BLACKFOOT — It’s been more than three years since the Blackfoot Charter School consolidated its two former campuses into one location, and Craig Gerard said the school is thriving because of it.

“Just having everyone on one campus has done so much for our school culture; it has brought everyone together,” said Gerard, the school’s executive director. “It’s been amazing to see. We used to have a really big division between the two campuses. Everyone is together now, and we can approach hurdles as a group.”

Blackfoot Charter School opened its doors in 2000, serving students K-2, quickly expanding to add third grade students. Eventually, they would bring the school up to serving K-5 and set their sights on a middle school. When they started the middle school in 2016, it was a second campus they opened to serve the needs of sixth through eighth grades.

Gerard joined the school in 2017 and immediately saw the need to combine the operations on Hunters Loop and Parkway Drive in Blackfoot.

“There were a lot of issues,” he said. “I was especially concerned about student safety.”

It was in 2020 that he pitched the idea of building a new facility to his board. He found a group, Building Hope, a nonprofit that works to help charter schools with organizing facility development and growth.

But then COVID-19 stalled things. It wasn’t until 2022 that things got back on track. The school got the funding it needed, and Building Hope helped to put everything else in place.

“They walked us through the process of getting bonding and finding a contractor,” Gerard said. “They oversaw the project management for us. They really are doing some great things for the charter school world.”

They opened their new 53,000-square-foot school in January of 2023.

“It was huge,” Gerard said of moving into the new facility. “We added a kitchen and we are able to provide our students with lunches now. We make between 45,000 and 50,000 lunches a year.”

Previously, the school was getting its lunches through the Blackfoot School District. Gerard said his school has also been able to add a transportation department, their own buses and they run as many as 10 routes.

Blackfoot Charter School has been able to add competitive sports to its physical education program. The school currently competes with several other Eastern Idaho charter schools in boys and girls basketball, track and field and co-ed volleyball.

Gerard said the single campus has even allowed them to adjust the way they approach academics.

“We take a look at each student and see what their individual needs are and we have our staff set up to take care of whatever the student needs individually,” he said. “Our K-3 literacy has really started to spike. Our kindergarten is sitting at 85% proficiency, which is really high.”

But the real proof things are going better is in the numbers. When the project started, the school was hovering around 350 students. Going into next year, they will be right at 500 students. Gerard said they are continuing to make adjustments that will allow room for more.

“We can still probably grow by another 30 to 50 students this year and about that same amount the following year until we hit our ideal target of 600 students,” he said.

For more information on Blackfoot Charter School see their website, bcclc.com.