Focus on Fernan

COEUR d'ALENE - During a school-wide assembly Friday, raptor biologist Janie Veltkamp told elementary students that as the fastest animals on Earth, falcons have to have focus.

For the students at Fernan Elementary School, that focus will be on science, technology, engineering, and math during the school's inaugural year as Fernan STEM Academy.

Principal Bill Rutherford told The Press Friday that officials began looking into the change three years ago, when they noticed they were losing students to private, charter and magnet schools.

"We really wanted to figure out how to keep kids here," he said.

Initially, Rutherford said, officials considered making Fernan a magnet school. However, with a 70 percent poverty rate at the school - a rate measured by the amount of students who apply for free or reduced school meals - they realized a large portion of students would have been pushed out of the school through the application process.

"So we really focused on outreach with our community," Rutherford said. "We wanted to make sure that parents and teachers agreed with the STEM change and we wouldn't have moved forward without 100 percent support."

The response was overwhelmingly supportive, and Rutherford said the first week as a STEM Academy was spent teaching the students just what the change entails.

"We've focused on a letter of STEM every day this week," Rutherford said. "We've also created a lot of tools for kids to better know exactly what STEM means."

Another aspect of the change was including the word "Academy," a term Rutherford said implies a higher standard of education. Staff members at the school acknowledged the additional responsibility, he said, and are eager to meet the standards the new name brings.

"In everything that we do, whether it's writing or reading comprehension, we're using STEM as a foundation," Rutherford said. "And our kids are touching technology every single day."

Rutherford added he believes the shift at Fernan will ultimately lead to students being more prepared for middle school and beyond by learning how to think like scientists.

Students will also get the opportunity to take ownership of the school's new identity. Rutherford said there will be a contest to name the school's revamped falcon mascot and create a new motto.

"We've always been the falcons," Rutherford said. "But we've added a scientific look to it and kind of jazzed it up a bit."

The students ended the assembly by performing the new Fernan STEM Academy chant:

"Who are we? Fernan STEM Academy. Scientists discovering worldly possibilities. Using technology to understand reality. Engineering things to make them work efficiently. Using mathematics to help us think critically. Who are we? Fernan STEM Academy."