IDEA Public Schools Permian Basin welcomed its students back Thursday.
IDEA Yukon College Preparatory will offer ninth grade for the first time this year and serve roughly 1,200 students as the Class of 2028 works to fulfill IDEA’s mission of going to and through college.
IDEA Yukon opened its doors in 2021 with kindergarten through second grade and sixth grade and will continue to add a grade level each year until it is fully scaled. Students in grades sixth through ninth will have the opportunity to participate in competitive sports including basketball, flag football, volleyball, baseball and more.
Stephanie Eisenmenger, IDEA Yukon College Prep principal, said the first two days — Thursday and Friday — are Culture Camp.
“In order to ensure that learning happens at the highest level, we have to make sure that kids know our campus’s expectations and norms. Across our entire campus, we have shared goals and shared norms and so during these two days, they are going to spend practicing our procedures and of the different norms that we have across our campus so that they are ready to jump into content without any hiccups because we know that if it’s running smoothly, kids can focus on learning and that’s what’s most important,” Eisenmenger added.
One of the biggest pieces of the IDEA mission across the district is to get students to and through college.
“Having a high school means that we’re fulfilling that mission to get all kids to and through college because they’ve got to finish high school first. We’re really excited to have kids starting their AP journey. They’re starting some of their more advanced classes, starting to plan out what their life is going to look like in just a few short years,” Eisenmenger said.
AP stands for Advanced Placement.
“IDEA believes in college for all and AP for all, which means that they’re taking advanced placement courses at our campus. There are lots of other schools that do things like dual enrollment, but our campus does AP for all because we see it translate into colleges more widespread,” Eisenmenger added.
Staff retention at IDEA is “pretty strong,” she said. Because they added an entire new grade level, they have a good number of new teachers, as well.
“We expanded our SPED (special education) programming so that we can offer services to kids who are coming into our campus. Then we’re also expanding … to ninth grade and that brings on teachers as well. We have about 15 new teachers this school year,” Eisenmenger said.
Elmer Bolalin, a geometry and algebra I teacher, was doing a team building exercise in his ninth-grade classroom Thursday. This is Bolalin’s fourth year at IDEA Yukon.
“I’m super excited to teach (at) IDEA … because I share their mission and vision of helping students go to college, and these ninth graders … they were my sixth graders four years ago. I’m really excited to see them graduating and then choosing their college and helping them out with their college applications. … Seeing how the growth that they’ve had for the past four years is really amazing,” Bolalin said.
He added that he’s excited to teach the students higher math. Most of his students are coming back to IDEA and he has 130 kids in ninth grade.
“I told them earlier that I will provide quality education, like making sure that they learn every single day in my class for geometry and if they don’t understand,” he’ll teach them after school or during lunch, Bolalin said.
He added that he believes students will get a quality education at IDEA and be ready for college and he will support them through encouraging words and celebrating successes.
“When we first started … when they were in sixth grade, they were still adjusting to the culture and system of the school so there were some bumps along the way that we had to iron out … so that they would be successful in class. … There’s a big change in their behavior since” then since it is their fourth year and they have adjusted to the system, the expectations — in terms of academics and behavior — and they have matured, Bolalin said.
“I’m just super happy with the IDEA Public School, and especially with IDEA Yukon. I like how we are changing students’ lives and families in the Permian Basin, and how we are impacting their academic performance. That’s what really drives me also and also their passion of every single student should go to college. That’s what really gives me the passion to teach you every single day; to wake up every single day and prepare my lesson plan to the best it can be, so that I can provide quality education for my students. That’s what drives me every single day to teach these students,” he added.
Ninth grader Kelsy Jarvis has been at IDEA since it opened and is in the founding class of freshmen.
Jarvis said the experience has been good and fun. She added that since she is part of the founding class there is no one above them and they get to try out certain things before anyone else.
She also likes the fact that she’ll be able to tell kids in the grades coming up about how things are going to be.
At the same time, Jarvis is kind of nervous because these are going to be new classes for her.
She attended Buice Elementary before coming to IDEA.
Jarvis added that she’s most excited to have PE classes this year.
“It’s going to be fun having PE and getting that time to get my (energy out),” she said.
