Private, home schools grew faster than county's public schools in past decade

By GAIL SCHONTZLER Chronicle Staff Writer

Shaunna Kersten's friends sometimes wonder why she pays good money to enroll her two children in a private elementary school.

"My friends say, 'You're nuts -- Why are you spending this money? ... (Public) schools in Bozeman are so good,'" Kersten said.

Kersten, a nurse practitioner, figures it's worth it to send her kids to the Learning Circle Montessori School, where tuition runs $5,310 a year per child.

With her and her husband both working full time, she said she feels better knowing her son and daughter get lots of personal attention, have fun learning and won't face as much rough stuff and bad language on the playground.

"It helps me that they're in an environment I trust totally," she said. "The children love to go to school."

In the past decade, a growing number of Gallatin County parents have been making similar choices. The number of children in private schools and home schools has grown faster than public school enrollment.

One in 10 students in Gallatin County attended either private or home school last year, based on figures compiled by the county superintendent of schools office.

The share of kids getting private or home schooling has gradually increased, from 8.6 percent of all students in 1993 to 10.5 percent last school year.

That parallels a national trend. According to U.S. Census figures, private school enrollment grew from 12.7 percent of all students in 1990 to 13.5 percent in 2000.

In Gallatin County in the past decade:

€ Public school enrollment has increased by almost 10 percent (from 8,822 to 9,686 students).

€ Private school enrollment has grown faster, by 15 percent (from 672 to 770).

€ Home schools have outpaced all other options, growing by 120 percent (from 168 students to 372).

Despite the growth trend over the decade, the combined total of private and home-school students last year was down from the previous four years. The peak came two years ago, with 1,294 students.

Still, private schools in Bozeman are betting big bucks that they're going to keep growing.

God in the classroom

The roar of a skid-loader filled the air at Heritage Christian School on Wednesday as it unloaded gravel for the foundation of a new gym and classroom building -- the first phase in a $1 million expansion.

Heritage Christian, founded in 1982, already has 140 kindergarten through eighth-grade students at its Durston Road school. It will add ninth grade this fall and aims to have all high school grades in the next four or five years, said Frank Jara, administrator.

Across town, siding was going up on the new, two-story Petra Academy building, which has an estimated value of $538,000, including office space, and stands next door to Grace Bible Church on South 19th Avenue.

Eight-year-old Petra, which offers a Christian and classical education, expects its enrollment of 24 students will roughly double this fall, said board member Greg Gianforte.

Christian schools have by far the largest enrollments among private schools in Gallatin County. That suggests the most common reason local parents choose private education is the desire to have their children learn about God in the classroom.

Parents often choose secular private schools, administrators said, because they offer smaller student-teacher ratios, more personal attention and safe environments.

Many parents moving to Bozeman come from the East or West coasts, where white flight has hurt public schools, and well-educated parents, who worry about their children getting into better colleges, tend to assume that private schools are superior.

Mount Ellis Academy, the Seventh-day Adventist boarding school east of Bozeman, is the oldest local private school, founded in 1902. Last year it had 104 elementary and high school students.

Manhattan Christian, founded in 1907 by Dutch immigrant farmers, had 340 students, making it the county's largest private school and accounting for nearly half the private school enrollment.

"Parents have a sense the world is becoming more and more dangerous to teenagers," said Darren Wilkins, Mount Ellis principal. "There are so many land mines. Parents are looking for a safe, wholesome place to send their kids, a smaller environment where they don't get lost in the crowd."

"The drugs, the crime, the violence, the overcrowdedness" of public schools are reasons parent choose religious schools, said Heritage Christian's Jara.

Public schools have good teachers, Jara said, but "in a Christian school, everything revolves around the world of God -- history is His story."

"Christian parents like to have a Christian environment in which to educate their children, where the morals, ethics and world view that will be taught in the classroom reinforce and matches what's taught at home," said Gianforte, who has four children at Petra.

"America," he added, "is all about choices."

Public schools: friends, not foes

Bozeman's elementary schools have been struggling to maintain all their programs in spite of budget cuts, and every child who doesn't show up represents the loss of a couple thousand dollars in state aid.

In spite of that, public schools have been cooperative, not competitive, according to private school principals.

Nancy Characklis, founder of the Learning Circle school, said Bozeman's curriculum director is extremely helpful, the middle school welcomes her graduating fifth-graders, the county superintendent is supportive, and whenever she calls the county's special education services for help, they come right over.

"It doesn't feel to me we're adversaries," Characklis said. "We're all working together for children."

Montessori schools, which emphasize giving children freedom to explore their own interests and hands-on learning, have proven popular. There are at least four private schools now operating in this area, plus the Cottonwood rural public school, which adopted a Montessori format.

"I think we have a wonderful relationship with the public schools," said Tim McWilliams, headmaster of the secular, college-prep Headwaters Academy.

Students will often be referred from public schools to his school, he said, if they're high academic achievers who are a little bored in school.

"We certainly try to cooperate," said Bob Gutzman, assistant superintendent for the Bozeman School District. "I don't see it as a competitive market. It's good for us to have other options in the community. It's not a one-size-fits-all world."

Bozeman schools offer a high-quality education, Gutzman said, and they also offer many options that private schools usually don't.

Bozeman High, for example, has an array of college-level advanced placement classes, a choice of three foreign languages plus Latin, a winning speech and debate team, several sports teams and special education classes for kids with mild to severe handicaps.

"I truly believe the strength of our nation is the public schools," Gutzman said. "There's diversity. We educate everyone. ... It's one of the fundamental benefits of being a citizen of the United States. Every fall we open our doors and accept every student who walks in."

One thing Gutzman doesn't say -- but some public-school advocates around the nation do -- is that private schools may skim off the better students, and they don't have to deal with difficult students.

Headwaters Academy, for example, specifies that it wants students who are academically motivated and won't accept students who have behavior or addiction problems.

Private schools also aren't cheap. Annual tuition for one child ranges from $3,200 at Heritage Christian elementary ($3,400 for high school) to $3,400 at Petra Academy, $4,175 at Manhattan Christian, $5,000 at the secular Carden School, and about $6,000 for non-boarding students at Mount Ellis Academy. At the high end is Headwaters Academy, which charges $7,350 per middle school student and $7,850 for 10th grade and up.

Private school principals are quick to say, however, that most offer scholarships or discounts to families enrolling more than one child.

Characklis said her Montessori school isn't elitist. It has no entrance tests and accepts children with language difficulties or other problems. The school gives out about $15,000 a year in partial scholarships, she said.

A less expensive alternative is home schooling.

Jeanne Johnson, who lives near Gallatin Gateway, is one of the founders of Gallatin Valley Home Educators. She said home schooling is far more widely accepted today.

"Things have changed dramatically since I started in 1983," Johnson said.

The need for a local home-school support group has decreased as home-school curriculum have become easily available, and the Internet has created many educational opportunities.

Her two oldest home-schooled children have gone on to graduate from James Madison University in Virginia and St. Olaf College in Minnesota, her third is at Whitworth College in Spokane, Wash., and she's now home-schooling her 9-year-old.

"I know it works," she said. "It worked for me."

Not all private schools have worked.

Several have come and gone in the last decade, according to the county superintendent's figures. The Children's House, Willson Science School and Hall School have all disappeared.

Characklis, who started the first local Montessori school in 1980, said one key to survival is having well-educated, well-trained teachers. Another key, she said, is that she has stayed involved while others have suffered from turnover at the top.

Headwaters' enrollment dropped amid turmoil and the departure of its previous headmaster, a topic that current headmaster McWilliams won't discuss. He stressed that virtually all of last year's teaching staff is returning this fall.

Though private schools don't all survive, their overall numbers have increased. There were seven private elementary and high schools a decade ago and last year there were at least 11, not counting the Bootstrap Ranch, which mainly serves kids from outside this area.

Private school principals said they expects private education to keep growing in Gallatin County.

"We fill a niche," Characklis said. "I really believe this is a wonderful way to educate children."

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