Schools

Cascade Education

Growing up in Cascade

Cascade takes the education of their youth very seriously, and as a result students in the local school districts consistently exceed national testing averages. Five public school districts serve the region with one preschool, one elementary school, one middle school, one high school, one alternative high school and one school serving kindergarten through 12th grade. All schools are dedicated to providing their patrons with an enjoyable and enriching educational experience, and the high schools also offer strong athletic programs and extracurricular activities.

In the broadest sense, education is a life-long process that can benefit all aspects of our lives. The region has a great deal to offer, with instruction in many forms of recreation and the opportunity to educate oneself in the intimate knowledge of the land, using the many resources offered by the staff of the National Forests.

The Cascade School District

The mission of Cascade School District is to inspire its students to reach their maximum potential, become lifelong learners, and be contributing, responsible citizens. The district sees education as a partnership between students, parents, educators and the community.

Cascade Elementary School

Serving grades preschool through sixth grade with one classroom per grade level, Cascade Elementary School is a public primary school in Cascade with 155 students. A ratio of one teacher for every 19 students makes both teaching and learning easier.

Cascade Junior/Senior High School

Students in the Cascade area can attend public school at Cascade Junior/Senior High School from grades seventh to twelfth. Over 130 students attend the school with a teacher/student ratio of one teacher for every nine students.

Alazar School

Alzar School is a semester school for highly motivated high school sophomores and juniors. Alzar School challenges students academically and allows students to live alongside peers from across the world at our home campus in Idaho, dive into a new culture during our extended time in Chile, and learn while exploring wild places.

Our Mission is new this year. It states our purpose is to, “Engage every student every day in character development and rigorous education.”

Our School Vision statement declares our teachers and staff will:

•  Engage all students and set standards for excellence that will prepare them to be effective community members.
• Meet as a professional learning community to collaborate with purpose, to develop high–quality learning for all.
• Commit daily to provide opportunities that encompass the whole child through a well- rounded educational curriculum, family engagement, and community and cultural enrichment.

Kevin St. John Superintendent, Cascade School District

In order to advance our shared vision to engage all students and set standards for excellence, we have committed to the following Values:

• Collaborate with one another and our students so that we can achieve our collective goals more effectively.
• Help all students achieve the intended outcomes of the curriculum with perseverance by addressing their individual needs and learning styles.
• Promote a positive school climate by modeling the qualities and characteristics that we hope to instill in our students.
• Engage students with enthusiasm coupled with high expectations.
• Communicate with all stakeholders a consistent message of positivity, purpose and dedication toward the education of our students.
• Involve parents in the education of their children by keeping them informed of student progress and offering suggestions for assisting their students.
• Monitor the results of our individual and collective efforts and use evidence of results to guide our processes of continuous improvement.

The focus of the Cascade school staff this year has been to build community trust and produce academic achievement in terms of results for every student every day.

The staff is excited to see growth in every student and to have new experiences as we advance through the year. The staff has engaged our community in survey work to identify what current family educational needs are. We have done this by holding a town hall meeting and several community forums in an attempt to identify the needs our community has and how we can improve our service for greater student achievement. To this end in January, we adopted new secondary English Language Arts curriculum and a new secondary Math Curriculum for our students. Through this work we were able to assure each is 100% alignment with the Idaho State content standards. Another change we initiated as a result of community engagement is that we have begun a journey of becoming a school that functions as a Professional Learning Community setting aside protected time each week as a staff to meet and collaborate about strategies that can better help our students grow academically and socially as productive citizens.

One realization this year is that this journey we are on as a professional learning community is not to be taken lightly. It has been said that, “The school is the community and the community is the school.” The Cascade school staff has taken this saying to heart, they have committed to better community engagement, better communications among themselves and the families of their students. They are committed to a new outlook on how they make a difference in the lives of children. For me, one of the newest members of this school family this year, I am proud to be called a Cascade Rambler and look forward to finishing this year on our journey to becoming an outstanding rural public school in Idaho.

If you are considering relocating in the West Central Mountain Region, please stop by and visit our school. Ask for me, Jeff Blaser. Let me lead you on a tour of our school and invite you to be a part of our journey in Cascade, where the school is the community and the community is the school.