RATHDRUM, Idaho — Tucked down a long driveway among tall pines off Meyer Road between Lancaster Road and Highway 53 in Rathdrum is North Idaho STEM Charter Academy.

In slacks, skirts, collars and ties, roughly 550 K-12 students dress as professionally as their teacher and faculty counterparts. Their heads are upright, eyes not buried in screens as the school has upkept a no-phone policy since it opened fall 2012.

While it is a school that ventures further into science, technology, engineering and mathematics than traditional public schools, STEM Charter does business in a much more traditional fashion than many would expect.

Executive Director Scott Thomson founded the school with his wife, Director of Instruction Colleen Thomson, after they both worked several years in public education

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