BOISE, Idaho — Since 1921, the Booth Marian Pritchett School has been serving pregnant and parenting teens.
Now, as they're getting ready to move to their new building this fall, KTVB has learned the Boise School District is updating the program. The Salvation Army and the Boise School District are partners when it comes to the Booth Marian Pritchett School.
“We're really excited,” Salvation Army of Boise’s Director of Social Services Lindsay Klein said. “We'll have a bigger facility, we'll have a state-of-the-art center and we're hoping to create a center of excellence for our students, our childcare facility will expand.”
The Boise School District said plans for the new building include switching to an online hybrid model.
“The value of the hybrid model is the fact that, with that particular type of unique student that we're serving they may enroll anytime throughout the school year, so with that hybrid model where they're online, they can jump in at any given point and receive the education they need,” said Boise School District spokesman Dan Hollar.
The switch comes after the Booth Marian Pritchett School has seen a decline in the number of students.
“Right now, the enrollment stands at 17 to 20 students, and that compares to a number of years ago when we had 41, back in 2016,” Hollar said.
“Research and data shows teenage pregnancy is on the decline but the need is still there,” Klein said.
She goes on to explain the importance of the school.
“It's important to have a program like this to have connection with students, there's a lot of peer to peer learning that goes on in the hallways, not being isolated, sharing those experiences of being a new mom or dad are important,” Klein said.
Despite that decline, the Boise School District said they’re always prepared to evolve.
“We care about the students and we have for many, many years we have a rich history working with Salvation Army and we're making these adjustments because of the declining enrollment and if it increases we'll certainly re-evaluate that as well,” Hollar said.
Students at Booth Marian Pritchett will also be able to take career-technical classes once they've moved into the new building.
The new school is scheduled to be completed late September or early October.