Summary:
Sandpoint Charter School Inc. is home to a single high school, Forrest M Bird Charter School, which serves grades 6 through 12 in Sandpoint, Idaho, with 255 students and a favorable 10.9:1 student-teacher ratio. This small charter school offers a mixed picture: high-school-level results in science and English language arts are above state averages, but middle-grade performance, especially in 8th-grade math, lags significantly. The school has also seen dramatic swings in its state ranking, moving from the 43rd percentile to the 29th and then jumping to the 71st percentile in the most recent year, earning a 4-star rating.
For parents, the most notable strength is the school's end-of-course performance. Science proficiency reaches 64.7% compared to the state's 41.2%, and ELA proficiency is 66.7% versus 61.3% statewide. However, 8th graders struggle across all subjects: only 17.9% are proficient in math (state: 41.2%), 27.5% in science (state: 42.9%), and 41.0% in ELA (state: 54.5%). Overall math proficiency is 29.0% versus 43.1% statewide, while overall science is slightly above average. The graduation rate of 82.5% matches Idaho's average exactly, meaning about one in five students does not graduate on time. A significant red flag is chronic absenteeism, which stands at 28.1% — more than double the state's 13.8% — and likely contributes to the middle-grade struggles.
With only 255 students across grades 6–12, individual cohorts are small, which helps explain the ranking volatility and the sharp difference between middle-school and high-school results. The low student-teacher ratio is a structural advantage, yet it hasn't translated into consistently strong outcomes. Parents should view this school as one with real high-school strengths in science and ELA, but with clear gaps in middle-school math and science, plus a serious absenteeism challenge. If those issues are addressed, the recent jump to the 71st percentile could become a lasting trend rather than a one-year anomaly.
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