COEUR d'ALENE - The 1-year-old Kootenai Bridge Academy just had its first graduation with a class of 52 students.

"If we don't break 80 next year I'll be surprised," said academy principal Charles Kenna. The school helps students finish up high school classes so they can graduate, and the learning is computer based on an individualized pace.

Kenna said the school usually has about 180 students from age 16 to 21, and most come from Coeur d'Alene, Hayden, Post Falls and other surrounding cities.

He said about 90 percent of the students wouldn't be going to school if not attending the academy, and many of them have to work because parents are not supporting them.

"After graduation we were walking around with giant smiles on our faces," he said. The ceremony was May 18 at Boswell Hall on North Idaho College's campus, not far from the academy, located at 606 River Ave.

"The school is often going to be a bridge through a rough patch in life for these kids," he said.

The school had to weather a lot before the school year started and the eventual big graduation day.

Kenna and others had to write a complicated charter and secure grant funding to pay for startup costs, as the school didn't get money from the state until it had students attending. And the academy had to begin knowing that Coeur d'Alene School District 271 didn't want it around, he said.

The academy can't have more than 200 students without amending its charter, and don't expect that to happen soon.

"What makes us a success is we're small," he said.

Agreed, said recent graduate Lauren Stuart.

Stuart, 17, said she felt like she got more attention from teachers and teacher assistants at the academy then she did at the two high schools she attended. And she feels like she learns better working at her own pace than at the pace of a classroom full of students.

The Coeur d'Alene student said she chose to go to the school to graduate early. She saw a friend benefit from a similar program and graduate early and that was enough to make her want to take the same path.

"I'm proud of myself," she said. "I was working so hard for myself to graduate a year early. I didn't think I could do it."

Her parents are proud too, she said.

"They were crying like babies at graduation," she said.

When asked if she thought she would have graduated without going to the academy, she first said, "no."

Then she reconsidered, and said she would have.

"But I wouldn't have gotten good grades," she said.

She said instructors at the academy make subjects easy to learn, and are always open to questions.

"And it's real laid back; everybody was friends and easy to get along with," she said. "And there was no typical high school drama."

Now she's planning to start at NIC in the fall.

Kenna said about two-thirds of the recent graduates are headed to NIC, while others are headed out into the workforce full time and others are planning to join the military.

Another of the recent graduates was 18-year-old Lizann Smith, of Rathdrum.

"It's the best feeling in the world to go in, do the work and do it at my own pace," Smith said.

She said she wanted to graduate on time, and the academy gave her a chance.

"I went to Coeur d'Alene Charter Academy and wasn't the best student," Smith said. "I got sick and there was no way I could catch up. Bridge was the only option."

If not that, she faced being held back. She felt that was not a real option.

She said her family was worried that she wasn't going graduate on time.

"It was a huge relief for them," she said.

Now, she plans on attending NIC, then transferring to Eastern Washington University to major in English education.

Kenna, who spent 17 years working as a high school teacher, said the academy has two full-time teachers and one part-time teacher, and two teaching assistants. The school has nine total employees, but only five are full time.

The school is funded like any other public school, he said, though it can't pass levies.

"We're a whole one year into this and its seems to be working," he said. "I really see a great future for us."