This week, we are excited to profile Monica White, the extraordinary co-founder of Elevate Academy, a network of year-round 6th-12th grade career technical education charter schools in Idaho.
Monica White had served in a variety of roles in the traditional public school system—teacher, administrator, principal, superintendent—and she wasn’t “super fond” of charter schools. But she grew increasingly dissatisfied with her experiences in the traditional system. Far too many students struggled, especially when “they had to sit in straight rows in hard desks every day.”
So, she and Matt Strong, another frustrated veteran educator, began thinking about creating a different experience for students in Idaho. According to Monica, their initial ideas were “drawn up on a napkin.”
At the core of that collaborative thinking was a deep desire to serve and engage students who were at risk of not graduating from high school. Idaho has historically had one of the lowest four-year graduation rates in the country.
“How could we create a system where kids were working with their hands every day at the center of it?” Monica asked.
From Napkin to New School Fellowship
Monica connected with the J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Family Foundation and Bluum, which provides support and resources for education leaders in Idaho through a fellowship to create innovative school models. With this opportunity and supportive community, Monica and Matt were able to leave their jobs and complete the Idaho New School Fellowship. From that experience, they launched Elevate Academy in Caldwell, Idaho in 2019.
Elevate pairs academics with hands-on career and technical education.
“Typically, a student who struggled or failed in the traditional school got sent to an alternative school. But I wanted to make our school a destination school—somewhere where kids wanted to come, not somewhere they had to come,” Monica said. “When you walk through the halls, we serve at-risk students and they’re choosing to be here, they’re choosing engagement.” Importantly, Monica said, she was seeking to bring to life “education done for a kid, not to a kid.”
The charter school serves grades 6 through 12 and is year-round. All students qualify as “at-risk” by the state of Idaho, which broadly means they may be struggling academically or behaviorally, with attendance or substance use, or they may be homeless.
In launching the first Elevate school, Monica had clearly gotten past her lack of fondness for charter schools.
“In reality, every student needs support no matter where they come from,” she said. “Once I got into the weeds, I learned a lot of the notions that I had were completely false. There are a lot of misconceptions. Once you get in and start working with the people, you can see the reality.”
Expanding Elevate
In the nearly six years since the first school opened its doors in Caldwell, Elevate Academy has rapidly grown. (Jed visited back in 2023 and wrote about it here.)
It added two new schools—one in Nampa and one in Post Falls—in 2022 and another in Idaho Falls in 2024.
Later this year, Elevate will open its fifth school, supported by a $2 million Federal Charter School Program grant. When at full capacity, the school will be able to serve nearly 500 students.
The Twin Falls school will be led by Sara Praegitzer, who has worked for nearly two decades in the Twin Falls traditional public school district, and is also a 2024 Idaho New School Fellow.
“I had no plans to go anywhere,” Sara said. “But education is definitely my passion and creating success for students. Focusing on at-risk kids, showing there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, to know that I could help create a new school, I couldn’t pass it up.”
Sara, too, once had concerns about charter schools.
“I had the typical hesitations,” she said. “But this was different. Another avenue for our kids in Twin Falls, especially focused on CTE, is going to be huge.”
The superintendent of Twin Falls seemingly agrees—Brady Dickinson told Idaho Ed News that Elevate opening a school in Twin Falls provides an important option: “Looking at it through the lens of what’s best for kids, it will provide a great opportunity for those kids that it’s a good fit for.”
Growing in Idaho
Elevate’s growth is a sign of the demand in Idaho—one of the nation’s fastest-growing states—for great educational options. The four Elevate schools now serve over 1,600 students, with hundreds more to come when Elevate Twin Falls opens.
The Choice Out West report, in part commissioned by Bluum, found that as Idaho’s population booms, many traditional districts are having a difficult time keeping up. So, charter schools are functioning as a “safety valve” and adding value so much so that “superintendents are looking at this a lot differently than they were,” fostering some positive relationships.
“Idaho is a friendly place to build charter schools,” Monica said. “Our growth has also really spiraled in part because of the strong industry connections. Industry is really important in what we do.”
But Idaho also has a thriving network of support, rowing in the same direction. The work of Bluum and the Idaho Charter School Network have been impactful—and the state continues its national policy leadership on charter schools (which Jed wrote about earlier this year).
In all, there are currently 78 charter schools in the state, serving about 10% of all Idaho students. And there are an estimated 10,700 students on charter school waitlists statewide.
“We have an ecosystem I don’t take for granted,” Monica said. “We’re starting to be a beacon for other states, and with that you have to be super responsible. It’s really amazing what we’re able to do here.”