs. In this case, quite literally, since the property on which it sprung up used to be home to none other than Rocky Mountain Academy, one of the very first CEDU programs. Lon Woodbury (of "Parent Choice"-friendly Struggling Teens and Woodbury Reports) used to be Admissions Director, if I am not mistaken, of RMA. Note the copyright holder of this news article: Woodbury Reports. This is a highly slanted piece.

Here's some testimony, not necessarily the best that's out there, but material that I was able to scrounge up on short notice:

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=25544&p=311325#p311325

Rocky Mountain Academy merged with Boulder Creek Academy. They operate on what I'm told is the "Cow Creek Campus" in Bonner's Ferry under the BCA name. Ascent and Northwest Academy also still operating as far as I know. Many more, I'm sure...

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=23397&p=311385#p311385

um, the only people I knew that managed to avoid work assignments the entire time they were there were the people that kissed the staff's ass, broke, and snitched on everyone left and right...

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=23397&p=312275#p312275

I was a student at BCA for 2 years. I had to graduate the program to leave, and so i had to b.s. my way through it. I hated that place, and the vast majority of the school today would agree. December 19, 2007 was the day i escaped. That place is a scam. They manipulate kids in to believing that they would be a failure in life if you weren't there. I had a quack therapist named Linda Daggy, who along with Teresa Tompkins, is a huge manipulator and has fake all written over her face.  I still keep in contact with my friends that survived on facebook. I've had my fair share of work assginments and programs, for the most ridiculous reasons as well. Lets hope that school gets shut down for the good of all man kind

[try another castle]

As far as I'm concerned, there really is only one good periodical resource that paints an accurate and unbiased picture of the history of the cow creek crackpot schools, and that is the Spokesman Review.

Mainly because it is a legitimate newspaper.

[AuntieEm2]

Gee, they omit the part about how anti-family BCA is.

We are sane, normal, supportive, loving people, and my husband and I have not been allowed anywhere near our niece for almost three years. She's had no home visits or contact of any kind with her own siblings, let alone other family. Apparently, in the eyes of BCA and her parents, dozens of family members on both sides of the family, including her godparents, are all toxic low-lifes who are a danger to the young lady--which is, of course, ridiculous. Caring family members have been intimidated into "agreeing" with the program, because if they don't, they aren't even allowed to send the girl a birthday card (as happened to my husband and I).

The real toxic low-lifes are the staff at the program who have worked tirelessly for years to divide this girl from her family, and divide family members from each other. Our niece, once an A and B student, is treated like a candidate for the Special Olympics. It's appalling.

Auntie Em

[try another castle]

Gee, they omit the part about how anti-family BCA is.

We are sane, normal, supportive, loving people, and my husband and I have not been allowed anywhere near our niece for almost three years. She's had no home visits or contact of any kind with her own siblings, let alone other family. Apparently, in the eyes of BCA and her parents, dozens of family members on both sides of the family, including her godparents, are all toxic low-lifes who are a danger to the young lady--which is, of course, ridiculous. Caring family members have been intimidated into "agreeing" with the program, because if they don't, they aren't even allowed to send the girl a birthday card (as happened to my husband and I).

The toxic low-lifes are the staff at the program who have worked tirelessly for years to divide this girl from her family, and divide family members from each other. Our niece, once an A and B student is treated like a candidate for the Special Olympics. It's appalling.

Auntie Em

WTF? She's been there for three years? Doesn't their own brochure say that the program is less than 2? What is their reasoning for sucking more money out of her parents? "She's not growing?"

RMA would demote people down peer groups back in my time, normally it was a quarter of a year per peer group dropped (unless the two above you merged, then it was one.) I dont know how they rig that now with their fucktarded teams and all.

[Anonymous]

This is coming from a former student at BCA.
You have to remember the fact that this is coming from what the staff are telling the newspaper, not the students. Coming from a first hand source, the Therapy at BCA is quite frankly a joke. The daily groups are generally highly chaotic, with very little getting accomplished in them. From what I’ve seen, workshops have little to no effect on students and are completely forgettable. For daily encounters, the school basically teaches students to come to staff if they have a problem and does nothing to prepare students for “real life.” A student’s success in the eyes of staff generally seems to be based on how much they suck up, and has very little to do with actually following rules or consistently getting everything required done.

The academics are also a joke. From a purely objective standpoint, the school offers only the core courses one needs to graduate high school.  In the opinion of myself and all my friends from there, most of the courses are very lacking, with only one or two teachers really doing a good job covering the material presented. Half of the time teachers are too busy searching for kids ditching class to actually teach, and the other half they’re busy catering to the slowest learner in the class. Boulder Creek academics are not for any child is who is intelligent.
Of course Johnson and his gang are going to say that it's going well. I talk to some of the people that have just left to come back to their home and they say that nothing has changed. So from a primary, non-manipulative source, BCA is still not a great place for kids.

[Ursus]

Sounds like they are really ramping up the ?18 crowd. Maybe some students, currently anticipating graduation, will be deemed in need of more "tutelage."

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Monday, March 16
   
Visit Reports
Posted: Mar 16, 2009

BOULDER CREEK ACADEMY

Bonners Ferry, ID
Shawnale Wilson
Admissions Director
877-348-0848
http://www.bouldercreekacademy.net

Visit by Loi Eberle on January 22

Recently I visited Boulder Creek Academy (BCA), in Bonners Ferry, ID. Now owned by Universal Health Services, Inc., this Therapeutic Boarding School accepts 13-18 year olds with learning differences and behavioral or emotional problems that have hindered their academic performance. I observed that this school has grown and changed, still retaining its original vision. Though planning began last year, some changes have only become apparent in the last few weeks.

Boulder Creek Academy has moved its academic program to the Emerson building on the former Rocky Mountain Academy (RMA) campus located at the East end of the property. BCA therapeutic staff and activities are largely located on the West end of the property, centered in Quixote Lodge, which also houses the study hall computer lab, a game room and eventually a sewing room. Some elective classes take place on the West end of campus. Students walk between the two ends of campus on a new path near the road. Not only providing safety from traffic, the new path offers an unimpeded view of students while they walk between the boys' and girls' dorms.

Near Quixote lodge is the music barn, where I watched a small group of students work with their music teacher to hone their performance skills with electric guitars, drums and singing. They also were learning to negotiate performance issues with each other. Downstairs is a workout room with a large number of workout stations. The adjacent building that once housed the BCA dining room remains set up for meal preparation, used now by culinary arts students. Also used for creative activity, student art, pottery wheels and art materials adorn the room where their licensed art therapist facilitates regular Art Studio times. The woodshop, greenhouse, gardens and farm are also on the West end of campus.

At the other end of campus, the Emerson building buzzes with academic classes. I spent time in an American Lit class where I watched a 'battle of the poets.' One student was passionately reading one American poet out loud to another student who was enthusiastically reading out loud a poet expressing the opposite view. It was entertaining and exciting to watch the class participation and fervor.

Nearby in the comp TA class, students were learning how to become computer technicians, with the opportunity to test for certification. I talked with one of the students in the class who described the computer simulations they worked on to learn computer networking. I saw classrooms where Spanish, French and German were taught by teachers who also used the Rosetta Stone instructional materials. To my surprise, I saw where three different lab classes were offered in Chemistry, Biology and Physical Science, each one offering a full lab credit.

In some of the rooms students' academic skills were being assessed. Shawnale explained that upon enrollment students are in the Voyageur phase a minimum of 3 weeks, a change from the earlier requirement of six months. This programming is offered from 8am - 3pm each day for the purpose of creating a healthy transition into a new environment, assessing each student's academic abilities and teaching students to work with the farm animals. The treatment team determines when a student has shown adequate respect, safety and accountability, and is ready for the challenges of the classroom setting so that he or she can move to the next phase. Advancement is based on individual progress rather than that of the peer group, as had once been the policy.

Shawnale Wilson, Boulder Creek Academy Admissions Director, and I walked across campus and met a student and instructor, both carrying shovels. After introductions, the student answered questions in a pleasant and respectful manner, even when Shawnale asked them to do a rather challenging task: shovel a path in the frozen snow that blocked the entrance to one of the buildings. The student seemed quite willing, with no evidence of "attitude."

Later, Shawnale explained BCA now attempts one-on-one campus interventions when a student's behavior becomes so disruptive they cannot be allowed to participate in normal student activity. Instead of sending them to a wilderness program, they assign the student to complete a project, working at all times along side a staff member.

Although the additional staff time may be billed to the family, in many cases it can prevent needing to send the child to a therapeutic wilderness program. It also provides a more personalized approach to teaching skills that are needed to maintain safe and responsible behavior on campus.

Later we saw the student and instructor again, this time sitting in front of a lovely fire they had built in the fireplace of the [former RMA] dining hall. The student's performance, attitude and cooperation had won him permission to return to regular student activity the next day. The sun had set and wonderful smells of dinner wafted through the lounge and dining room combined with flickering firelight; the room felt warm and cozy. In compliance with Idaho law, all 18 year old Boulder Creek Academy students live in separate housing in the dorm. Appropriate 18 year old students are allowed to live in on-campus student apartments. The apartment I visited, a short walk from the dining hall, could house up to 6 young women. One student showed me each of the three bedrooms where 3 young women currently lived somewhat independently, cooking their own meals and doing their own laundry. She explained how happy she was to be there.

Earlier I had seen her working on her laptop and asked why she wasn't taking part in class. I learned that she was a HS graduate and was taking online classes through North Idaho College (NIC). By having the wireless internet accessible only in supervised classrooms, BCA is able to monitor internet activity.

Overall, I was impressed with the feeling of participation and enthusiasm I saw among BCA students. My student/client talked excitedly about his various expeditions, especially his first time dog sledding. In addition to hearing about snowboarding, I saw photos of BCA students kayaking in Alaska, hiking in Glacier Park, and receiving equine training in the nearby indoor/outdoor arena. The students appear to be having fun and engaging in academics.

Having visited BCA many times, I was surprised at how the recent changes have created even a more enthusiastic feeling on campus among staff and students. I also realize the challenges sometimes encountered by students at this school are consistent with learning and developmental issues and social skills that are not well developed. BCA staff appears well suited to help students academically and emotionally to overcome their dysfunctional coping mechanisms and develop more effective ones. Director Paul Johnson expresses a willingness to continue developing and expanding their approach, rather than simply relying on the progress they have made in the past.



Copyright © 2009, Woodbury Reports, Inc.