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By KRISTI ALBERTSON/Daily Inter Lake

Lives at a Crossroad

Life at Flathead Crossroads School is as simple as basic math: One plus one equals two.

Good schoolwork plus good behavior equals positive results, Director Mark Embody explained. To students, the two add up to rewards, like sledding trips or excursions to Wild Horse Island. To teachers, they add up to a positive school experience for students and staff alike.

It's a simple philosophy, but one that has worked for the last several years. Flathead Crossroads is celebrating its 15th year as a haven for second- through eighth-grade students whose behavior or emotional issues have prevented them from succeeding in typical classrooms.

On the surface, Crossroads' classrooms appear normal.

"Although our school is different, it doesn't look different," teacher Lisa Forrest said. "The expectations I have for my students are the same a regular teacher would have."

She expects her students to raise their hands and work independently. She expects them to respect her and each other.

That comes as a surprise to many, Embody said. People assume that kids who've been sent to Crossroads because of behavior problems will run amok in the halls. They expect kids to yell and to see flying desks in the classrooms, he said.

"I think there's a misconception that when you walk in here, there's going to be chaos," he said. "And it's not. It's a regular school."

Unlike regular public schools, the students are at Crossroads for special reasons. The school isn't for kids with delayed cognitive development or those who are simply struggling to keep up academically. Some of Crossroads' students might fit those categories, but the school really exists to help kids who are acting out because they don't know how to deal with the issues in their lives.

At Crossroads, they find empathetic staff and peers who know just what they're going through.

"After a while, kids feel like they belong here, and that we want them here," behavioral specialist Shaun Forrest said. "They feel accepted, wanted for who they are."

The school, a result of cooperation between Flathead County's 19 public school districts, is open to all public school students in the valley. Students are placed there at the discretion of their home schools' counselors, principals and special education personnel, along with their parents and Crossroads staff.

Kids may come in with identified issues, like ADHD or obsessive-compulsive disorder, Embody said, but the reason kids are at Crossroads is not as important as helping them once they're there.

"Their behavior and emotional issues and environmental issues caused them to be placed here," he said. "There are lots of identifications that come in here, but really to us, it's just a kid that needs help."

The goal is to get kids back into their home schools. Crossroads boasts about a 50 percent turnover rate, Embody said; about half its students go back to their original schools each year.

To get them there, staff members address students' emotional issues and social skills. They often come in with academic skills below grade level, but that usually can be attributed to issues in the kids' home lives, Forrest said.

Crossroads staff tries to improve students' academic achievement while addressing their emotional needs, Embody said.

"We try to get them up to grade level, but there are a lot of social skills at work here," he said.

Students spend time in target groups designed to address specific behavioral issues. One group focuses on anger management. Others address self-esteem, coping skills, stress management and family relationships.

Those skills will help students get back into their regular classrooms, Lisa Forrest said.

"When the kids go back, if they don't have the behavioral foundation they don't do so well," she said. "The skills must be ingrained enough to apply."

The school's 30 students are divided into four classrooms - dubbed teams - based on age level and ability, Shaun Forrest said.

A second-grader performing at a fourth-grade level might be part of Team B, which is geared toward fourth- through sixth-grade students. A seventh-grader with a third-grade academic performance may be placed in Lisa Forrest's classroom, Team A.

Team C is for seventh- and eighth-graders. Team D, a new classroom added this year to accommodate the school's growing population, is for fifth- and sixth-grade students.

"We really try to place them where academically they can start making success," Embody said. "We want to kind of make them feel good about themselves and being in school."

That means a lot of positive reinforcement. Most public schools rely on negative reinforcement, Shaun Forrest said, and students might be punished by being sent home.

"Here we say, you're not going home. We want you here," he said. "And they want to be here."

Crossroads' positive reinforcement works on a system of points and levels. Throughout the day, students earn points for good behavior, which they can apply toward "specials" in the last several minutes of the day. Specials take many shapes, including arts and crafts or a chance to build with blocks.

Students who don't earn a special have to use those minutes to do the work they didn't do throughout the day. Misbehavior will cost them points. Students keep track of their point totals in a "checkbook."

"If they had a bad day, they have to pay us for that behavior," Embody said.

At the end of the week, students can receive more privileges. Their accumulated points earn determine what that privilege might be. Sometimes the school goes skiing on Big Mountain; at other times they might go fishing. Students who didn't earn those privileges don't get to go on the field trips.

The kids appreciate the school's highly structured and routine environment, Shaun Forrest said. Typical classrooms have looser schedules, which is part of the reason some students can't interact well with their teachers and peers.

"They don't do well because they don't do well in unstructured situations," he said.

Routine is so important to the students, Embody said, that the school doesn't even employ substitute teachers. There are enough qualified teachers at Crossroads that covering for absent instructors isn't difficult.

"What the school gives them is real good structure, consistency with the program and a lot of care - a lot of care," Embody said. "We don't give up on the kids."

That, he said, is why the school works.

"Everybody here cares about the kids and wants to make a difference with their lives," he said. "It's very much unconditional acceptance of these kids. It doesn't matter how they got here."

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com