It’s a slight improvement from last fall when about 57% were reading at grade level, continuing the trend of scores steadily increasing since the height of the pandemic.

On top of that, this year’s second and third-graders demonstrated major leaps in their reading ability since kindergarten (of about 18 and 19 percentage points respectively).

About the IRI The results from the fall Idaho Reading Indicator — which measures reading ability and progress — were released Wednesday. 
—Each spring and fall, Idaho students in kindergarten through third grade take the IRI as required by Idaho Code.
—This assessment helps Idaho educators better understand the needs of early learners in the areas of phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary and reading comprehension.
—Fall results are used to identify students who may need additional instruction and interventions to support their learning throughout the school year.

The progress comes amid multi-million dollar investments in early literacy, a rise in all-day kindergarten, and in efforts to embrace the science of reading. Gov. Brad Little has championed early literacy from the time he took office in 2019, and since then $169 million in taxpayer dollars have been directed to help young readers.

But there’s a flip-side to the data: Nearly 38,000, or 42%, of K-3 students are behind when it comes to reading. 

Second and third graders still haven’t caught up to pre-pandemic reading scores.

And 38% of third-graders, or nearly 9,000, are behind. 

That number matters because by third grade, all students should be reading at grade level — as has been a longtime State Board of Education goal. Recently, Board President Linda Clark penned a column establishing K-3 literacy as a major priority. 

“Numerous studies show that unless these students are reading at grade level by the third grade, they almost never catch up,” Clark wrote. “This puts those students at greater risk of not graduating or pursuing postsecondary education or training.”

But kindergarteners are “arriving to the classroom with increasing levels of proficiency,” Ryan Cantrell, Idaho’s chief deputy superintendent, said, calling attention to bright spots in the data in a Wednesday press release. 

“We’re (also) seeing consistent improvements as those students move through their first three years of instruction,” Cantrell said. “This tells us that the instruction Idaho teachers are delivering is working, and that kids are retaining more of what they learn over the summer.”

Standardized tests in Idaho make quite the alphabet soup: There’s ISAT, IRI, AP, SAT, PSAT and NAEP exams.
Check out our explanatory guide to help make sense of it all.

He also touted that Idaho “students are outperforming national averages in early literacy.” The Idaho Department of Education made the same claim about its spring IRI results — which EdNews fact checked and found was questionable at best, due to faulty comparisons. 

For a more detailed look at the fall reading scores statewide, and their implications, read on.

Since the pandemic, fall reading scores have been mixed

As a whole, K-3 students statewide have been steadily improving their reading scores since the height of the pandemic. 

“This steady increase in proficiency indicates that Idaho’s investment in delivering rigorous, high-quality early literacy instruction is helping students learn,” Cantrell said.

Kindergarteners and first graders have made the biggest leaps in reading ability since 2019, improving from 43% and 49% reading at grade level at the start of the school year, to 53% and 57%, respectively. (Keep in mind that this is a new group of students each year, not the same group improving over time).   

But second and third-graders still haven’t caught up to pre-pandemic reading levels. 

Two student cohorts’ reading scores have shot up since kindergarten

On the other hand, tracking this year’s second and third-graders’ reading scores over the years shows notable academic growth from one school year to the next — even though both cohorts started school when pandemic-era policies, like hybrid or remote learning, may have been in place. 

This year’s third-graders, for example, have improved reading scores by nearly 19 percentage points from kindergarten, when less than half were reading at grade level.

This year’s second graders have shown similar gains, improving their reading scores by about 18 percentage points since kindergarten. 

Data shows overall growth, with summer declines

Another way to parse the data is by bringing in spring scores (students take the IRI twice a year). Those comparisons offer insight into growth over the school year, and potential learning loss over the summer. 

This year’s third graders, for example, have improved from fall to spring each year, but declined over the summer. 

It’s a two-steps forward, one-step back pattern that’s common, and holds true for this year’s second graders as well:

Follow EdNews in coming days for more follow-ups on the IRI results, include results at the district and school level.

Further reading on spring IRI results:

• State says test results are mixed; but data shows mostly losses
• Top 10 Lists: Statewide, IRI scores are down. But here’s where they’re the best
• Achievement gaps and the pandemic are still stifling learning, test results reveal 
• Fact Check: Are Idaho kids outperforming peers in early literacy? It’s questionable

Idaho Education News data analyst Randy Schrader contributed to this report. 

And they’re grappling with difficult realities — a return to a fully-functioning school is years away, and Highland’s freshman class will never learn in a fully rebuilt school. 

“No matter what we do, those kids’ entire high school careers will be in a fractured facility and a fractured environment,” Jena Wilcox, an assistant principal at Highland, said. 

Pocatello/Chubbuck trustees and administrators discussed next steps at a special meeting Tuesday, and seemed torn about whether to put another bond on the ballot. On Nov. 7, their $45 million bond failed with 56% support, short of the needed two-thirds supermajority. 

No decisions were made, but the school leaders’ conversation reflected the difficulties of financing major building upgrades through voter-approved bonds, and while navigating laws that hinder their ability to communicate with voters. 

Trustees’ next chance to put a bond on the ballot is in May, and they would have to make a decision and submit ballot language by late March. But at least one trustee opposed the idea. 

“I do not believe that another bond will pass,” Trustee Angie Oliver said. “So if that doesn’t pass, are we going to do another one? I mean, how long are we going to put this off?”

Students need a fully-functioning school as soon as possible, she said. 

But Trustees Deanna Judy and Heather Clarke said they were in favor of another bond election. 

“We have one opportunity from this tragedy to do it right,” Judy said. 

The insurance monies will pay to rebuild the school exactly as it was, as well as some improvements if current building codes call for them. But Judy said the district should build an improved school that reflects today’s needs, as opposed to the needs of Highland students in the 1960s, when the school was built. At that time, the school didn’t serve freshmen, as it does now, or offer women’s sports. 

“We need to change the messaging and educate people on why we need that upgrade. It’s not just to make it bigger and shinier, it’s opportunities for the kids,” she said. 

Wilcox expressed support for a second bond election. 

“I’m in favor of us trying to do this again and do a better job at it,” she said. “But if we can’t get this passed this next go-around, we have to cut our losses … We have to minimize that impact for kids.”

Leaders discussed a few options Tuesday, ranging from rebuilding Highland as it was before the fire, to rebuilding and improving its gym, auditorium and science labs. The price tag for those options range from no cost, to $35.4 million. 

If the district’s proposed $45 million bond had passed in November, a chunk of it would’ve gone to a second school, Century High, to improve its gym facilities. 

Trustees also discussed whether to give voters a chance to fund just Highland’s improvements on the next ballot. 

Results from a recent community survey indicate that the added ask for Century was a primary reason for denying the bond. 

And there was frequent discussion about how to better communicate with stakeholders if trustees run another bond ask. More than 300 stakeholders who took the poll called for more public meetings and information. 

But Courtney Fisher, the district’s director of communications, said laws constrain outreach efforts. 

A law passed last spring, for example, requires districts to post the official ballot language — which is cumbersome legalese — whenever they mention a bond measure or even remind community members to vote. Fisher said the bond language confused constituents. 

District officials are also barred from advocating for bond or levy measures, and can only inform or educate. Because of that, Fisher said she opted not to go on radio or television, which kept her from reaching a potentially wider audience. 

“We need to help our legislative delegation understand that these legal ramifications are not helping create a more informed electorate,” Fisher said. “It’s causing confusion. People want simple, straight answers, and some of these legal constraints prevent us from doing that.”

GARDEN VALLEY — The Garden Valley School District has repeatedly violated a federal law that requires children with disabilities to receive a free and appropriate public education, according to two reports from the State Department of Education. 

Two families with children with special needs who are enrolled in the district filed separate, formal complaints in September, alleging multiple district violations of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). 

The State Department investigated and found that all of the allegations — 11 combined — were founded and the district was out of compliance, according to reports provided to the parents. EdNews obtained the reports from the families.  

The state investigation calls out the district for a number of inappropriate practices, including: 

• Frequently secluding a student in a padded room that was formerly a utility closet
• Failing to adequately train staff
• Keeping a student out of school for 10 days or more without following the appropriate procedures and protocols
• Inappropriately relying on a school resource officer to manage special education student behavior
• Stifling parent participation in creating a learning plan for their student
• Providing little to no direct instruction for a student, and instead relying on an online program
• Failing to adopt the state’s special education manual or a restraint and seclusion policy

In both cases, the state investigator, Courtney Wucetich, established a plan that the district must adhere to to remedy its failures, which includes:

• Properly training staff, then implementing the training
• Adopting the state’s special education manual and restraint and seclusion policy
• Holding special education meetings, and developing and creating needed special education plans
• Developing a plan to provide compensatory services for the students (such as therapy, counseling, etc.)
• Paying for an impartial school psychologist assigned by the State Department

For the families involved, both of whom asked to remain anonymous out of fears of retaliation, the reports came as no surprise. 

“It just confirmed what we already knew,” said the parent of a 15-year-old student with special needs, who will be referred to as Student A. “It’s just one more step in the process of cleaning up the district.”

 The second report was filed by the parents of a nine-year-old with autism, who will be referred to as Student B. One of Student B’s parents said he was disheartened by the report. 

 “It breaks my heart because now I understand why (my student is) so traumatized about school,” he said. “(My student is) truly scared of going to school and that’s not something any kid should fear, for any reason whatsoever.” 

Both families have also filed formal complaints with the Office of Civil Rights. One is being actively investigated, and the other is being reviewed for possible investigation. 

Patrick Goff, the Garden Valley superintendent, said he had no comment. 

The investigations, which came to light in part via social media posts shared by Student B’s family, have riled the Garden Valley community. Some said they have similar concerns about the district’s treatment of their special education students. Others defended and praised the district.

Both families are hoping the investigations will lead to improved and fair education opportunities for their children, and for special education students to come. 

“At the end of the day, what I want from all this is simple: for this to be exposed so that no more kids get hurt,” one of Student B’s parents said. 

Locked alone in a padded room: Student B’s education was repeatedly mishandled, investigation concludes

Demystifying Jargon: Individualized Education Plan
-An IEP identifies a student’s needs and includes specific, measurable goals to “enable the student to make adequate progress in the general education curriculum.” The plan must include “a variety of assessment tools and strategies, including information provided by the parent, to identify the functional, developmental, and academic needs of the student.”

-A team (which could include general education teachers, special education teachers, counselors, administrators, a school psychologist, parents, and the student) meets periodically to develop, review, and revise the plan. 

The district’s failures to educate and provide services to Student B were wide-ranging, according to the report, and included:

Not having a current Individualized Education Plan (IEP) for a student with special needs 

• • • The district also failed to properly review and revise the plan as needed. Progress reports were also not included in the plan. 
    • “The District failed to develop an appropriate IEP with measurable goals and failed to identify needed related services,” according to the report. 

Substantial deviations from the IEP that was in place

• • • • For example, the plan called for the student to be in a general education classroom 100% of the school day. Instead, the student was in the extended resource room or a padded isolation room for most of the day. 

Using restraint and seclusion to manage student behavior, instead of positive interventions and supports, and without the IEP team determining that such placement was the best for the student. Further, the district continued the practice even when the student and parents told the district about its negative impacts. 

• • • This involved the student being placed alone in a padded room “for undocumented periods of time, and for unknown frequency,” with “very little interaction with peers”.
    • “Although emails from the parents reflected that the Student was terrified of school, terrified of the self-contained classroom, and that the use of the self-contained room caused harm to the Student, this information was not considered by the District.”
    • Staff members would “carry” the student to the padded room, a form of restraint. 
    • The district also lacked a policy on restraint and seclusion. 
    • The district used restraint and seclusion “as a punitive measure, or out of convenience” rather than as a last resort. 

Inappropriate use of the School Resource Officer (SRO)

• • Federal law does not prohibit a district “from referring a student to law enforcement for alleged criminal behavior,” according to the report. However, a district should not refer students to the SRO in order to “circumvent its obligation to consider the use of positive behavioral interventions and supports and other strategies to address a student’s behavior that impedes the student’s learning, or the learning of others.”

Paraprofessionals were not adequately trained and supervised

• • The paraprofessionals “engaged in power struggles with the Student,” according to the report. 
  • There was no record that these staff members received training on how to use positive behavioral interventions and strategies.
  • Staff members did not use de-escalation strategies, teach coping skills, or redirect misbehavior. 
  • The paraprofessional was also not trained to objectively collect data, and instead judged the student’s behavior. 

Staff regularly used inappropriate techniques to manage student behavior

• • These included restraint and seclusion and the use of the SRO “which are not appropriate,” the report found.
  • “A staff member who restrained and secluded the Student on multiple occasions did not participate in the District’s in-service training, as evidenced by a lack of a training certificate in the file.”
  • “The means by which the paraprofessional staff restrained and secluded the Student, by carrying them and locking them in the self-contained classroom with unknown frequency and duration, is not consistent with an appropriate use of PBIS.”

Removing the student from school for more than 10 school days, without the appropriate protocol being followed

• • The student was frequently removed from school, either formally via suspensions or informally by school staff asking parents to pick up their student. 
  • When students are removed from school for more than 10 days, the district must follow a set of procedures and protocol called a Manifest Determination. The district did not do so. 
  • “Hundreds of pages of email exchanges provided by both the parents and the District reflect that the frequency of informal removals, coupled with formal suspensions, exceeded a cumulative ten school days,” according to the report.

“The lack of resources is not a defense”: How the district failed Student A

According to Student A’s report, four allegations put forward by the family were founded. They included violations such as:

Inadequate IEPs

• • The plans designed for the student were inadequate and did not meet the student’s needs. This includes a failure to provide the student with “specially designed instruction,” discuss or offer related services, and limited involvement/input from the school psychologist. 
  • The district “did not use a variety of assessment tools and strategies, including information provided by the parent, to identify the functional, developmental, and academic needs of the student in the development, review, and revision of the IEP.”

The district primarily relied on an online program for the student’s instruction in the 22-23 school year

• • Last school year, “there was little to no direct instruction provided to the Student. Instead the District relied almost exclusively on MobyMax for the majority” of the year. 
  • Student A’s parents confirmed this with EdNews, and said their student had been learning primarily from home since August 2022. Their student was originally learning from an online program, and is now using paper packets and meets with a teacher two hours a day at the local library. 

Failures are partly due to lack of resources — but that’s not an excuse

• • The failure to provide services is partly due to a lack of resources, the investigator found. “However, the lack of resources is not a defense to the District’s failure.” 

Student A’s progress reports were lacking

• • • Progress reports did not indicate how Student A was progressing toward annual IEP goals. 

Parental participation was stifled

• • • Federal law mandates that parents have a central role in developing IEPs. However, the state investigator found that “parental participation was stifled in all decisions related to the Student’s IEP development, including placement.” The district essentially determined the plan before consulting parents. 

Moving forward: Next steps for the families

Both families see the corrective action plan outlined in the investigation as a step forward. But both hope the complaints to the Office of Civil Rights (one of which is being reviewed for possible investigation; the other is being actively investigated) will result in more stringent outcomes for the district officials involved. 

One of Student B’s parents said he felt compelled to file the complaints to fight for his child, and to hold staff members accountable for what they’d done. 

“Sometimes someone has to take a stand and say when something’s not right,” one of Student B’s parents said.

But even with the corrective action plan in place, Student B’s family hopes to move out of state, to a place with more resources for their child. The family moved to Garden Valley a few years ago from the Boise area. 

But Student A’s family has long lived in Garden Valley and intends to stay there. 

“I grew up in the area and so I’m not going to let the good old boys’ club push me out,” one of Student A’s parents said. 

Ultimately he hopes the investigation will result in his student being able to return to school, where the student can interact with peers again. 

“We have been pushing from day one to get him back into school.”

Realtor Shay Ricks ousted incumbent Elizabeth Cogliati, who volunteers at a local nonprofit farm, by 359 votes to her 358. The recount showed the same results, precinct by precinct, as were recorded on election night. 

“I was certainly nervous, but I’m glad that the numbers stayed the same,” said Ricks, who will assume his new post in January. “I’m very grateful to our election staff for their dedication to accuracy in our elections … I look forward to serving on the District 91 School Board. And thank you to (Cogliati) for her hard work and dedicated service over the past four years.”

Cogliati, who requested the recount, was disappointed with the results. But she wished Ricks “all the best” and said she was “really impressed with how the recount was handled.”

Cogliati said the recount took just over two hours, and involved a number of people, including:

• Ricks and Cogliati
• The Bonneville County elections clerk and election staff
• Precinct judges
• The state’s director of elections
• The deputy secretary of state
• The Bonneville County prosecutor
• The Bonneville County sheriff
• Members of the public
• Members of the media

The process itself was “really, really involved,” Cogliati said. Here’s what it entailed: 

• Officials ran accuracy tests to ensure the vote tabulation machines were working correctly.
• A sample of 100 ballots, total, were then drawn from three precincts of Cogliati’s choice, and from absentee ballots. 
• Election officials hand counted those ballots, and then ran them through the tabulation machine to ensure the counts matched. They did. 
• Then all of the ballots were run through the tabulation machine to ensure they matched the election results, which they did. 
• Randy Neal, the Bonneville County prosecutor, then announced that the election results were upheld. 
• Ricks and Cogliati shook hands, talked with the attorneys, and provided media statements. 

“The elections office did a great job,” Cogliati said. 

Still, the figure is an improvement — it’s about 12,000 fewer students than the year before. 

Chronic absenteeism also dropped in most of the state’s largest districts and in most student subgroups. 

But absenteeism levels are still not as low as they were in 2020-21, the first year the State Department of Education began tracking chronic absenteeism — which is defined as missing 10% or more school days. On average, most Idaho students attend about 160 days of school each year, so that equates to about 16 days or more of missed classes (more than three weeks).

To see the chronic absenteeism rate at your school or district, go here. You can also explore this data at idahoschools.org. 

And those days matter, according to the national nonprofit Attendance Works: “While chronic absence presents academic challenges for students not in class, when it reaches high levels in a classroom or school, all students may suffer because the resulting classroom churn hampers teachers’ ability to engage all students and meet their learning needs.” 

And habitual student absences are often indicative of deeper issues like health problems, lack of transportation, and food insecurity, according to Attendance Works.  

Read on for a look at chronic absenteeism rates statewide, by districts and charters, by large districts, and by student subgroups. 

Statewide Chronic Absenteeism

Highest absenteeism rates among nontraditional local education agencies/charters

Highest absenteeism rates among traditional school districts

Highest absenteeism rates among individual schools

Absenteeism rates at the state’s largest traditional districts

Increases in chronic absenteeism from the prior year are marked in red, decreases in green. 

Absenteeism rates by student subgroups

Increases in chronic absenteeism from the prior year are marked in red, decreases in green. 

Idaho Education News data analyst Randy Schrader contributed to this report. 

And they’re reflecting on outreach efforts that, while extensive, still fell short. 

Both districts are starting with surveys — a tactic they both employed months ago before deciding to put measures on the ballot. 

In Pocatello/Chubbuck’s case, patrons were leery of a large bond from the start. Results from a June survey, which about 3,000 patrons participated in, showed that:

• About 40% supported a $25 million bond
• About 30% supported $75 million bond

And when it came down to it, 56% supported the district’s bond on Election Day — far from the required 66.67% supermajority threshold (about 11,650 voters turned out). The $45 million bond would’ve improved two high schools, including one that was severely damaged in a fire last April. 

Pocatello/Chubbuck leaders want to know why voters denied the measure, so on Thursday, they once again sought feedback via a survey. 

Shelley is doing the same.

Its $67.8 million bond to build a high school failed with just 48%, which shocked Superintendent Chad Williams. 

A prior survey, which about 400-500 patrons took, had indicated strong support: “They overwhelmingly said build the biggest school you can and do it right now,” Williams told trustees at a board meeting on Thursday. 

But on Election Day, about 1,950 people voted on Shelley’s measure — the highest turnout the community’s seen for a school election in the past decade. 

“I had no idea what those 1,500 people thought and somehow I’ve got to tap into that,” Williams said. “I don’t have the solution, and that’s the problem.”

Shelley Board Chair Cole Clinger questioned the validity of surveys  “because it was way off the sentiment of the community.”

But there doesn’t seem to be a surefire way to reach patrons. 

Pocatello and Shelley trustees both expressed a need to better educate patrons on school funding measures in the future. But district employees catalogued long lists of outreach attempts. 

Williams counted 16 ways he’d communicated about the bond with his community members.  

And Pocatello/Chubbuck gave 65 community presentations on the bond, Courtney Fisher, Pocatello/Chubbuck’s Director of Communications, told trustees at a Tuesday meeting. 

And that was in addition to other efforts, including distributing tens of thousands of informational postcards; creating a bond election informational video; and participating in a local parade to pass out information. 

“When we had the opportunity to dialogue about the bond, it seemed to go over much better,” Fisher said. “It’s just finding a way to do that in a broader capacity where we can have those two-way conversations.”

Pocatello’s survey is available here and submissions will be accepted through Nov. 26. Results will be shared with trustees at a special meeting on Nov. 28. 

The school financing measure, which nearly 70% of voters approved in May, is null and void and taxes will not be collected, according to Randy Neal, the Bonneville County prosecutor. 

“We are very disappointed in the court’s ruling,” Margaret Wimborne, the spokesperson for the district, wrote in a statement. “D91’s parents and patrons clearly supported this levy as a way to address the district’s ongoing facilities issues … It’s frustrating that the directive of our local taxpayers has been challenged by the Idaho Idaho Tax Commission and dismissed by the courts.”

It was the district’s second plant facilities levy, and only one can be on the books at a time, the State Tax Commission ruled in August when it denied the measure. But Idaho Falls trustees fought the decision in court, arguing that both levies were valid because, even when combined, they still met two legal requirements spelled out in Idaho code:

• They did not exceed .4% of the district’s market value
• They did not exceed 10 years 

But District Judge James Cawthon sided with the Tax Commission, putting an end to months of litigation, as first reported by Local News 8. 

“We appreciate the Court making this decision so quickly, because there would have been a substantial financial impact on the county if we would have been required to change tax notices which are due next week,” Neal said in a press release.

Attorney General Raúl Labrador weighed in on the ruling as well: “Idaho law places limitations on the creation of school levies. The (Idaho Falls levy) did not comply with those limitations. I am pleased that the District Court agreed with the legal opinion we issued in August.”

Idaho Falls trustees will “meet soon to discuss next steps,” Wimborne said. 

In September, Idaho Falls Superintendent Karla LaOrange told EdNews that “if for some reason the district does not prevail in this case, then we have a clear reason and justification for going back to the voters.”

Trustees have a few options going forward, according to Neal:

• Rerun the levy as a bond in the May election (the next possible opportunity, since the Legislature eradicated the March school election date)
  • A supermajority of 66.67% approval would be required for the measure to pass 
• Ask voters to amend the first (and now only) plant facilities levy so taxes are increased for the elementary. 
  • However, that levy (which expires in 2032), would only have eight years left on its term. To provide $33 million in that shorter time frame, taxpayers would have to dole out more each year. 
  • The required threshold for approval would depend on how much the district asked for. 

The new elementary school would have alleviated overcrowding in the district — an issue trustees have been trying to address for more than a year. 

“The Board of Trustees is committed to addressing its critical facilities issues and ensuring that every student in Idaho Falls School District 91 can learn in an environment that is safe and meets their needs,” Wimborne said.

Using plant facilities levies — rather than bonds — to fund new school buildings is a relatively new approach that is becoming more common in Idaho districts. The levies can be an attractive option because their voter approval threshold can be as low as 55% (as compared to bonds’ required 66.67%). 

But there are drawbacks — for example, districts that opt for a plant facilities levy do not qualify for state financial assistance via the bond and levy equalization program.

Still, it’s an option Idaho Falls trustees turned to after a $250 million million bond failed last November with just 58% support. (In hindsight, their much-reduced ask for a $33 million levy the following spring would’ve easily passed as a bond with 69.6% support.)

This week’s ruling might dissuade other districts from following suit by seeking a levy for new construction.

Just last week, when Pocatello/Chubbuck school leaders met to discuss next steps after a failed $45 million bond, Pocatello/Chubbuck’s director of business operations, Jonathan Balls, cited Idaho Falls’ litigation when a trustee asked about the possibility of running a levy for construction. 

“As (Bonds) have been failing, people are getting very creative,” Balls said, before cautioning trustees. “If you notice our good neighbors and friends to the north in Idaho Falls, theirs is stuck in the courts.”

In Idaho, 43 of 59 proposed bonds — or 72% — have failed since 2019.

The district is also involved in a second legal battle: Neal charged former Idaho Falls Superintendent James Shank and Wimborne for inappropriately using public funds to promote 2022’s $250 million bond issue that ultimately failed. The litigation is ongoing. 

Idaho Education News data analyst Randy Schrader contributed to this report. 

“If it’s one vote difference, I think that we all deserve a recount to make sure that it was all counted correctly,” said Cogliati, who lost to real estate agent Shay Ricks by a tally of 359-358. 

Ricks agreed: “I was absolutely shocked about the single vote difference. And as far as a recount goes, I think Elizabeth is entitled to a recount and I think her constituents deserve a recount.”

The local sheriff locked up the ballots Tuesday morning, and the recount will likely be held on Nov. 27, according to Penny Manning, the Bonneville County Clerk. Manning said the recount will be free — as is the case with any election outcomes that are within five votes. 

How the recount will work:
Recount: On an agreed-upon day (likely Nov. 27), the sheriff, county prosecutor, election workers, election staff, and anyone else who would like to be present will gather to tally the votes. That will include both a hand count and a tabulator count.
Results upheld: If the results are upheld, Ricks will join the board in January.
Results overturned: If Cogliati were found to win, she would stay on the board for another term.
Tie: If there’s a tie, the board of trustees would determine the winner by coin toss, according to Idaho code 33-503.
Appeal: Any person can appeal the results of a recount. In the case of school district election recounts, the prosecuting attorney will be the “final authority concerning any question that arises during the recount,” according to Idaho code 34-2305. 

Cogliati said her close race demonstrates the importance of voting in local elections: “One vote can make a big difference.”

Cogliati has served on the board for four years, overseeing a tumultuous period for the Idaho Falls School District that was marked by the pandemic; leadership changes (including three different superintendents); a failed $250 million bond; and continued litigation over a challenged plant facilities levy and allegations that district officials inappropriately advocated for a bond. 

But Cogliati said she was excited about the district’s recent adoption of a new English language arts curriculum, and about new superintendent Karla LaOrange. 

“I wanted to continue the work that we have been doing on the school board … and wanted to see all that through,” she said. 

Cogliati currently volunteers as the director of education and board secretary for Happyville Farm, a nonprofit that grows food for low-income families and provides and promotes educational opportunities. 

Ricks said he became interested in the school district a few years ago when he attended a virtual open house and asked then-Superintendent James Shank about the possibility of creating a dual language immersion program, and felt that his idea was dismissed. 

Ricks said he still wants to explore that possibility, and also wants to “increase the quality of the education that students are receiving.”

Under the guidance of LaOrange, the district is starting to implement some programs that offer opportunities for community and parent involvement, “which I think is going to help increase our test scores,” Ricks said. “I’m looking forward to helping enhance those outreach programs.”

Ricks is also a parent, and his eldest child will become a student in the district next fall. 

In the district’s two other trustee races, incumbents Hillary Radcliffe and Jeremy Westwood held their seats with 55% and 62% of votes, respectively.

The recount will be the first in Bonneville County since May 2015, when the Bonneville School District’s $56.1 million bond for a new high school was just 17 votes short of the required supermajority, Manning said. The bond’s failure was upheld. 

On top-ten lists from the state’s most prominent academic achievement measures, the school district was everywhere. 

Its schools repeatedly outshone their peers on the Idaho Standards Achievement Test and the Idaho Reading Indicator. And the district far outpaced other large districts when it came to scores on both exams. 

So what sets the district apart?

West Ada leaders will tell you the difference is mindset: Teachers and leaders who believe they have more to learn. From top to bottom, staff members keep asking: How can we do better?

To find the answers, they’re sitting in on classes, personalizing and perfecting professional development, crunching student achievement numbers, and defining what it means to be a great teacher — in their own terms.

“It takes everybody at every level being willing to be open minded and willing to learn and improve their craft. Because if we’re growing as adults then the students will grow too.”  — Shana Hawkins, West Ada’s director of accountability and success

As Shana Hawkins, the district’s director of accountability and success, said: “It takes everybody at every level being willing to be open minded and willing to learn and improve their craft. Because if we’re growing as adults then the students will grow, too.”

In a district where student success makes headlines, here’s what leaders are doing differently. 

Facts and figures: A portrait of West Ada by the numbers

First, it’s helpful to have some context about West Ada — what it is and isn’t, according to the data.

West Ada is:

• The state’s largest district by far, with about 38,000 students and 58 schools. (The runner-up is Boise with about 22,000 students)
  • Because of that is has more resources — more state funding, more taxpayers to shoulder the costs of levies and bonds, and more staff members. 
• Home to the highest-paid superintendent in the state. Superintendent Derek Bub currently makes about $215,000 — more than any other superintendent, including Debbie Critchfield (who makes about $129,000).
• Home to a higher percentage of students from middle-to-high income families than the state average. West Ada’s percentage of students from low income families is 23%, as compared to the state average of 40%.
• Otherwise comprised of a student population that is comparable to state averages. (See chart below).

*including only groups that comprise 1% or more of the population

Source: idahoschools.org

West Ada is not:

• The biggest spender. It spends about $6,600 per students, as compared to the statewide average of $9,800 spent per students.
• The district with the highest-paid teachers. Its teachers make about $57K — just above the state average of $55K. Neighboring Boise pays its teachers an average of $67K.
• The district with the most experienced teachers. About 72% of West Ada teachers have six or more years of experience, as compared to 65% statewide, and about 81% at Boise School District.
• The district with the highest teacher retention rates. West Ada’s retention rate is about 84%, as compared to the state average of 87.9% and Boise’s rate of 85%.

Marcus Myers, the district’s chief academic officer, and Bub both acknowledged that West Ada’s size gives it some advantages — like a low tax rate. 

The district’s large staff is another plus. For example, Bub’s cabinet includes unique positions that don’t exist in every district, such as these:

Click to view slideshow.

But Myers said the most important game-changers are not staff or resources, but belief systems and district culture: “You have to create a culture of instructional changes based on what kids do and don’t know, and then you have to create a tool to measure that along the way.”

West Ada’s tool: frequent checks for learning.

How teachers turn data into a learning opportunity

Throughout the year, West Ada students take practice (or formative) tests to create data on their learning progress. Those practice check-ins are not required by the state, but West Ada still requires them district-wide. 

“We don’t rely on just … the data that tells us where we landed the plane at the end of the trip,” Myers said. “We make sure that we’re following that progress along the way.”

After each round of practice tests, teachers have a scheduled PD day to analyze the data — because otherwise, the numbers would be meaningless, Kelly Davies, director of assessment and achievement, said. 

“It’s in the action that you see results, and action has to come from the analysis of data,” Davies said. 

And data is just part of the picture; teachers’ relationships with students fill in the rest of the story.

“The numbers on the page only say so much; there’s the story of the student as well,” Davies said. “The teacher has that with them, and that will never be something that can be on a spreadsheet.”

After evaluating the full story and multiple data points, teachers can then decide next steps based on student needs.

Admittedly, it’s a time-consuming process and it requires buy-in. 

Part of that is changing the culture around tests, Myers said, and getting teachers and students to see them as tools to help learning, instead of tasks done to comply with laws. 

“Every possible check we can have along the way — if it leads to better results — everybody wants that win, right?” Myers said. 

District-level administrators also analyze student achievement data monthly. If multiple data points identify a low-performing school or class, they send in a team of what are called “consultants,” or instructional coaches, to help support the teacher and get students back on track.

West Ada teachers are constantly learning from data — and from each other.

Learning tailored to teachers: Professional development that works (or is adjusted when it doesn’t)

In West Ada, professional development for teachers stands out for what it’s NOT:

• It’s not a “sit-and-get” lecture style information session
• It doesn’t feature national (and usually pricey) speakers 
• They are not one-size-fits-all, giant PD sessions that the entire district gets, regardless of content area or grade level

Instead, they are interactive sessions designed and tailored for specific small groups, and they’re often led by in-house teachers and staff. 

For example, teachers at Prospect Elementary participated in a scavenger hunt at one staff training — they were sent to look at their peers’ classrooms, paying attention to how they wrote and displayed what are called learning intentions and success criteria. 

Breaking down jargon: Learning intentions and success criteria
The terms, well-known to teachers, basically mean the learning goal (what students should know or be able to do by the end of a lesson or unit) and how progress toward that goal can be measured. The idea behind them is that students will be able to self-assess and understand where they are in their learning journey. 

“That was fantastic, and it was very well-received,” Gwenda Venecia, the school’s principal, said. “Now we have more ideas for how to write these more effectively and impact students with them.”

That’s the kind of professional development that’s worthwhile for teachers.

“We want it to be very applicable to what they’re doing,” Marcus Myers, the district’s chief academic officer, said. 

“It really comes down to this idea that what a teacher does in the classroom really matters for the longevity of students and we need to consistently work to improve our craft, just like in any business,” Bub said. “We always need to strive to be better.”

And Patricia Vandenberg, a math coordinator in the curriculum and instruction department, said it’s important that the training isn’t based on the newest teaching fad, but on practices that have been around for a while, been proven effective, and are well-researched. Letting teachers slowly adapt to new techniques is important too. 

“In education, we are guilty of having too many initiatives, like every year is a new initiative and a new focus,” she said. “It comes down to going slow to go fast.”

Basically, the district strives to run its training the same way they would ask a teacher to run a classroom — with great instructional strategies, clear goals, and engaged learners, Myers said.

And every time teachers have training, they also get at least a few hours to “digest what they’re learning” and think about how they can incorporate it into their teaching. 

And teachers need to know they aren’t being asked to overhaul their entire way of doing things — just incorporate little bits and pieces at a time. 

“When we’re talking about changing habits, it takes small steps and being consistent,” Vandenberg said.

Myers said staff meetings are shifting away from traditional informational rundowns, and toward staff members sharing instructional strategies. That way, teachers can get little bite-size PD more often than the dedicated four days a year. 

Admittedly, some professional development sessions are “flops,” Bub said. 

“But we need to hear that as well, so we don’t repeat that. We make sure that when teachers walk out of our professional development, they’re 1% better than they were the day before.”

The district’s leaders are also expected to keep learning — in part by getting into classrooms more often, without letting paperwork or meetings get in the way.

Back to class: Principals in the classroom, learning alongside students

Last spring, the district initiated what it calls “instructional rounds.” 

Here’s how it works:

• One principal hosts a handful of other administrators or leaders at his/her school. Together, they visit a teacher’s classroom and watch and observe the instruction, then discuss and reflect on what they saw.
• It’s a process that takes up to three hours. 
• Principals and school leaders participate in this two to three times a year.

This is different than a typical observation, which usually involves one administrator sitting in on a class as part of a formal teacher evaluation, for a few reasons:

• • Multiple administrators from various schools are present.
  • The teacher volunteers to host the administrators and knows when they’ll be coming.
  • The administrators are not focusing on what the teacher could do better, but on what they the leaders could improve based on what they saw.

It seems simple, but the change is having an impact already. 

Leaders are telling Vandenberg that it’s the best professional development they’ve ever had. 

And it’s not just principals — the district’s highest-level administrators, including its chief academic officer and superintendent — participate, too. 

“I don’t want school leaders that don’t know what it’s like to be in the classroom.” — Derek Bub, West Ada Superintendent

“I don’t want school leaders that don’t know what it’s like to be in the classroom,” said Bub, who said he visits classrooms at least three days a week. 

Vandenberg got the idea for the practice from a book: “I was really inspired. I’ve never read a book so fast.” 

She originally spearheaded the program, piloted last spring, to help improve math instruction. But then participants were quickly asking to expand it to all content areas — which the district is doing this year. 

The sit-ins help leaders better understand what good instruction looks like in each subject (because best practices for teaching senior-level math are likely a bit different than they are for teaching freshman-level English) and in turn, they’re able to provide better feedback to teachers. 

“Teachers are just in the thick of it,” Vandenberg said. “They’re in the trenches battling it out, and they need leaders that can tell them one small thing they can work on, give them a different perspective, and help them refine their craft.”

And every six weeks, administrators get another training opportunity — they spend a half day at the district headquarters, participating in professional development designed just for them. 

West Ada didn’t have to reinvent the wheel, but they did anyway: Defining what great teaching look like, in their own terms

Many schools use the Charlotte Danielson framework to determine what great teaching looks like. The framework includes pre-written checklists and goals that teachers can use to better their craft, and that principals can use to evaluate them. 

West Ada leaders didn’t have to reinvent that wheel — but they did anyway, generating their own descriptions and benchmarks for effective instruction. Plus, building the checklist became a valuable learning opportunity in and of itself. 

“There’s power in learning by doing, so when we build it together, there’s a level of ownership,” Myers said. 

The checklists are based on established research, but are tailored to West Ada’s district and goals. Here’s what one looks like. 

So while the Charlotte Danielson framework, for example, focuses on what the teacher is doing, West Ada’s checklist also focuses on what students are doing. 

District leaders have also built their own best practice guidelines called “foundational commitments,” which guide instructional efforts (see below). This year’s focus is on best first instruction. 

Now teachers, principals, and administrators can use a shared language and be on the same page. 

After all, students’ futures are at stake.

“We have an obligation, an imperative, a responsibility to make sure that our kids are successful after high school,” Bub said. “That’s what makes our graduation so exciting — we collectively believe that our students have those opportunities when they walk across that stage.”

Data Analyst Randy Schrader contributed to this report. 

He was speculating that close to a two-thirds supermajority of voters would support the measure — but only 48% did, not even a simple majority. 

The bond would’ve financed a new high school, one with more classrooms and room for future growth. 

But voters clearly did not want to take on the extra tax burden, even with the state’s property tax relief bill in effect.

One group, the conservative political action committee Idahope, paid for a billboard to decry the measure: “Nov. 7 Vote No On The Shelley School Bond $67,800,000!! In New Taxes.”

For Shelley school leaders, it’s back to brainstorming solutions to classroom shortages.

Williams said the board will meet Nov. 16 to discuss next steps, and he plans to propose reconvening the building committee, a group comprised of district staffers and community members who help guide decisions. 

“Definitely part of that will be to reach out to the community and find out exactly why they voted against it and what they didn’t feel comfortable with,” he said. 

In the meantime, there’s a number of short-term solutions the district might enact to address overcrowding. 

“None of these are ideal right now,” Williams said. “But they’re possible strategies.”

And he said if community members have any other ideas, he’s open to them. 

Voters said “no” on Tuesday — denying a $45 million bond that would have improved Highland and upgraded the gym facilities at a second school, Century High School. 

For Travis Bell, Highland’s assistant principal and athletic director, waking up to that news Wednesday morning was devastating. 

“Today was every bit as disheartening as April 21,” he said. 

District leaders reflected on the loss at a special board meeting Wednesday, citing misinformation and distrust as hurdles. And they considered next steps — including potentially rerunning the bond in May — but haven’t made any decisions yet.

Bond critics, including a newly elected trustee, cited a lack of transparency about the measure and confusion about the insurance payout.

Another struggle for trustees is that bonds in Idaho are more likely to fail than succeed — due in part to Idaho’s 66.67% supermajority approval requirement, one of the country’s most stringent.

As Jonathan Balls, Pocatello-Chubbuck’s director of business operations, put it — it’s one of the only elections where a measure can have majority support and still lose. In the district’s case, about 56% of voters supported the bond, but it wasn’t enough. 

So trustees were left to ask: If a catastrophe like a fire isn’t enough to convince a supermajority of taxpayers to pitch in for school upgrades, what will? 

They ruminated over the loss, determining that misinformation spread online and a sense of distrust toward the school district drove the bond’s failure.

It baffled longtime trustee and board chair Jim Facer, who was just reelected. 

“I just don’t understand why people don’t trust the school district,” he said. “The school district’s done fabulous things with their money and been very responsible with it.”

He cited all the facilities progress the district has made without putting a bond on the ballot, including an addition to Pocatello High, building the alternative New Horizons Center and rebuilding Alameda Middle. 

A just-elected trustee candidate and local watchdog group criticized the bond effort

Pocatello’s bond faced a number of public critiques, including from a local watchdog group and from Raymond Knoff, a trustee candidate who went on to win the election and will join Pocatello’s board in January. 

Both entities felt the school district was not being transparent in its communications about the bond, partly because of how district leaders communicated about a property tax relief bill’s impacts. 

Pocatello leaders characterized the bond as having “net zero impact” because the bill would offset costs. But the watchdog group Pocatello for Accountable Government Entities told the Idaho State Journal that messaging was misleading, and didn’t make clear that the bond’s failure would mean a big property tax cut. 

And Knoff told the Journal that the property tax relief bill only runs through 2026, while the bond would cover a 15-year period. 

“There is no guarantee that there will be future budget surpluses beyond that point,” he said. 

Knoff, who has a history of opposing school funding measures, also questioned the need for a bigger school, pointing out that the district’s student population has “held steady or slightly declined over the last 13 years.”

“I believe we should use the insurance money we collect to rebuild the areas damaged by the fire at Highland High School and take the tax breaks, which are sorely needed in this time of rising property assessments, increasing local taxes, and worsening inflation,” he told the Journal.

Bond critics also cited confusion about the insurance payout — how much would be made available and what it would cover. 

District leaders on Wednesday said the insurance would only pay for an exact rebuild of Highland as it was — down to the dimensions and original materials. But they wanted to seize on this opportunity to upgrade the 60-year-old school, and to plan ahead for growth. 

“We were going to get a brand new school … not a 1963 school,” Bell said, pointing out that needs have changed significantly since Highland was built. “We didn’t used to have girls’ basketball in 1960. We didn’t have freshmen … Things have changed … and we want to be able to give kids the best opportunity we possibly can.”

Looking forward: Trustees consider rerunning the bond in May

Now, with Highland students eating lunch in hallways, common areas, and classrooms, and traveling across town for classes, leaders are considering next steps. 

The options on the table:

• Running a bond again in May.
• Running two smaller bonds.
• Running the bond without improving gym facilities at Century High. Some community members thought the bond should have just been for Highland, but trustees felt adding Century would galvanize more community support. Plus, it’s been a major item on the district’s to-do list for years. 
• Completing upgrades incrementally, rather than all at once.

If trustees run another bond, they discussed the need to better communicate with the public and clear up any misinformation. 

“I really truly believe that the majority of people who voted no were misinformed,” Jena Wilcox, an assistant principal at Highland, said. “And it’s so easy to share misinformation through social media and other outlets right now … so we need to have a plan to better inform.”

Recently, bonds that have run a second time (and often with smaller asks) have tended to be successful. 

District leaders also conveyed a sense of urgency so Highland students could have a fully-functioning school as soon as possible. 

For now, trustees haven’t made any decisions and are still exploring their options. But regardless of what they choose, a return to normalcy is still a long way off for the Highland Rams. 

“For our students who are in high school right now, most will never see a full school again,” Wilcox said. “That’s heartbreaking.”

Pocatello’s $45 million bond — which would have funded enhancements at two high schools, including one damaged by a fire last spring — garnered just 56% support. And only 48% of voters supported Shelley’s $67.8 million bond, which would have funded a new high school.

It was the most likely outcome in a state where a bond’s odds of passing are less than a coin toss, thanks in part to the required 66.67% supermajority approval — one of the highest thresholds in the nation. 

“While we are disappointed that tonight’s outcome for the school bond proposal did not reach the supermajority threshold for voter approval, we appreciate and respect the democratic process and the collective voice of our community,” Courtney Fisher, the Pocatello/Chubbuck School District’s spokesperson said in a press release. “Although the bond’s failure presents challenges, the PCSD 25 Board of Trustees is committed to finding alternative solutions and working diligently to navigate this setback”

The board plans to “regroup and reassess” at a special meeting Wednesday evening. Its first priority will be “exploring viable options” to return the fire-damaged Highland High to “a fully functioning … facility as soon as possible,” Fisher said.

The Shelley School District released a brief statement noting “unprecedented” voter turnout and addressing next steps: “Moving forward, we will seek input from stakeholders to help identify a supported approach for expanding classroom space as our student enrollment grows.”

Most levies pass

Ten of this election’s dozen levies passed. Mountain View School District’s $3.1 million supplemental levy failed with 48% approval and the Basin School District’s $792K levy failed with 47% approval.

*All results are unofficial. 

Shelley: Failed — 48% 

• What: A $67.8 million school bond.
• What’s at stake? The proposal would pay for a new high school.
• Impact: The tax burden would be about $259 per $100,000 in taxable assessed value per year. But with expected reductions from the state, the district expects the total tax burden to be about $221 for all its bonds and levies. Bonds need a 66.67% supermajority vote to pass.
• For more information, visit the district’s voter information page.

Pocatello: Failed — 56%

• What: A $45 million school bond.
• What’s at stake? If passed, the bond would pay for renovations and enhancements at Highland High, which was damaged in a fire, and improvements to Century High School’s gyms.
• Impact: The bond would add to the tax burden about $37 per $100,000 in taxable assessed value, per year. Already on the books, voters approved the renewal of the district’s 2-year supplemental levy in March 2023, and voters approved the renewal of the district 10-year school plant facility levy in March 2020. The district expects to receive from the state’s bond equalization fund an amount each year that will exceed the annual payments on the bond.
• For more information, visit the district’s voter information page.
• Check out past coverage of the bond issue: What does it take to pass a bond in Idaho? Maybe Pocatello-Chubbuck has the answer.

Nampa: Passed — 55%

• What: A two-year, $14,780,000-per-year supplemental levy ($29,560,000 total). 
• What’s at stake? This proposal would fund a myriad of school operations costs, including: $4.53 million for continued and supplemental salaries, $2 million for maintenance, $2 million for curriculum, $2 million for technology, $1.5 million for athletic turf, $1 million for other athletics, and a slew of lower costs for security, playgrounds and more. This levy would replace the district’s existing levy, which is set to expire in June.
• Impact: The tax burden would be about $72 per $100,000 in taxable assessed value, an increase of about $13 from the rate under the existing levy. However, the district expects the bond equalization fund to reduce that amount by about $20 per $100,000. Supplemental levies need a simple majority vote to pass.
• For more information, visit the district’s voter information page.

Kellogg: Passed — 59%

• What: A two-year, $2.95 million-per-year supplemental levy ($5,916,800 total).
• What’s at stake? This replacement levy funds up to 25% of Kellogg’s annual operating budget.
• Impact: The tax burden would be about $215.37 per $100,000 in taxable assessed value. That is a $146.42 drop from the district’s existing levy.
• For more information, visit the district’s voter information page.

Minidoka: Passed — 60%

• What: A two-year, $2,250,000-per-year supplemental levy ($4.5 million total). 
• What’s at stake? This proposal would replace the district’s existing levy. It allots $1.26 million for technology, safety and security projects, and another $1 million for maintenance, repairs, equipment and furniture.
• Impact: The tax burden would be about $81.64 per $100,000 in taxable assessed value.
• For more information, visit the district’s voter information page.

Wallace: Passed — 69%

• What: A two-year, $1,700,000-per-year supplemental levy ($3.4 million total). 
• What’s at stake? This replacement levy would fund the gap between state funding and actual operating costs in Wallace. The levy makes up approximately 33% of the district’s annual budget.
• Impact: The tax burden is expected to stay the same, at $268.74 per $100,000 in taxable assessed value.
• For more information, contact the Wallace School District.

Mountain View: Failed — 43%

• What: A one-year, $3.136 million supplemental levy.
• What’s at stake? The proposal would fund salaries, benefits, educational materials, technology and special education costs throughout the district. According to the district, it will use all of its reserves during the 2023-24 school year, minus the equivalent of four operating weeks. For 2024-25, this levy would keep schools operating.
• Impact: The tax burden would be about $171 per $100,000 in taxable assessed value.
• For more information, visit the district’s website.

Middleton: Passed — 59%

• What: A two-year, $1.5 million-per-year supplemental levy ($3 million total).
• What’s at stake? The proposal would renew the district’s existing supplemental levy, which is set to end in June. It would fund a range of costs, including: $500,000 for curriculum adoption, over $700,000 for certified and classified staff salaries, $80,000 for a school resource officer and $100,000 for building maintenance.
• Impact: The tax burden would be about $38 per $100,000 in taxable assessed value per year. But taxpayers shouldn’t see a change, since the current levy also costs $38 per $100,000.
• For more information, visit the district’s voter information page
  EditSign

Kimberly: Passed — 56%

• What: A two-year, $800,000-per-year supplemental levy ($1.6 million total).
• What’s at stake? The proposal would fill the gap between state allocations and actual operating expenses. It’s an extension of the district’s existing levy.
• Impact: The tax burden would be about $69 per $100,000 in taxable assessed value, a reduction of $6.28 from the district’s existing levy.
• For more information, visit the district’s voter information page.

Basin: Failed — 47%

• What: A two-year, $792,000-per-year supplemental levy ($1,584,000 total).
• What’s at stake? The proposal would fill gaps in state funding for salaries and benefits, school safety, curriculum, transportation and more.
• Impact: The tax burden would be about $73.11 per $100,000 in taxable assessed value, but that amount is expected to decrease after state reductions from the bond equalization fund.
• For more information, visit the district’s voter information page.

Salmon: Passed — 75%

• What: A two-year, $540,000-per-year supplemental levy ($1,080,000 total).
• What’s at stake? The proposal would fund arts and education programs throughout the district, including: $150,000 for athletics, $90,000 for music, $95,000 for vocational agriculture education, $18,000 for drama, $12,000 for the library and art and yearbook, and $70,000 for education materials. It would replace an existing levy that is set to expire in June.
• Impact: The tax burden would be about $25.27 per $100,000 in taxable assessed value, a $3.40 increase from the district’s current levy.
• For more information visit the district’s website.

Filer: Passed — 56%

• What: A two-year, $500,000-per-year supplemental levy ($1 million in total).
• What’s at stake? The bulk of this levy — $400,000 per year — would fund classified and certified staffing positions. The remainder would fund supplies and extracurriculars. This is a replacement levy.
• Impact: The tax burden is expected to stay at $51 per $100,000 in taxable assessed income, which is the current rate under the district’s existing levy.
• For more information, contact the Filer School District.

North Gem: Passed — 63%

• What: A two-year, $350,000-per-year supplemental levy ($700,000 total).
• What’s at stake? The proposal would fill in gaps in state funding to allow the district to maintain and operate its schools.
• Impact: The tax burden would be about $213 per $100,000 in taxable assessed value. The district did not provide any details about whether it expected contributions from the bond equalization fund.
• For more information, contact the North Gem School District.

West Side: Passed — 73%

• What: A five-year, $120,000-per-year plant facilities levy ($600,000 total).
• What’s at stake? Plant facilities levies go toward building updates, repairs and remodels, or other facilities needs. This proposal would replace an existing plant facilities levy in the district.
• Impact: The tax burden would be about $37.30 per $100,000 in taxable assessed income. That’s an increase of  $24.87 from the current rate of $12.43 under the district’s existing levy. This plant facilities levy needs a 55% majority vote to pass.
• For more information, contact the West Side School District.

Reporter Sadie Ditttenber contributed to this report. 

Statewide, it’s the biggest education ask on the November ballot. 

The odds of any bond passing in Idaho are less than a coin toss, thanks in part to the required 66.67% supermajority approval — one of the highest thresholds in the nation. And in smaller communities, passing bonds of this size can be especially unlikely since fewer residents can mean larger tax burdens. 

But in Shelley, a small community surrounded by farmland — where russets are the mascot and its one high school is dubbed ‘the spud cellar’ —  Superintendent Chad Williams seemed hopeful as he ran through the numbers. 

There’s the history of school election success, with the district’s last two bonds earning well over supermajority approval. Supplemental levies typically pass as well. 

Shelley School District’s recent bond election history

There’s the slow, steady growth (about 50 new students a year) that establishes a need for more classrooms. 

There’s the community feedback, gathered over multiple years, that he said showed strong support for a new high school. 

There’s the fact that the high school is already nine classrooms short — they’ve been tacked on hodge-podge outside the building in places like add-on modulars and a concessions building, which were intended to be temporary solutions.

And there’s the district’s extensive outreach — 11 different methods by Williams’ count, including a town hall meeting, social media posts, the district website, a flyer, emails, and news articles. Williams has even presented the bond information to government classes at the high school. 

Plus, Shelley’s residents include many “homegrown spuds,” as Williams called them — people born and raised there who now have their own families, deep community roots, and a pride in their local schools. 

Still, Williams knows it’s not a done deal. 

Bond critics have said it’s both too much and not enough

There have been critiques and opposition — including a message blared on a digital billboard on the highway between Shelley and Idaho Falls, where a number of residents commute: “Nov. 7 Vote No On The Shelley School Bond $67,800,000!! In New Taxes.”

The billboard was paid for by Idahope, a conservative political action committee based in East Idaho and formed in 2017.

“Much like the minutemen of Concord and Lexington, our goal is to be always organized, prepared, and funded, so we can fight for local causes of Liberty and Freedom on a moment’s notice,” the group’s website reads. “In our fight for these principles, we sometimes have to fight against bigger government, higher taxes, encroachments on our freedoms, and other threats.” 

But at a recent community meeting, Williams heard the opposite complaint: why isn’t the district striving to make an even bigger high school? (The one proposed at the $67.8 million price tag will only accommodate growth until 2040.)

His answer: “It’s the biggest school that we could afford right now.”

That’s because the district is hamstrung by Idaho code — which dictates that a bond measure can only run for up to 5% of a school’s market value (the smaller the district, the less it can ask for). 

For Shelley, it means their facility growth has to be incremental. But, Williams said they’ll design the building so it has room for future additions. 

A property tax relief bill has complicated bond messaging

Another hotspot for confusion is the impact the bond would have on taxes if it were passed. What’s making it complicated is the Legislature’s property tax relief bill, House Bill 292. 

The state funds are lowering individual property taxes. But if a district passes a new bond or levy, homeowners won’t see the relief — but they also won’t see a big tax increase.

District leaders are having to decide how to incorporate that reality into their communications about bonds and levies. Do they use it to classify a new bond or levy as having net zero impact, like Pocatello/Chubbuck (the only other district running a bond on Nov. 7)? It’s a choice that has already fueled criticism. 

Or do they explain to taxpayers that passing a bond would mean missing out on that relief?

Williams has opted for the latter. 

He’s explaining to patrons that their taxes without the bond would be about $67 per $100,000 of their home’s taxable market value. With it, they’ll jump to $221/100K. 

But Williams also points out that would be less than they were paying in 2022.

When patrons have understood that, Williams said they are comforted — it’s an amount similar to what they paid in the past, so they know it’s doable on their budget. 

With election day fast-approaching, the matter is in the hands of Shelley voters. 

Tracy McArthur, a math teacher at Shelley High, said she commutes in from Idaho Falls, so won’t be among those who cast their ballots. But she’s hoping the measure is successful. 

“The school is going to grow, and we’re going to be so crammed in here,” she said. “The classes are going to get huge and it’s going to be a lot harder to help individual students grow and learn.”

There are about 1,500 fewer students in Idaho schools this fall, bringing the total enrollment number to about 312,900 — down from about 314,400 in 2022-23.  

Most districts and charters lost students: 101 of 186 with measurable data showed declines. Large traditional districts and charters/districts with a history of dysfunction had the biggest dips. 

To find out how enrollment has changed in your district from last year to this, go here. 

But there was some notable growth — especially among charters and online schools. 

Large, traditional districts and troubled charters/districts lost the most students 

When tracking enrollment declines by the greatest number of students (as opposed to percentage of students), the state’s largest traditional districts took the biggest hits. 

And that was the case from the panhandle to the Treasure Valley to East Idaho. 

Charters, which are more likely to see growth, did not make the list. 

Districts/LEAs with the greatest enrollment losses (by number of students)

But when enrollment dips are considered by percentages, charters comprised half the list of the greatest student declines. 

A handful of charters and districts on this list have been marked by dysfunction. 

The Village Leadership Academy saw a 67% decline this year after it defaulted on its building loan and had to downsize to a smaller facility — the most recent development after years of financial issues. 

Peace Valley Charter has also made recent headlines over its controversial renewal — which partly drove Brian Scigliano to step down from the Idaho Public Charter Commission last spring. Scigliano disagreed with renewing the school because of its chronic, repeated violations and “dysfunctional board.” 

Also on the list: West Bonner County School District, which has been engulfed in controversy surrounding Branden Durst’s brief tenure as the district’s leader; and Council School District, where Superintendent Clete Edmunson recently stepped down amid pending litigation and a school board investigation. 

Districts/LEAs with the greatest enrollment losses (by percentage of students)*

*For districts/LEAs with 50 students or more

Charters and online schools see the most growth

Charters and online schools were the most likely to see the greatest enrollment gains according to student numbers (as opposed to percentages). Of those with the most student increases, only two were traditional districts (Oneida County includes an online school that enrolls students statewide), and both are located in rural East Idaho. 

Districts/LEAs with the greatest enrollment gains (by number of students)

In terms of the greatest gains by percentage, charters entirely dominated. And many with the most growth either have brand new buildings, or have plans for a new facility in the works. 

This year, Pinecrest opened a new “state-of-the-art” building, after the school outgrew its former building. The Academy added a middle school, so it now consists of Connor Academy (K-5) and Alpine Academy Middle (6-8). 

And three schools on this list — Gem Prep: Meridian South, Elevate Academy Nampa, and Elevate Academy North — received about $10 million each last year in bonds or loans for a new building. 

Districts/LEAs with the greatest enrollment gains (by percentage of students)*

*For those with 50 students or more

Further Reading:

• Department of Labor dives into statewide growth data
• New federal charter school grant would target quality as growth slows
• Boise schools manage declining enrollment

EdNews Data Analyst Randy Schrader contributed to this report. 

But she would soon associate it with punishment; her Blackfoot School District teachers slapped her and washed her mouth out until she dropped her native tongue and started speaking English.

“That was the discipline back then,” she said. “You can’t speak your language and if you do, you get hit or you get punished.”

As an adult, Hernandez returned to the district where she was shamed for being different. And she came with a mission: to ensure that the next generations of Shoshone-Bannock students would feel welcome at school.

That calling became a career.

Next year, Hernandez will celebrate her 40th year as an Indian Education Paraeducator at Donald D. Stalker Elementary. Her impact on the school is visible: Every staff member wears a handmade beaded lanyard, Native American heritage is celebrated with a designated week and month, and all students learn about Shoshone-Bannock culture — from why boys have long hair, to the significance of traditions like powwows.

At a school located just miles from the Fort Hall Reservation, where the U.S. government forcibly moved the Shoshone-Bannock tribes, Hernandez is the only Shoshone-Bannock person on staff. To the dozens of Native American students who attend the school — and many others, as well — she’s become ‘grandma,’ or ‘huttsi’ in Shoshoni, an adult who makes them feel loved, seen and celebrated. 

Click to view slideshow.

Hernandez has become the adult she needed as a kid, and wants students to know that what makes them different — like having long hair — is also what makes them special. 

“For the boys, the hair is important because it shows who they are,” she said. “It’s where their power is.”

Click to view slideshow.

She’s taught generations of students about Shoshone-Bannock culture, including what she estimated to be about half of the tribes’ members.

“(Shoshone-Bannock) families feel comfortable knowing she’s here.” Anthony Peterson, the principal at D.D. Stalker, said. “She’s taught generations of kids and grandkids.”

Hernandez proudly recites former students’ achievements: Some have gone on to run tribal businesses and casinos, another was nominated for a Grammy, and yet another recently wrote a children’s book. 

And she sees the promise in her current students, who she encourages to become leaders, in part by educating them about Shoshone-Bannock historical figures. 

There’s Chief Pocatello, who was Hernandez’ great, great grandfather. And there’s Minnie Burton, Hernandez’ great-grandmother who led the Fort Shaw boarding school basketball team to a world championship at the 1904 World Fair. 

“You can be leaders,” she told a classroom of fourth-graders recently. “If you have it in your heart, you can do it.”

Click to view slideshow.

Some students, like Tia Worley, are already leading the way. Worley is a Shoshone-Bannock tribal member and the student council president. 

“She’s a really good girl and she’s pretty outspoken when she needs to be,” Hernandez said. 

Worley said she couldn’t imagine being at a school that didn’t have cultural activities like the ones Hernandez provides — making crafts, hosting powwows, reading books about Native American characters. 

“It would feel really weird because I’ve always had that at school,” Worley said. “There would be no point of being at school if they didn’t teach my culture.”

Hernandez knows what she means.

Kicked out of Blackfoot High, Hernandez returned to better the district — but there’s still work to do

Hernandez recalled one especially painful memory from her time as a student at Blackfoot High. She’d gotten in a fight, and the principal called her dad into his office. During that conversation, he referred to Hernandez as a “little lying Indian girl,” and he told Hernandez she wouldn’t amount to anything. 

Hernandez was kicked out of school, and her dad sent her to a boarding school in Santa Fe. Eventually, she earned an associate’s degree in fine arts, and came back to work in the district where she was made to feel less than her peers.

And the person who signed her hiring paperwork was that same principal. 

“I proved him wrong,” Hernandez said. 

Now she’s an institution in the district, known for making everyone — not just Native students —feel welcome.

For example, Hernandez painstakingly crafts a beaded lanyard for every person on staff, including student teachers. Each takes her about six hours to complete, but she says it’s worth the effort and ensures that Shoshone-Bannock students see their culture supported and represented by every adult. 

Gift-giving is an important part of Shoshone-Bannock culture, Hernandez said. It’s something she teaches students, who learn to make traditional Indigenous crafts like God’s Eyes and beadwork, then share them with others. 

Every year, fourth-graders go to Grand Teton National Park and bring their handmade gifts for staff at the lodge where they stay and for park rangers. The park sits on traditional Shoshone-Bannock lands — a fact Peterson said Hernandez taught him. 

“(Hernandez) helps us as non-Native educators to learn the culture and be sensitive to certain things,” he said. “It’s always helpful when you have somebody who can bridge those cultural differences.”

Hernandez also facilitates powwows every year, both in her district and in neighboring districts, to share Shoshone-Bannock culture and to let everyone know “we’re still here.” During what’s becoming an annual field trip to the reservation, she also teaches traditional games, like rock juggling and the shinny stick game. 

From a kindergartener punished for speaking Shoshoni, to an educator sharing her language and culture with new generations, Hernandez is evidence of the progress that’s been made at the Blackfoot School District. 

But there’s still work to do, she said. 

“There’s still a negative perception toward different races that we need to work on,” she said. “It’s still prevalent in the district. As a community we need to learn from and respect each other.” 

Notably, more than half of students tested are not where they should be. The test was newly developed last year, so this year’s results can only be compared to last year’s. 

The science ISAT is administered in fifth grade, eighth grade, and once in high school — as compared to the math and ELA portions of the test, which are administered to grades 3-8, and once in high school. 

That means fewer students overall take the science portion of the exam — about 66,000, compared to about 159,000 who took math and ELA — so results at the school level are often masked to protect student privacy. Because of that, EdNews is unable to provide top 10 lists by school like we do with math and ELA results. 

However, there is enough district-level data to create top 10 lists, which we’ve done below. We also take a look at the science results by grade level and demographics — which show a lack of improvement as students near graduation, and achievement gaps between the most at-risk students and their peers.

ISAT Science: top 10 lists

Before taking a look at these top 10 lists, consider these caveats:

• A number of small districts had their results redacted by the state, so they are not represented on these lists.
• These lists do not account for certain differences among districts, including: grade levels served, demographics of the students served, size/enrollment (data at smaller districts skews more easily), or geographical location (rural vs. urban).
• Because of that, these comparisons are imperfect, but do provide an idea of where some of the state’s top performers are when it comes to science.
• For a complete list of districts and their scores, go here. Districts with no scores entered had their results redacted.

Top ten traditional districts statewide

This list was dominated by smaller, more rural districts that are located throughout the state. The barrier to entry (48.3%) was much lower than it was on the nontraditional LEA list below (64.7%).

Top 10 nontraditional local education agencies statewide

Grade level trends and achievement gaps

The grade level breakdowns show a slight trend of decline as students near graduation:

Demographic breakdowns show that achievement gaps persist: Students learning English and students with disabilities had the lowest proficiency rates (9.3% and 10.8% respectively), while Asian students and students from military families had the highest (51% and 46.6% respectively). 

Achievement targets are not established for the science portion of the exam, as they are for the math and ELA sections. 

Further coverage of the 2023 ISAT: 

• Achievement gaps and the pandemic are still stifling learning, test results reveal
• State says test results are mixed; but data shows mostly losses
• Bright spots: The top 10 lists from Idaho’s 2023 ISAT results

EdNews Data Analyst Randy Schrader contributed to this report. 

It was a head-scratching conclusion — one made without evidence to back it up — because the IRI is specific to Idaho, which would seemingly make results difficult to compare nationally. Officials said the assertion was based on a report from Istation, the state’s IRI vendor. 

EdNews requested the report. After reviewing it, we found that the comparisons between Idaho students and their national peers were often apples-to-oranges — they compared results from different years, or using unlike metrics, or from students with different economic backgrounds. 

Plus, an Istation document said that “nationwide trends are similar to what are seen in Idaho” — not that Idaho performed markedly better. 

The evidence provided by the SDE also seemed to undermine its argument that a new norming system might have caused the decline in proficiency levels from spring 2022 to spring 2023 — students outside of Idaho were just as likely to perform the same as or better than they did with the old norms.

Here’s what we learned:

The IRI results were compared to results from a similar — but different — test

Istation administers tests called the Istation Reading Formative Assessment to 493,000 students across 42 states. Scott Graf, communications director for the SDE, said those tests are similar to the IRI in content, question type and length, but are not exactly the same. 

Results were compared using different metrics

The chart below, provided to EdNews, helps show the different metrics. At first glance, it’s easy to see that 65% of Idaho kindergarteners were reading at grade level, while only 42% of students nationally reached “Tier 1”. However, Tier 1 means that students performed better than 40% or more of their peers — which is not the same as “at grade level.” 

Idaho students’ 2022-23 results were compared to national students’ 2018-2019 results 

The SDE based its claims on another dataset as well: that of average percentile rank. 

In Idaho, students had “higher mean percentile ranks at the end of the year” than their peers, as the graph below shows. 

However, Idaho students were not compared to peers’ performance this year — instead, Istation compared them to peers’ performance in 2018-2019. So what the graphs really show is that Idaho students are doing better now than their peers were four years ago. 

Idaho students were compared to peers who are not “nationally representative”

Istation did compare Idaho students with their peers in 2022-2023 for percentile growth — and they outperformed them. However, Istation notes that the peers Idaho students are compared to are not “nationally representative” because “there are more students from Title 1 schools than are typical in a national sample.”

Title 1 schools have a large population of students from low-income families and receive federal funding. 

Half the time, new norms didn’t result in declines outside of Idaho

The charts show something else interesting, too. SDE officials claimed that the lower exam results may have occurred because of new norming — something that takes place periodically “to address changes in the population.” 

This time, Istation based the new norms on the 2018-2019 school year “due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the educational system and the learning lags evident in reading.”

“This was to avoid having norms that were too easy and thus would not serve the purpose of identifying students at risk of reading failure,” a document provided to EdNews read. 

However, the charts provided by the SDE show that outside of Idaho, student scores were just as likely to  increase or stay the same with the new norming system as they were to decrease.

Pay attention to the black and blue bars (representing old norms and new norms, respectively) in the slides below. You’ll see that on 12 of 24 of the bar graphs, the scores increased or stayed the same with the new norms. 

Click to view slideshow.

Because the datasets between Idaho students and their peers in other states are so different, the claim that Idaho students outperformed their peers is questionable at best. 

“So, I don’t think the campus climate is very welcoming,” Herkshan said. Herkshan is an undergraduate advisor and mentor in Idaho State’s geosciences department. She’s also an Idaho State alumnus.

She was one of six Shoshone-Bannock tribal members who described their experiences as current or recent Idaho State students at the Shoshone-Bannock Casino Hotel on Saturday. The panel was part of the Western Literature Association conference, which brought academics from around the country to the Fort Hall reservation to discuss tribal sovereignty and sustainability. Idaho State students and Shoshone-Bannock tribal members were also invited to attend. 

The panelists said they were often misunderstood or unseen at Idaho State, and called on the university’s education leaders and professors to learn about, listen to, and recognize Indigenous communities and students. 

“We have leaders who are horrifically uninformed about the tribes,” Herkshan said, adding that it’s frustrating because professors and university administrators are experts at learning. 

Panelists said professors and teachers also need to recognize the unique knowledge that Indigenous students carry. Too often, educators approach Native students with the attitude that they need to “lead us out of whatever under-education we have,” Herkshan said. “Many students come to the classroom with so much experience and knowledge different from white students’, and it’s not acknowledged, it’s not praised, it’s not honored.”

“Come at (Indigenous students) like equals and know that they might not have a degree, but they do know a lot of things,” said Zachery Wadsworth, wetlands and nurseries manager for the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes’ fisheries program. 

Shoshone-Bannock students have faced other barriers at Idaho State, too — like an ineffective tribal advisory board, a disconnect between the tribes and the university, and advising that wasn’t tailored to Native students’ needs.

Idaho State’s tribal advisory board is comprised of Idaho State staff and Shoshone-Bannock tribal members and aims to strengthen relationships between the two entities and enrich educational opportunities for tribal students. But Herkshan said the advisory board “has no teeth” and “there is nothing that holds them accountable.”

“We don’t know who they advise. Are they advising each other? Because they don’t often speak with the university president,” she said. 

Native American students are also made to feel invisible because there are few celebrations of their culture on campus, and because many Shoshone-Bannock students do not live on campus. Instead, many commute in from Fort Hall, Dana Edmo-Hernandez, the manager for the tribal youth education program and a former Idaho State student, said. 

Plus, as multiple panelists noted, most staff members and students don’t make the effort to come to the reservation — to watch powwows or participate in other events — and see Shoshone-Bannock students in their element and where they’re most comfortable. And that means non-Native faculty and staff don’t get that humbling “role reversal” of feeling uncomfortable in a place where they’re the minority, Angela Marie Eldredge, a teacher at Chief Tahgee Elementary Academy and former Idaho State student, said. 

There’s more that staff could do, too — like encouraging Shoshone-Bannock students to earn an associate’s degree, instead of just pushing a bachelor’s. An associate’s can help Native American students stay in school because in just two years, they earn a degree, Marquette Bagley, big game and wildlife program manager for the tribes’ fish and wildlife department, said. That more immediate reward can entice students to stay enrolled in college. 

Amanda Zink, an English professor at Idaho State and the panel’s moderator, also said that many Idaho State professors could take a cue from Indigenous culture — where often, relationships matter more than progress or power. 

“We need to move away from hierarchy and toward relationships for their own sake,” she said. 

Then there’s the matter of curriculum. Zink asked panelists how it feels to learn in a state where there’s been a “campaign against diversity” and attempts to “whitewash state history.”

“We are a part of the history of the U.S., before (it became a nation), during (the revolution) and even now,” Terrance Jay Tso, who works for the tribes’ community development financial institution and the tribal housing opportunities program, said. “We’re just going to have to keep fighting (to get Indigenous perspectives in the curriculum) and keep talking and make sure our voices are heard.”

Tso has introduced himself as Native American in classes before — which he often does because people otherwise assume he’s Mexican — only to have classmates come up to him afterward in surprise: “(Native Americans) are still here?”

“When it comes to the curriculum, and just everything, Native Americans are always an afterthought,” Tso said. “We’re just forgotten.”

Further reading: Take a look at our series on how tribes are fighting to be seen in Idaho classrooms, and more coverage on the conference — including its keynote speaker, a renowned journalist, visiting a tribal high school and tribal leaders calling on the education community to do more for Native students. 

Matsaw, a Shoshone-Bannock tribal member, said teachers repeatedly failed to recognize her identity and incorporate Native American perspectives and history in the classroom. 

And Native students today still don’t feel seen in the classroom. 

“Whether it’s K-12 or college students, there’s an immense need to have representation, to have recognition, to have appropriateness and cultural relevance,” Matsaw, a teacher and graduate student, said. “Currently, that’s not what’s happening. A lot of our students are having to navigate and function in a dysfunctional place of learning.”

Matsaw was one of three panelists, all Indigenous education leaders, to speak Saturday about tribal education at the Western Literature Association conference. All said the institution of education is failing Native students, but teachers, education leaders, and politicians are in a position to change that. 

That’s why Matsaw decided to become an educator and create the classroom she desired. It wasn’t an easy decision: “It’s hard for me … I’m choosing to engage in a profession that has hurt my family.”

Historically, the United States government weaponized education to oppress and weaken tribal communities and take their land — a tactic that was found to be cheaper than war. 

Even so, Matsaw decided to go through the University of Idaho’s Indigenous Knowledge for Effective Education program, which “prepares and certifies culturally responsive Indigenous teachers to meet the unique needs of Native American students in K-12 schools.”

She found a community of like-minded people there and imagined being a K-12 teacher forever. But once in the classroom, she realized she was limited in her role — she couldn’t advocate for her students the way she wanted. 

And her students encouraged her to do something to better the education system for Native kids, on a larger scale. 

So Matsaw is back at U of I, earning a PhD from the college of education, health, and human science. She’s also an instructor for the IKEEP program and is the Shoshone-Bannock site coordinator for U of I’s cultivating relationships program. 

“I have to figure out how to work in these two worlds, where I have to know the rules of Eurocentric education in order to advocate for my community and our knowledge system,” she said.

Native teachers face unwelcoming school environments

One problem Matsaw’s trying to solve: how to best support Native teachers in the classroom. 

Through research, she’s already identified a root cause behind the lack of Indigenous educators in Idaho: Native American teachers are going into classrooms, but schools “aren’t ready to receive them.”

Having Native American teachers on staff can lead to critical conversations that become uncomfortable, Matsaw said. That discomfort can lead to retaliation, which leads to turnover and low retention rates among Indigenous staff. 

“We see a lot of Native teachers that are so excited to return to their communities and their schools, and then they don’t stay,” Matsaw said. “And that’s a problem.”

And she said Native people who decide to become teachers have to make hard choices — like taking a test that contains inaccuracies about Native people, and having to choose an answer they know is wrong. 

“But you have to pick it in order to pass the class, to become the teacher, to be in a space where you can talk and learn with your Indigenous students,” she said. “It’s hard.”

Envisioning a better education — one that combines Eurocentric and tribal ways of learning

As an IKEEP instructor, Matsaw also teaches a class for Native high school students interested in becoming teachers. 

“The really beautiful thing is that we’re using this (institution of education) that has historically harmed our people to come together and create the space to advocate for what a better school would look like,” she said. 

Inside a schoolhouse, students said they learn how to use a computer, or “really generic science,” “really generic math,” and “things that they need to check off in order to go to college.”

Outside of the schoolhouse and in their communities, students learn about being better people and relatives, taking care of the land, taking care of the water, and practicing their ceremonies.

Matsaw then challenged students to envision a school where both types of learning were combined. 

“When you start to imagine this, you see that cultural relevance that is really needed,” she said. “It’s just rallying around what young people want to learn about.”

And Matsaw said cultural relevance is more than “sprinkling something (Shoshone-Bannock) on it” or putting a feather in the corner of a handout. 

Non-native teachers also have the power to center Native American voices

Teachers who aren’t Native can create space — or elbowroom, as Matsaw calls it — for Native students to become the experts. 

Teachers also have the power to decide whose “presence, perspectives and political nationhood” are represented in the classroom. 

Yvette Towersap, a Shoshone-Bannock tribal member and the tribes’ former policy analyst, said that teachers might face pushback when they do incorporate culture or diverse perspectives. 

“You may have some resistance from within your own school or within your school board,” Towersap said. “That is a reality … That’s what we have to deal with.”

But if so, Towersap encouraged teachers to reach out to the tribes for support. 

Matsaw also said non-Native teachers should visit and collaborate with tribal schools. 

“But it has to be deeper than powwows,” Matsaw said. 

Tribes, the State Board, and the state superintendent can “do better” too

Allen Mayo, member of the Choctaw tribe and administrator at Shoshone-Bannock High, a tribally-run federal school, said they’ve been working on becoming STEM and project-focused, incorporating more Shoshoni language instruction, and potentially adding the Bannock language as a class.

Towersap said education is a treaty right, and one of the Shoshone-Bannock tribes’ strongest attributes. 

But she also said the tribes aren’t “strong enough in advocating for K-12.”

The State Board of Education and state superintendent can do better, she said, but then “tribes need to follow through.”

“The community has got to step up and let the schools know you care about your kids’ education,” she said. 

Further reading: Take a look at our series on how tribes are fighting to be seen in Idaho classrooms, and more coverage on the conference — including its keynote speaker, a renowned journalist, visiting a tribal high school and Shoshone-Bannock students saying they were often misunderstood or unseen at Idaho State.

The back-and-forth centers around a lawsuit: Neal charged former Idaho Falls Superintendent Jim Shank and district spokesperson Margaret Wimborne for inappropriately using public funds to promote a 2022 bond issue that ultimately failed.

Neal said he felt obligated to pursue the charges after the sheriff’s department referred the case to him, and after evidence showed “undeniable” guilt. 

Neal fined the two district employees a combined $375, but the case ballooned when — instead of paying the fine on behalf of their employees — Idaho Falls trustees hired a lawyer (at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars) to fight the charge. 

Since July, $60K spent on attorneys:
EdNews asked LaOrange and Wimborne in late September how much their attorneys had been paid so far to fight Neal’s charges/the tax commission. Both said they would provide the information, but had not done so as of Oct. 17.

An EdNews investigation shows that the Idaho Falls School District spent $63,016 on legal fees in fiscal year 2022-23. In July, August, and September (FY 23-24), the district has spent another $60K, approximately, on attorneys. The vast majority has gone to the law firm Hawley Troxell.

Now, both the district and prosecutors’ office are involved in extended litigation at taxpayers’ expense. 

LaOrange said the district is fighting the charges against Shank and Wimborne because they “did nothing wrong so they should not have to pay a fine, no matter the amount.”

Plus, the charges carry a cost that’s more than financial.

“The claims the district violated the state’s election laws damage the district’s reputation,” LaOrange wrote in a statement to EdNews. “They erode trust with parents and patrons, and that trust is critical to the work we do.”

Neal said he “didn’t pick this fight” — and doesn’t want to be part of it.

“I think the public perception is that this is a squabble between me and the school board,” Neal said. “I don’t want the public impression to be that the prosecuting attorney of Bonneville County has declared war on the district.”

And Neal said some people think he’s charged school district employees to appease his political base, which he said is not the case.

“That would be absolutely dumb,” he said. “These guys got 70% approval (at the last school election) so if I’m picking the 30% side I’m not very politically astute.”

Neal is especially worried about public perception of him as the school district’s antagonist because there’s another legal matter that pits him against Idaho Falls school leaders: the Idaho State Tax Commission found that Idaho Falls’ $33 million plant facilities levy was not valid — a finding trustees decided to fight in court.

If a judge upholds the commission’s finding, it would fall to Neal to enforce. 

In both cases, Neal said he’s acting out of obligation, and compared himself to an umpire tasked with objectively calling balls and strikes. 

Plus, failing to charge the district employees just because doing so would be unpopular would amount to “political cowardice,” Neal said. 

He plans to hold a town hall forum Tuesday night to address community concerns about the matter. 

For a breakdown of Neal’s responses to LaOrange, and district comments and updates on the $33 million levy that’s in question, read on below. 

Neal: “Any suggestion that I have ‘chosen sides’ is simply untrue”

In a statement issued Monday, Neal wrote out detailed, bullet-point responses to four critiques from LaOrange. 

Below are LaOrange’s critiques, followed by Neal’s responses (edited for length and clarity; a full version of his rebuttals can be found here). 

LaOrange’s Critique: “The concern (over inappropriate use of tax dollars) should have been brought to the district’s attention promptly, so it could have been addressed at the time, not months after the fact.” 

Neal’s Response:

• Neal said taxpayers did raise concerns with the district prior to the election, and that it’s not his office’s job to provide legal advice to those who may be breaking the law. 
• The district “had undeniably not followed the advice of their legal counsel” regarding “the limitations on the District’s ability to use district funds to advocate for bond issues.”
• Two district attorneys asked Neal to delay the charges until after the May election, which Neal agreed to do “because we do not seek to influence such elections in any way.” The delay in making the charges was done as a courtesy. 

LaOrange’s Critique: “It’s inappropriate to “file misdemeanor charges against individual district employees who are working on behalf of our students and patrons.” 

Neal’s Response:

• Wimborne and Shank’s alleged violation of the public integrity in elections act is a civil penalty, not a crime. “The employees were not charged with a crime. They were not arraigned, they did not enter a plea of guilty or not guilty and it does not appear on any record of their criminal history.”
• Working “on behalf of students and patrons” does not provide immunity to those who violate the act. 
• Neal writes that while he has “absolute discretion” over whether to pursue legal actions against individuals, that discretion must “be exercised in the interest of justice, and without fear or favor.” “To avoid enforcement of the law simply because it would be politically unpopular is the definition of political cowardice.”

LaOrange’s Critique: “The prosecutor’s office should not be spending so much time, money and resources on this case.” 

Neal’s Response:

• Neal agreed, but said his office is “being forced to litigate this enforcement action” because Idaho Falls trustees hired attorneys to defend Shank and Wimborne, as well as to challenge the Idaho State Tax Commission’s determination that the levy was illegal.
• His office would rather be “prosecuting criminals, providing legal advice to Bonneville County and fulfilling our other constitutional and statutory duties.”
• His office has not asked for “any additional allocation of public money to litigate this matter,” while he said trustees “specifically authorized the expenditure of public money to hire outside attorneys to litigate this action.”

LaOrange’s Critique: “LaOrange said the prosecutor’s office has “blatantly ignored Sunshine Act violations by groups who have opposed the bond,” even though the issue has been brought to their attention.” 

Neal’s Response:

• “This statement is simply untrue.”
• Neal said he only considers initiating cases “based on the results of law enforcement investigations,” not “based on emails from opposing parties or their counsel.”
• “Our office has never ‘blatantly ignored’ Sunshine Act violations brought to our attention. We have initiated action against violators of the Sunshine Act.”
• To his knowledge, all complaints have been investigated and either law enforcement or prosecutors “have determined that prosecution would not be warranted or supported by adequate evidence.”
• “Finally, it does not matter whether others are violating the law. This is the common ‘but other drivers are speeding too!’ defense. Two wrongs do not make a right, and certainly in no way excuses actions which violate the law.”
  

Neal also defended his decision to charge Shank and Wimborne, and asserted his impartiality in the matter.

“Any suggestion that I have ‘chosen sides’ is simply untrue. In exercising these statutory duties my role, as coined by Chief Justice Roberts, is to objectively call “balls and strikes,” he wrote. “I have never personally taken a stand on these issues, and I have no personal stake in their outcome, as I do not live in their taxing district and I do not have any children in their school district.”

LaOrange: “…We were NOT speeding so why are we being ticketed”

According to Idaho statute, school districts can share factual information about bonds and levies, including “cost of indebtedness, intended purpose, condition of property to be addressed, date and location of election … or other applicable information necessary to provide transparency to electors.” LaOrange contends that that’s exactly what Idaho Falls school district did last fall, in preparation for the November 2022 election.

She said certain words from election materials have been highlighted as violations of election law, because they allegedly cross the line between information and advocacy. Those words include: “need,” “aged,” and “overcrowding.”

For example, these bookmarks that were distributed include the phrase “build new school to replace overcrowded IFHS,” as well as statements like: “Our students need modern, safe, and secure schools” and “We need to address growth and crowding in schools.”

This postcard includes phrases like: “aged Idaho Falls High School.”

This mailer includes statements like: “D91 needs to address growth and overcrowding and improve safety and security.”

“These materials are factual and provide very basic information,” LaOrange wrote. “We do not believe they violate the Public Integrity in Election Act and are not counter to the district’s legal counsel.”

LaOrange also implied that Neal is unfairly prosecuting the district’s employees: “if the prosecutor wants to protect elections, then we believe he should pursue ALL possible violations of the state’s election laws and pursue them with equal vigilance.”

And she took issue with Neal’s speeding analogy: “We are not arguing ‘others are speeding too!’ We are arguing that we were NOT speeding so why are we being ticketed for speeding when the folks who passed us on the highway aren’t getting stopped or ticketed.”

Ultimately, LaOrange said district officials are focused on resolving the issue as soon as possible.

An illegal levy? With bonds so difficult to pass, Idaho districts need an answer

On Monday, Neal’s statement wasn’t the only news churning about Idaho Falls.  He also issued a press release with an update on Idaho Falls’ contested levy: An Ada County judge last week terminated a temporary injunction against the state tax commission. 

That means the matter can proceed through the court system, where a judge will determine if the $33 million levy was legal. 

LaOrange said the injunction lift is a “procedural matter.”

“D91 initiated the lawsuit because it was not clear the question would be resolved in time for tax bills to be correct if we waited for the tax commission to refer the case to the prosecuting attorney,” LaOrange wrote in a statement to EdNews. “We were right to do so, and he has done the right thing to let the court decide in the case we filed … It is now up to the Idaho courts to settle this matter.”

The levy is in question because the district already has another plant facilities levy in place, and the tax commission said only one is allowed — but Idaho Falls’ attorneys say otherwise. 

Because both levies combined meet the requirements of a single levy — not to be on the books for more than 10 years, or to exceed .4% of the district’s total value — the new levy is valid, they argue. 

“As it becomes increasingly difficult to pass school bonds in Idaho, school districts across the state need to be able to utilize all available tools allowed in Idaho statutes to raise the monies needed for facility upgrades and improvements,” LaOrange wrote. “The plant levy is one such tool so if there is confusion about how this levy can be used, then it is critical that a court rule on those questions.”

EdNews Data Analyst Randy Schrader contributed to this report. 

And the state’s most at-risk learners, including many students of color, those with disabilities, and those from low-income families, continued to score well below their peers.

That’s according to results from two of the most significant measures of learning — the Idaho Standards Achievement Test and Idaho Reading Indicator — that were released last week. The ISAT is given annually to students in grade 3-8 and once in high school. The spring IRI scores are from k-3 students. 

Mining that data by demographics and grade levels has illuminated other trends, too:

• English Language Arts (ELA) proficiency tends to increase as students move up to high school, but math proficiency decreases. 
• Students seem to struggle with math more than with ELA or reading — most students, from nearly all subgroups measured, are not at the level they should be. 
• Students from military families have demonstrated notable resilience — they are the only subgroup to have improved their proficiency levels in ELA and math since 2019. 

For further breakdowns of IRI and ISAT data from 2019 to 2023, check out the tables below. 

ISAT ELA

For all the charts below:

• Scores in red indicate they were lower than the previous testing year’s.
• The ISAT was not administered in 2020 due to the pandemic.
• A longer ISAT was administered in 2023, and State Department officials said 2023 declines could be due to that. 

Grade level data

In grades 3-8, scores are still below pre-pandemic levels. High schoolers, on the other hand, show slow but steady improvement since 2019. 

Less than half of Idaho’s third and fourth graders are where they should be on the ELA portion of the ISAT. And all grade levels are below the state’s target of 68.7% of students scoring proficient or advanced. 

Students do seem to build proficiency as they go on in school, generally improving from half or less than half scoring at proficient or higher in grade 3, to most scoring proficient or higher at the high school level. 

Demographic data

Education leaders have different expectations for different subgroups of students when it comes to achievement on the ISAT. They set the lowest bar for students learning English, with a target of 37.9% scoring proficient or higher. The bar is highest for Asian students, with a target of 76.7% scoring proficient or higher.

Idaho leaders have different academic expectations for different groups of students. Read more about those varying goals at idahoschools.org (click on ‘view details’). Goals for 2022 are available at Idaho EdNews’ Report Card. 

Of all the student subgroups below whose performance was measured, the following had less than half achieving proficiency: Native American or Alaskan Native students; Black/African American students; Hispanic or Latino students; Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students; male students; students from low income families; students learning English; students with disabilities; students in foster care; students who are homeless; students from migrant families.

And only students in foster care and from military families had proficiency levels higher than they were pre-pandemic. Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander students and students from low-income families have seen continuous declines since 2019. 

ISAT MATH

For all the charts below:

• Scores in red indicate they were lower than the previous testing year’s.
• The ISAT was not administered in 2020 due to the pandemic.
• A longer ISAT was administered in 2023, and State Department officials said 2023 declines could be due to that. 

Grade Level Data

As with the ISAT ELA, students in grades 3-8 are still not achieving proficiency at the same rates they were pre-pandmic. High school students, however, have improved since 2019. 

But math grade trends show the inverse of ELA trends: students seem to lose math proficiency as they go on. About half of students score proficient or better in math in grade 3, which regresses to about a third of students showing proficiency by high school. 

Demographic data

Education leaders have different expectations for different subgroups of students when it comes to achievement on the ISAT. On the math section, they set the lowest bar for students learning English, with a target of 38.1% scoring proficient or higher. The bar is highest for Asian students, with a target of 71.2% scoring proficient or higher. 

Of all the student subgroups below whose performance was measured, all but Asian students had fewer than half of students achieving proficiency. 

And only students who were Asian, in foster care, and from military families had proficiency levels higher than they were pre-pandemic. 

IRI

For all the charts below:

• Scores in red indicate they were lower than the previous testing year’s.
• The IRI was not administered in spring 2020 due to the pandemic. 
• New data norms were applied to proficiency scales in 2023, and State Department officials said last spring’s declines could be due to that. 

Grade Level Data

Proficiency levels in grades K-3 are still lower than they were pre-pandemic. 

In all grades tested, about a third of students are not reading at the level they should be. 

Demographic Data

Of the subgroups measured below, the following had less than half of students reading at grade level: Native American or Alaska Native students; Black/African American students; students learning English; students with disabilities; students in foster care; students who are homeless; and students from migrant families. 

The following had proficiency levels higher than they were pre-pandemic: Native American or Alaska students; Asian students, and students with disabilities.

Students from military families and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Island students have shown continuous declines since 2019. 

For the full dataset of ISAT results by demographic and grade level from 2019-2023, go here. For the full dataset of IRI results by demographic and grade level from 2019-2023, go here. 

EdNews Data Analyst Randy Schrader contributed to this report. 

The former fourth-grade teacher says the political climate, public distrust, and closed-mindedness drove her away.

In this episode, she tells us more about her decision to leave the state and a profession she loved.

That’s the philosophy behind The Village: A Place for Youth and Families, a new center dedicated to getting youth back on track, in school, and out of the court system. 

It’s the brainchild of Todd Mauger, the chief juvenile probation officer for Bannock County, who is striving to ensure that no child goes without the services they need — whether it’s tobacco cessation classes, group therapy, or psychiatric help. 

And it shouldn’t take a citation — being written up by a law enforcement officer for offenses like tobacco use or truancy — to get them.

The Village in Action — here’s how it works:
—A law enforcement officer cites a child or teen for misbehavior or criminal activity OR school officials or families seek help on behalf of a child who is struggling.
—Staff at The Village then assess and screen the child, seeing if supports and services — rather than punitive measures like court and detention — could help address the root problems they’re facing.
—The child can return to the Village for counseling, substance abuse classes, or other services.
—The Village also serves as a place for children to wait if they’ve been arrested or detained, and officers cannot reach their parents.

Instead, Mauger envisions a system where children get the services they need early on, and avoid traveling down a path that leads them to the criminal justice system.

By partnering with families, schools, hospitals, and agencies like child protective services, Mauger and his team at The Village hope to address problems when they first arise. It’s a shift that will likely take years — but it’ll be worth the investment. 

The Village is one of eight such centers around the state, which were funded in part (or in whole) by grants from the Idaho Department of Juvenile Justice. The Legislature invested $6.5 million so each of the state’s judicial districts would have a “safe teen assessment center” — a statewide implementation that’s the first of its kind nationwide. 

At stake are kids who really aren’t criminally-minded, Mauger said — but who are often coping with difficult situations that are beyond their years. And once they’re entered into the juvenile justice system, they’re often “stereotyped, isolated, and shamed,” Mauger said. 

And then a toxic cycle is perpetuated — kids come to see themselves as dysfunctional or as juvenile delinquents, Kate Miller, a truancy court coordinator, said. “We’re just trying to break the cycle.”

So instead of ending up in the “cold, hard” environment of the juvenile justice system, kids can instead go to The Village, where bright motivational sayings fill the walls, and where a cadre of caring adults is waiting to assess them and link them to services. 

Click to view slideshow.

“I want the families to know that there’s an open door somewhere, and people that are genuinely wanting to help,” Amy Price, a prevention specialist, said. 

Building a rapport and relationship with families is another of The Village’s missions. Families are welcome to reach out directly for help and support, and staff at The Village can now spend much more time getting to know them. 

Beforehand, Mauger said he would only get five to ten minutes to talk with families before a court hearing, and would have to try to match them with services based on that minimal information. Now, he can spend hours getting to know them. 

“We’re really getting to the nuts and bolts of it. In the past you’d work with a family for about three months before you really understood the dynamics of what’s going on,” he said. 

Previously, he might have identified that a child had a conflict disorder, but now he can also determine whether it’s rooted in trauma, anxiety, or depression. 

And providing support to those kids works, frequently keeping them out of trouble and out of court. 

Mauger said there are about 1,000 youth citations every year in Bannock County, and usually about 58% of those children are taken off the juvenile justice track and paired with services — which is called “diverting.” And 85% of those students and families are successful. 

The services provided can even be life-saving. 

“If a kid’s suicidal, getting them into the right counseling could take weeks — and they don’t have weeks,” Mauger said. 

Some children are on six-month wait lists to see a psychiatrist. But at The Village, a university psychiatrist is available every Monday afternoon, so kids can get in much sooner. 

Whether families need help motivating their teenager to attend class or cutting through red tape to get their child services needed, The Village is there to help — preferably before law enforcement officers or judges ever get involved.

“We are so excited about this facility and what it will mean for our local youth and their families,” Mauger said in a press release. “Kids will no longer be funneled into juvenile detention or probation for problems that can be solved at home with a little help from our community resources.”

“I knew instinctively that I like to tell stories,” he said. 

Today, he’s a renowned journalist: He was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, has interviewed world leaders like George W. Bush and the Dalai Lama, and is currently the editor-at-large for North America’s largest Indigenous news source: Indian Country Today. 

And Wednesday, he returned to the reservation that was his launchpad. His first stop — before making a keynote speech for a major academic conference and receiving a Distinguished Achievement Award — was Shoshone-Bannock Jr./Sr High. 

Before an audience of Indigenous youth, he told the story of his life and career — one that started right here in Idaho. 

“With high school students you have to make sure they know that there’s these new opportunities out there that they may not have thought about,” Trahant, a member of the Shoshone-Bannock tribes, said. “If I reach one person who says ‘Yeah, I could do that’ (it’s worth it).”

Trahant’s first job was at a radio station as a basketball commentator. From there, he became editor at Sho-Ban News, overseeing its rebirth after a decade of dormancy, and its transition from a monthly to weekly paper. 

He went on to become editor of the Navajo Times, an editor at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and a columnist for The Seattle Times. Trahant also produced a piece for PBS’ Frontline called “The Silence,” about sexual abuse by priests in an Alaskan Native village. 

And he taught at a number of universities.

Seven years ago, he was pulled from academia when he was teaching at the University of Florida and got a call — would he like to bring Indian Country Today, which had gone defunct, back to life?

“That was just something I couldn’t say no to,” he said. 

Since then, the nonprofit news organization has grown exponentially. It started with a budget of $300,000 and three employees — and now has a $6 million budget and 40 employees. 

“And they’re all jobs that any of you could have,” Trahant told students. 

He encouraged them to attend Arizona State University, where Indian Country Today is based, and to become paid interns, or part-time student journalists. 

And there are other opportunities awaiting Indigenous youth, too, Trahant said. Deb Haaland, the country’s first Native American cabinet secretary, and Peggy Flanagan, lieutenant governor of Minnesota and member of the White Earth band of Ojibwe, show what the future can hold.

“If we’re going to look at the real dimension of what’s possible, those are the kinds of things where you really make a change,” Trahant said. 

Allen Mayo, Sho-Ban High’s administrator, said many people never leave the reservation, and talks like Trahant’s can get students thinking beyond Fort Hall.

“It’s good to have a different perspective on what’s out there.”

About 91,400 students in grades K-3 took the exam, and about 31,400 were not at the level they should be. 

Overall, Idaho students dropped in proficiency from 69.1% reading at grade level in spring 2022, to 66.6% reading at grade level in spring 2023. The State Department of Education said the decline is due to a new norming system. 

Each spring and fall, Idaho students in kindergarten through third grade take the Idaho Reading Indicator (IRI). The assessment is used to gauge how well Idaho students are reading. 

But it’s not all bad news. 

Here’s a look at the schools and districts throughout the state where students are performing the best and showing the most improvement. 

We’ve grouped the highest performers into the following categories:

• traditional schools
• charter, magnet, and nontraditional schools
• traditional districts
• nontraditional local education agencies

There’s also a ranking of the 10 largest traditional districts.

Before you look through the lists, keep a few things in mind:

• These lists don’t account for enrollment differences (with the exception of the large district ranking). In smaller schools and districts, it can be easier to achieve high proficiency rates than in large schools/districts because data more easily skews high or low based on the performance of a relative few.
• The lists also don’t account for demographic differences, such as a student body’s affluence, English proficiency, or other such factors that can affect a school’s test results. 
• Some data has been redacted by the state, so not all districts and schools are represented. 
• While we strive to compare the most similar types of schools and districts, there are still a number of differences that aren’t accounted for (like those mentioned above and others). No comparison can be completely fair because of that. 
• For complete datasets, click on the links at the bottom of the article. 

Highest Performers: Traditional schools

BY SCORE

More than half of the schools where students performed the best are located in the urban Treasure Valley. 

BY GROWTH

By comparison, schools where students improved the most from fall to spring are located throughout the state, and most are in rural areas.

Highest Performers: Charter, magnet, nontraditional schools

BY SCORE 

More than half of the top-performing nontraditional schools are in the urban Treasure Valley — as was the case with top-performing traditional schools. 

BY GROWTH

Three of the schools where students improved the most from fall to spring are in East Idaho, while another four are in the Treasure Valley. Nontraditional local education agencies had a lower bar to get on this list (15% more students reading at grade level) than traditional districts (25.4% more students reading at grade level). 

Highest Performers: Traditional Districts

BY SCORE

Many of the districts on this list are smaller and rural. 

BY GROWTH

Rural districts also dominated the top-ten list of greatest improvement from fall to spring.

Highest Performers: Nontraditional local education agencies

BY SCORE

Seven of the LEAs on this list are located in the urban Treasure Valley. 

BY GROWTH

LEAs with the greatest improvement were more geographically diverse. 

Largest traditional districts, ranked

BY SCORE

West Ada topped the list of large traditional districts with the greatest percentage of students reading at grade level. Oneida County school district, which includes an online school that enrolled students statewide, was at the bottom with fewer than half of its students reading at grade level. 

BY GROWTH

Bonneville school district, in Idaho Falls, had the greatest percentage of students improve from fall to spring. In Oneida County, student performance declined, with 11.3% fewer students reading at grade level by the end of the school year. 

Full datasets are also available for those interested: IRI scores by school; IRI scores by district; IRI growth by school; IRI growth by district. 

EdNews Data Analyst Randy Schrader contributed to this report. 

But this year, two Idaho professors are bucking tradition by hosting the Western Literature Association’s annual conference on the Fort Hall reservation and in partnership with the Shoshone-Bannock tribes — the first event of its kind, even though many scholars study Indigenous literature and culture.

“For me, this was an opportunity to put our money where our mouth is,” Amanda Zink, an English professor at Idaho State University and a co-host of the conference, said. 

The conference will support the tribes’ economy and spotlight Native American voices — more than 10% of the conference’s presenters are members of the Shoshone-Bannock tribes, including keynote speakers.

“We appreciate (Zink’s) and others’ efforts in ensuring there is a tribal voice and perspective throughout the entirety of the conference,” Lee Juan Tyler, Chairman of the Fort Hall Business Council wrote in a welcome letter to conference attendees. 

Zink and co-host Jennifer Ladino, an English professor at the University of Idaho, are upending the status quo in another way, too: many of the sessions will be free and open to the public. 

The Western Literature Association conference is being held during Indigenous Peoples’ Week. Read more about the holiday here.

That’s highly unusual, as sessions usually require a registration fee that costs hundreds of dollars. 

Zink said she and Ladino wanted to offer free sessions as a way of making the humanities “more visible, more transparent, and more welcoming,” especially because they are often criticized as not being important or worthwhile. Zink hopes opening the doors to the public will help people better understand their value. 

“We look forward, over these next few days … to working together toward a future that amplifies Indigenous knowledge, centers tribal sovereignty, and creates a more just, sustainable future in this region and beyond,” Zink and Ladino wrote in an introduction to the conference. 

Plus, the free sessions are a way to build bridges between Idaho State and the Shoshone-Bannock tribes, as well as between academia and the general public. 

It’s taken years of planning to pull off, and organizers had to overcome some initial pushback from the academic community — some thought Fort Hall was “too remote” or not “pretty enough.” And, they worried they’d be “trapped” there, with nowhere to go and nothing to do. 

“I just found that supremely ironic, because white settlers forced Native people onto these reservations in the first place,” Zink said. 

But there’s also been overwhelming support. Sponsors — including academic departments from Idaho State and the U of I, and the Idaho Humanities Council — came together to donate tens of thousands of dollars to provide the free sessions and open them to the public. 

“People have been amazingly generous at supporting this endeavor,” Zink said. 

The conference is free for Idaho State students with their Bengal card, and for all tribal members with a tribal identification card. A number of events are also open to the general public. 

“Home on the Rez: Sovereignty & Sustainability” Public Event List

The following events are free and open to the public, and free shuttles will be provided:

Wednesday, October 11:

Noon – ISU Rendezvous Suites – Mark Trahant – Indigenous Peoples’ Week presentation

7 p.m. – Shoshone-Bannock Hotel & Casino – Opening Ceremonies/Mark Trahant Keynote (reception immediately preceding)

• Trahant, editor-at-large for Indian Country Today, will be presenting “Ms. Chief: the missing history of Indigenous women as leaders.”

Thursday, October 12:

Noon – ISU Rendezvous Suites – Grace Dillon – Indigenous Peoples’ Week presentation

• Dillion is a professor of Indigenous Nations studies in the school for gender, race, and nations at Portland State University, as well as affiliate faculty in women, gender, and sexualities and the department of English.

1:30 p.m. – Shoshone-Bannock Hotel & Casino – Sho-Ban News 

• Editors and content creators from Sho-Ban News will discuss their experiences as storytellers for the Shoshone-Bannock community.

4:30 p.m. – Shoshone-Bannock Hotel & Casino – Randy’L Teton

• Teton, a Shoshone-Bannock tribal member and the official model for the U.S. Native American Dollar coin featuring Sacajawea, will present “Her Story: Sacajawea.”

7 p.m. – Shoshone-Bannock Hotel & Casino – Utama film screening and panel discussion led by Grace Dillon (reception immediately preceding)

Read through the conference program for more details and a full list of events.

Friday, October 13:

9:30 a.m. – Shoshone-Bannock Hotel & Casino – Fort Hall Business Council

• Representatvies from the Fort Hall Business Council and the Shoshone-Bannock community will discuss tribal sovereignty in everyday life.

Noon – ISU Rendezvous Suites – Michael Sheyahshe – Indigenous Peoples’ Week presentation

• Sheyahshe is an enrolled member of the Caddo Nation and author of “Native Americans in Comic Books: A Critical Study”

1:30 p.m. – Shoshone-Bannock Hotel & Casino – Living History of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes (Language and Cultural Preservation Department) 

• A presentation by members of the Shoshone-Bannock Language and Cultural Preservation Department

4:30 p.m. – Shoshone-Bannock Hotel & Casino – Michael Sheyahshe (reception immediately following)

• Sheyahshe’s presentation is title: “This is the Way: A Journey into Indigenous Representation in Comics and Media”

Visit www.westernlit.org/wla-conference-2023/ for the conference schedule and detailed event information, and email wlaconference2023@westernlit.org with any questions.

State Librarian Stephanie Bailey-White chalks it up to “banned book fatigue” — the result of contending with an unprecedented number of book challenges, facing intense scrutiny for what they stock on their shelves, and sometimes, seeing titles pulled. 

“That fatigue could lead to more self-censorship and not wanting to fight the fight every day,” Bailey-White said. “It can be exhausting for a library director and staff to face angry parents and deal with complaints on an ongoing basis.”

And there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight. Preliminary data shows a record surge of challenges in public libraries nationwide this year, according to the American Library Association. Since January, 146 titles in Idaho have been contested. 

And that’s likely an undercount, said Lance McGrath, president of the Idaho Library Association. 

So those banned book displays might be missing from the library lobby, and event calendars might not mention Banned Books Week, but censorship is still on librarians’ minds. 

“It’s just so prominent right now that even if we wanted to avoid it, we can’t,” Bailey-White said. 

Many librarians spent half of this week at the annual ILA conference, where conversation inevitably drifted to book censorship and sessions included topics like “Where’s the porn section? Recent efforts to censor materials in Idaho libraries” and “Tiered cards: A new approach to fighting against book bans.”

The focus on banned books — and efforts to protect them — takes away energy and time that could be spent on goals like bridging the digital divide, encouraging early literacy, and providing community for seniors and others who might otherwise be isolated, Bailey-White said. 

Even so, librarians can’t afford to divert their attention for too long. 

During the last legislative session, House Bill 314 — which would have allowed parents to seek $2,500 fines from libraries that distributed materials they deemed “harmful” to minors — nearly became law, and there’s sure to be another like it circulating this winter.

On top of that, the Idaho Counties Risk Management Program, which insures many public libraries, made significant reductions to its coverage that went into effect Oct. 1, as reported by the Coeur d’Alene Press. 

“They won’t cover (lawsuits) around books, either keeping them on the shelf or removing them from libraries,” Bailey-White said. “Staff — and boards — are grappling with this issue even before it hits the session … and trying to figure out the ramifications.”

Some libraries have made policy changes, such as issuing special “restricted” library cards for children, to mitigate the need for a law like HB 314. And the ILA is encouraging librarians to have conversations with lawmakers ahead of the session so they aren’t blindsided by any proposed library bills — which ILA is fully expecting to see. 

“The (ILA) is prepared to advocate for the freedom to access information and engage with ideas from the silly to the serious and the mundane to the mysterious and all things in between, on behalf of all Idahoans, from the very young to the very young at heart,” McGrath said. “Freedom of intellectual pursuits is a fundamental American ideal and a human right.”

From a historical perspective, book bans are not new, McGrath said. What has changed is the type of books challenged. Today, they tend to be books written by or about minorities — including people of color and those in the LGBTQ+ community.  

As part of Banned Books Week Author Maggie Tokuda-Hall, will be reading from her book “Love in the Library” on Saturday at three locations: Twin Falls Public Library, 10-11 a.m.; Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial, 3-4 p.m.; Rediscovered Books, 7 p.m.

“It really is a barometer or a zeitgeist of the culture,” he said. “It shows a fear of that which is unfamiliar, that which is different. Rather than being curious and exercising one’s freedom to engage with information and learn more about the world, there’s that desire to not engage, or hear those stories, or interact with those voices, so we suppress.”

It comes down to a battle between the desire to protect and the desire to explore, McGrath said. 

“And there are risks on either side, there are costs and benefits in that calculation we have to make. And those are both left up to parents, families, and the readers themselves.”

But there are some bright spots around the state, where schools and districts outshone their peers. To celebrate their success, EdNews has mined statewide data to come up with top 10 lists that showcase those schools and districts.  

Below, we take a look at the highest performers in these categories:

• Traditional public schools
• Charter/magnet/nontraditional public schools
• Traditional districts
• Large traditional districts
• Nontraditional local education agencies (charters)

We broke down the lists in this way in an effort to compare the most similar types of schools and districts. 

For example, certain charter schools and magnets might be able to attract a primarily college-bound clientele who are especially self-motivated to achieve academic success. Essentially, some of those become de-facto advanced or honors schools, so comparing them to a traditional public school isn’t necessarily equitable. 

Enrollment numbers also impact test results. In smaller schools and districts, it can be easier to achieve high proficiency rates than in large schools/districts because data more easily skews high or low based on the performance of a relative few. 

For that reason, we included a top 10 list for just the state’s largest districts. 

While we strive to compare apples to apples in these top 10 lists, they’re still imperfect. For example, they don’t take into account factors such as student grade levels or demographics (a student body’s affluence, English proficiency, and other such factors can affect a school’s test results). But it gives the public a glimpse at some of the state’s high performers. 

It’s also worth noting that the State Board of Education’s data management council sets rules to redact certain test results or other student information for a number of reasons.  Therefore, some schools’, districts’, and/or charters’ data has been redacted or masked to protect student privacy, so they won’t be represented on these lists.

To see the complete dataset of ISAT math and ELA results for schools, click here. To see the complete dataset of ISAT math and ELA results for districts, click here. 

The ISAT also includes a science portion, and EdNews plans to provide coverage of those results in coming days. 

Top 10 Traditional Public Schools

Schools in the West Ada School District claim four of the top spots for English performance, and five of the highest-performers are from North Idaho. And 90% were high schools. Troy Junior/Senior High, an especially small school, is a notable outlier that often makes these lists. 

West Ada also dominates the top performers in math, with five schools in the top 10. Seven are in the Treasure Valley, and 90% of the schools are located in larger cities and towns. Prairie Elementary, a rural one-room schoolhouse, is the only smaller school to make the list. 

Top 10 Charter/Magnet/Nontraditional Public Schools

Traditional public schools had to have 81% of their students score proficient or higher to make the ELA top 10 list, while nontraditional schools had a much lower entry score of 69.4 or above. 

Once again, half of the schools on the list are from West Ada. And most are magnet schools that are associated with a traditional district. 

The West Ada takeover continued on the math ISAT, with 90% of the schools on this list from the large, urban district. All were magnets associated with a traditional district, and once again, the threshold for getting on the list (65.6) was lower than it was for traditional schools (74). 

Top 10 Public Traditional School Districts

A number of smaller districts — which also have fewer students, and data that’s more easily skewed — prevail on these lists. West Ada, which had a significant number of high-performing individual schools, was down at the number eight spot. 

Again, this list is mostly comprised of smaller districts, with only West Ada making the cut for those with higher enrollment.

Top 10 Large Public Traditional School Districts

These lists rank Idaho’s 10 largest districts: West Ada came out on top in both, while Nampa fell to the bottom. The two districts are both in the Treasure Valley, but had differences in student performance that ranged from about 20% (math) to 44.3% (ELA). 

Top 10 Charter schools

The threshold to get on these top 10 lists was higher than it was for the traditional school districts: a charter had to have an ELA proficiency rate of 73.3% or above, compared to 63.2% or above for districts. For math, charters had to have 69.6% proficiency or better, and for districts it was 55.2%.

EdNews Data Analyst Randy Schrader contributed to this report. 

He had a 2.3 high school grade point average and his future seemed limited. “I didn’t believe in college — I didn’t believe in myself.”

But then he attended a Hispanic Youth Leadership Summit in the Magic Valley and everything changed. For the first time, someone asked what he wanted to study in college. And for the first time, Orozco began to imagine himself going on after high school. 

Against all odds, he was awarded a scholarship to the University of Idaho that day.

“It changed the whole trajectory of my life,” he said. “I just felt seen.”

Orozco is now an admissions counselor and coordinator for multicultural recruitment at Boise State University, and his story has come full circle. On Wednesday, he was at Southeastern Idaho’s Hispanic Youth Leadership Summit helping students secure opportunities like the one that meant so much to him. 

“I’m able to not only connect with students that remind me of myself, but I also am able to remember why it is that I do the work that I do, and why it is that I love higher education,” Orozco said. “I can help remind a student that they are not defined by their GPA. They are much more than that and there are services and schools that will meet them halfway, or meet them the whole way.” 

And that’s the highlight of these summits — bridging the gap between students and the services and support they need to continue their education. 

More than 800 students from more than 27 middle and high schools were at the event — up from about 700 in 2022. They attended a college fair, applied for scholarships, talked with local employers, and had conversations about how college might fit into their future. 

The highlight: some students finished the day with the news that they’d been selected for scholarships — just like the one that changed Orozco’s life. 

Omar Raudez, Idaho State University’s director of new student orientation, helped coordinate the event and hoped it would encourage diverse students from smaller areas to find interest in higher education and get involved in leadership. 

As a first-generation college student, Raudez said he didn’t understand how to navigate financial aid and scholarships, and an event like the youth summit would’ve helped him have a smoother transition. 

“I actually dropped out at 16, but that was because I didn’t have the resources, the information, or the awareness of these services,” he said. “That’s why I’m so passionate about it, because I think the more students that know about this, the fewer that will drop between the cracks.”

The summit also held personal meaning for Raudez because of his connection to J.J. Saldaña, a well-known advocate for Hispanic youth who spearheaded these events around the state. Saldaña’s recent passing sparked Raudez to step up and help more with the summits. 

“It’s an honor because I get to continue his legacy in advocating for our students,” he said. “We’re doing everything we can so the students know they have so many opportunities.”

Orozco said that’s what the day is about — getting students to think about their future, no matter their past. 

“It’s not about how you start,” he tells students. “It’s always about where you end up.”

But a Tuesday afternoon SDE news release highlighted gains and explained away losses in the Idaho Reading Indicator and the Idaho Standards Achievement Test. The news release did not include data for review or verification. Idaho Education News was sent to IdahoSchools.org hours after receiving the news release, and Scott Graf, communications director for the SDE, told EdNews the full data would be provided Wednesday. 

In the news release, state superintendent Debbie Critchfield characterized the early literacy results as “generally positive.”

But Idaho K-3 students dropped in reading proficiency to 66.6% on the spring test from the previous year’s 69.1%.

The news release — in its first sentence — also reported that Idaho students are “outperforming their national peers in early literacy” but the SDE did not provide data to support that claim. Graf told EdNews that the information came from a report from Istation, the state’s IRI vendor. The report was not made available Tuesday; EdNews has filed a public records request for it. Idaho’s early literacy test and its measures of proficiency are specific to Idaho, making it difficult — or even impossible — to compare nationally.

On the ISAT, results dropped to 52.2% on the English language arts portion of the test from 55.5% in 2022 — the lowest proficiency level since 2017. Math also saw a drop in results (see yearly comparisons below).

“One of our priorities is to ensure that the time and energy that goes into these assessments yields an accurate representation of what our students are learning and where we as educators can focus additional support for our students,” said Chief Deputy Superintendent Ryan Cantrell.

IRI scores dropped — but the SDE says that’s because of norm changes

Overall, students regressed on the Idaho Reading Indicator from last spring, and by grade level, only kindergarteners improved.

The initial 2023 data “shows a drop in numerical scores compared to previous years,” Cantrell said. “This dip is due to the assessment vendor, Istation, applying new data norms to proficiency scales in 2023.”

Each spring and fall, Idaho students in kindergarten through third grade take the Idaho Reading Indicator (IRI). The assessment is used to gauge how well Idaho students are reading.

Without initially providing the scores to back up its claim, the SDE said that — when using the previous norms — kindergartners, second graders, and third graders showed improvement from 2022 and 2021. The SDE later provided grade-level data by referring EdNews to idahoschools.org. 

That data shows that only kindergartners improved from 2022, and only kindergartners and first graders improved from 2021.

These scores come after a months-long delay due to an algorithm problem that produced inaccurate results.

The SDE news release emphasized Critchfield’s efforts to improve early literacy since taking office in January, such as implementing monthly book studies on the science of reading and requesting funds for a state early literacy coordinator.

“I’m encouraged by the increased focus we’re placing on making sure more Idaho students are solid readers early in their academic careers,” Critchfield said. “Reading is central to a student’s success and we’re doubling our efforts to make literacy a hallmark of what we do.”

IRI scores

The percentages below reflect the students who scored proficient or higher. Percentages are in red when they represent a regression from the previous year.

Spring proficiency, overall

Spring proficiency by grade level

ISAT scores fall in both ELA and math — SDE blames longer test

Students’ scores on the English language arts and math portions of the test were “lower than what we saw in 2021 and 2022 when our students were showing improvement coming out of the pandemic,” Cantrell said. 

Both the ELA and math results were well below target scores, and the ELA scores are the lowest they’ve been since 2017.

Cantrell said the regressions “may be due to” students taking a longer test in 2023 than in previous years: “In some instances, very young students were taking tests for long periods more appropriate for high school and college students. This can lead to lower scores based on testing fatigue.”

This year’s ISAT required students to respond to twice as many sections in the ELA and required “significantly more time to complete.” The shorter ISAT will be administered again in 2024, according to the press release. 

ISAT Scores

The percentages below reflect the students who scored proficient or higher. Percentages are in red when they represent a regression from the previous year.

The ISAT assesses how well Idaho students are performing in math, science and reading and is given to students in various grades each spring.

Other than the overall scores listed in the tables above, the SDE provided data for four districts or charters that notably improved. No other district or school-specific data was made available. 

• Rockland School District increased ELA scores by 16% to reach 78% proficiency district-wide.
• West Ada School District increased its math ISAT proficiency by 2%.
• Syringa Charter School increased its math proficiency scores by 13% to 70%.
• Cascade School District increased its science proficiency scores by 38%.

“Idaho State Department of Education staff will be working with these and other successful Idaho schools to better understand what strategies and instructional methods led to improvement on this year’s assessment so they can be replicated statewide,” the release said. 

When the complete IRI and ISAT data is provided, EdNews will provide further coverage and the full results. 

His father, Derek Nevada, added feathers to his belt, and his mother, Makalia Eagle, fastened bells around his ankle. 

“I was taught from my dad to keep going, to keep this alive,” Derek Nevada said. 

And now he’s doing the same for his son. 

Click to view slideshow.

Soon, the time came — and a quiet, empty parking lot at Donald D. Stalker Elementary was transformed into a powwow, complete with drumbeats, dancing, brightly-colored regalia, and a community of children and adults who came together to celebrate Native American culture. 

It was all part of Blackfoot school district’s American Indian Week, which features daily celebrations of Native American culture. It’s a unique week that few districts host. 

Click to view slideshow.

Michelle Hernandez, an Indian Education cultural teacher, said the district’s proximity to the Fort Hall reservation means many Native American students attend the district, and it’s important for them to share their culture with their peers. 

“We try to let it be known that we’re still here and we still live our ways,” she said. 

Stalker Elementary is especially diverse, and nearly 16% of its students are Native American. For that reason, the week of celebrations is especially important, Principal Anthony Peterson said. 

“We see it unites kids because we have groups of students who get to celebrate their culture, and we get groups of students that get to learn things from a different culture,” he said. “It’s one of those educational experiences that we give kids in our schools that we’ll never see on an ISAT or an IRI, but it’s going to be so beneficial. These are the experiences that both our non-Native and Native kids are going to remember from their elementary years.” 

Georgina Marshall, a parent of three students who were dancing Thursday, said American Indian Week is “really important for kids to connect spiritually and emotionally.”

“It helps them feel more connected to their community,” she said. “And I think it also increases the exposure to the outside community and helps them respect and understand our culture and how we do things and why we do things in that way.”

For further reading on Native American students, check out our series: Still Here: Tribes fight to be seen in Idaho Classrooms

That election would eventually lead to two court battles that the district is still fighting — battles that new Idaho Falls Superintendent Karla LaOrange characterized as “courageous.” Randy Neal, the Bonneville County prosecutor, is not so complimentary — he sees them as wastes of money and time that could be better spent. 

Both cases speak to the difficulties of passing bonds in Idaho, and illustrate worst-case scenarios of what can happen when trust frays between school leaders and taxpayers, and when creative solutions to building schools go awry. 

Whether the Idaho Falls trustees’ decisions are a cautionary tale or an inspiring story depends on who you ask — and voters’ opinions will become clear after November’s trustee elections. Eight candidates are vying for three board openings; whether incumbents hold their places will say plenty. 

But perhaps the more important questions are how these legal battles will impact students, and what implications they hold for districts across the state as they strive to build and repair schools. 

One thing’s for sure: There are lessons to be learned.

A failed bond, fed-up taxpayers, and school leaders under fire

Idaho Falls’ November bond effort stirred up a fiery and well-organized opposition group — the local watchdog group D91 Taxpayers — and sparked constituents to file a complaint about district officials with the sheriff. They alleged that then-Superintendent James Shank and district spokesperson Margaret Wimborne had inappropriately used public funds to promote the bond. 

Neal then charged the district officials with a civil complaint. 

Ultimately, Shank and Wimborne were asked to pay $250 and $125 each, respectively. For a combined $375, which could have been paid without admitting guilt, the issue could have been put to bed, Neal said. 

Instead, trustees decided to hire lawyer Marvin Smith with Hawley Troxell — a Boise firm districts often employ to oversee their bonds and levies from conception to elections to implementation— to fight the complaint. That’s stretched the case out in a number of ways — prolonging it, complicating it, and costing taxpayers big dollars, according to Neal. 

EdNews asked the superintendent how much the district’s attorney has been paid, and has not yet heard back. We will update this story if that information becomes available.

Neal is not shy about his frustration with the case and the burden it’s placed on his office. 

“We do not want to be involved in this,” he said. “The time that is being spent on this is just immense … We’re shorthanded and we’d like to be getting bad guys off the street.” 

“We do not want to be involved in this … We’re shorthanded and we’d like to be getting bad guys off the street.” — Randy Neal, Bonneville County prosecutor 

And it’s a lose-lose situation for taxpayers, who are footing the bill for both sides of this legal battle. 

It’s even a bit ironic, considering this was all started by constituents concerned about the use of public monies. 

So why did the district choose what Neal characterized as the long, expensive route instead of just paying the $375? 

According to LaOrange, who took over as the district’s leader when Shank left Idaho for another superintendent’s position, it’s because he and Wimborne did nothing wrong — so why would they pay?

“It’s not about the fines, it’s about what’s right and wrong,” said LaOrange, adding that the complaint is “an attempt to obstruct the district’s efforts to share basic factual information with our parents and patrons.”

“It’s not about the fines, it’s about what’s right and wrong.” — Idaho Falls Superintendent Karla LaOrange on why trustees chose to fight the civil complaints. 

“Our board has stepped out in courage and they are defending the employees. The board does not believe there is a basis to this complaint and they will fight it vigorously.”

LaOrange takes issue with the prosecutor’s office, for a number of reasons:

• The concern should have been brought to the district’s attention promptly, so it could have been addressed at the time, not months after the fact. 
• It’s inappropriate to “file misdemeanor charges against individual district employees who are working on behalf of our students and patrons.”
• The prosecutor’s office should not be spending so much time, money and resources on this case. 
• LaOrange said the prosecutor’s office has “blatantly ignored Sunshine Act violations by groups who have opposed the bond,” even though the issue has been brought to their attention.

The fiasco is at a standstill. A judge will decide in November whether it would be appropriate to determine up and down whether the district was in the wrong (in legalese, this is known as a declaratory judgment). If not, the case could go to a jury. Either way, any kind of resolution is months away. 

And it’s not the only legal issue facing the district. 

A successful ballot measure … that still landed Idaho Falls in legal muck 

After November’s record bond issue failed, the Idaho Falls district finally had a bright spot: It ran and passed a $33 million plant facilities levy, which would fund a new elementary school and eliminate some overcrowding. 

It’s what Neal termed a “creative” solution — enabling the district to bypass the required two-thirds supermajority for bonds. The plant facilities levy required just 55% approval. 

The district got nearly 70%, the supermajority needed to pass a bond. 

Hindsight is 20/20, but Neal says the district should have run another bond — because last month, Idaho Falls got news from the Tax Commission that the newly approved levy is not valid.  

Trustees plan to fight that finding in court.  

Neal says it’s another misstep that’ll end up costing taxpayers — and students. 

In the best-case scenario, it would lead to months of delay before construction on the new school could start. In the worst-case scenario, the challenge to the Tax Commission could fail, and then the district would be left back at square one, with no public funds for a new school. 

Instead, Neal said the district should acknowledge its mistake and put the measure back on the November ballot as a bond.

LaOrange said trustees have no intention of doing so. 

Their thinking: putting the measure on the ballot again, but as a bond, would confuse voters and undermine their will. Plus, staying the course is a “way of protecting local control.”

“But if for some reason the district does not prevail in this case, then we have a clear reason and justification for going back to the voters,” LaOrange said.

In both court cases, LaOrange said trustees are showing “courage and conviction” and “doing what’s right for kids.”

For now, the games of tug-of-war between the district and the prosecutor, and the district and the Tax Commission, are at an impasse with neither side willing or able to let go. 

Time will tell who ends up in the mud. 

That’s because Idaho has one of — if not the — most stringent required pass rates for school bonds in the nation (a supermajority of 66.67%). 

And since 2011, school bonds have been more likely to fail than pass. 

Couple those facts with the recently slashed March school elections, and the political environment for successful bond measures is unfriendly to say the least.

On top of that, increasingly organized opposition campaigns have contributed to districts’ unexpected election losses and even legal troubles.  

Still, schools must be built and updated as populations grow and buildings age. 

Some districts have successfully evaded the bond quagmire by instead running plant facilities levies — which only require 55% approval. But even that option has its drawbacks. 

The Idaho Falls school district recently passed a $3.3 million plant facilities levy to build an elementary school — after a prior attempt at a historic $250 million bond failed — only to learn that the Tax Commission would not certify it due to a legal roadbump (which the district is contesting in court). 

Others find success with second chances — running a failed measure a second time, often with better outcomes. But that’s not an easy or efficient way to fund buildings and updates, either. 

It’s in these murky waters that the Pocatello/Chubbuck school district is putting a 15-year, $45 million bond on the ballot this November, partly to upgrade and restore a high school after a devastating fire last spring. At the center of the effort is a question with no clear answers: what does it take to pass a bond in Idaho — and to do it the first time?

Leading up to this pivotal ballot ask — the first of its kind since a successful 1998 bond for a new high school — district officials have been making fiscally conservative choices that are almost unheard of in today’s education landscape. And they’re leaning heavily on a new school district facilities fund — a boon for districts that was won at the expense of the March election — to showcase the ballot measure as having a “net zero tax impact.” 

If the strategy is effective, it could become a blueprint for other districts to follow. 

• Last spring, Pocatello/Chubbuck lowered its two-year supplemental levy by $2 million, when it’s far more common for districts to continually increase their levies to keep pace with inflation. 
• And last year, the district purchased a $12.6 million building to house its career technical education programs without having to go to voters — another rarity. 
• On top of that, the district says the newly-established school district facilities fund will effectively negate costs for taxpayers. 

Maybe the district’s fiscal conservatism, combined with the new facilities fund, will be enough for a win this November. But when it comes to school elections, nothing’s certain — especially the first time around. 

Last March, Coeur d’Alene’s failed $25 million perpetual supplemental levy put more than 300 staffers’ jobs on the line. But the two-year, $25 million supplemental levy went on to pass in May.  

And Bonneville’s $34.5 million bond failed in May — while the neighboring Idaho Falls district’s $33 million plant facilities levy passed — but then succeeded in August. 

Pocatello/Chubbuck leaders don’t seem to be taking any chances, and plan to invest $26,000 on an education campaign that includes sending out postcards, putting ads on radio, TV, and social media, and producing an informational video. 

But even that is dangerous territory. 

In all election-related communications, districts must ensure that they are educating, not advocating — a fine line that can lead to lawsuits if voters feel lines have been crossed. 

Bond asks today — with the quality of students’ classrooms and schools at stake — require plenty of careful planning, tiptoeing, and finger crossing. 

Even so, the odds of that being enough are less than a coin toss. For Pocatello/Chubbuck, voters will get the final say on Nov. 7.   

Just showing up, listening, putting down devices, asking questions, or learning a kid’s name can make all the difference. 

That’s according to six expert panelists  — a judge, a counselor, a psychologist, a principal, a nonprofit director, and a probation officer — who came together Wednesday night to discuss the pressures facing today’s adolescents and how they can overcome challenges and become resilient. 

“We’ve got to get the word out that there’s a lot of kids struggling right now,” said Todd Mauger, the chief juvenile probation officer for Bannock County Juvenile Justice. “Those parents that are with them every day don’t know how bad it can be … it’s shocking for them.” 

The forum, facilitated by the Pocatello/Chubbuck school district, was part of the annual Kind Week — an initiative two moms started after a spate of youth suicides in 2015.

“We want to let our youth know that we’re here for them,” Rainbow Maldonado, a founding director of Kind Community, said.

And that can be as simple as checking in with kids, Victoria Byrd, executive director for the nonprofit Stronger Than, said. 

“They can feel very alone in their problems,” Byrd said. “A lot of times we don’t (have hard conversations) because we’re scared we’re going to make it worse, we’re scared we’re going to push our children away, we’re scared of 100 different things. But I would much rather take the risk, (potentially) saving my child’s life, than letting those words go unsaid.”

Those conversations help kids feel connected and supported.

And it’s important they know three things, Byrd said: “Everybody is lovable, there’s no problem that’s unsolvable, and there’s no emotion that lasts forever.”

Judge Anson Call said children who have more adverse childhood experiences, or ACES, tend to have worse outcomes in life. 

“I don’t interact with a lot of bad people in my job,” he said. “ I interact with a lot of people who’ve suffered a lot of trauma in their lives.”

But “just because bad things have happened to kids or families doesn’t mean that they are destined to have bad outcomes,” Call said. 

“Just because bad things have happened to kids or families doesn’t mean that they are destined to have bad outcomes.” — Judge Anson Call

Kids who talk about their experiences, focus on what they can control in their lives, and develop their strengths are more likely to build resilience, he said. A sense of belonging is crucial too. 

“When they find that belonging it’s because they’ve been shown kindness, and then they in turn find ways of sharing that kindness with other people.”

And that’s pivotal, because one of the biggest problems facing youth today is isolation, according to Dr. Kendra Westerhaus, a psychologist and the pediatric/child team lead at Health West, Inc. 

“Kids are more and more on their devices and have less and less interpersonal connection,” Westerhaus said. 

Having just one good friend can make a big difference. And it’s important for kids to be involved in extracurricular activities.

Mauger recounted a story of a child who was frequently in and out of the court system — until he joined the football team. 

But not all kids can afford the fees to participate in athletics and activities, and that’s one way community members can help — offer to sponsor the fees for a child in need. 

Children also need at least one positive adult in their lives, so panelists urged community members to volunteer with CASA as a guardian ad litem — advocates who ensure kids are “safe, have a permanent home, and the opportunity to thrive.” 

And there’s always a need for more foster parents. 

But the panelists were quick to clarify that even seemingly small actions make a difference too — just noticing kids, giving them attention, and asking the hard questions. 

As multiple panelists said: “We can’t do everything, but we can do something.”

DRIGGS — Teton County teachers, principals and the district superintendent recently banded together to publicly censure one of their trustees for a social media post they found “harmful” and “disheartening.”

The board chair and remaining trustees supported the rebuke of Kathleen Haar, who sparked the backlash with a social media post that questioned the hiring of 10 district employees — eight teachers, a counselor, and the head football coach. 

Click to view slideshow.

The post reverberated throughout the community, leaving teachers feeling attacked and demoralized just as the school year was starting, Teton County Superintendent Megan Christiansen said at a Sept. 11 board meeting. 

“We dealt with a huge decline in morale,” she told the board. “We had to spend the last two weeks repairing the damage with our staff members … It was really frustrating for me as a superintendent, disheartening for our admin team, and really harmful to our staff. And if you don’t think that impacts kids, it does. When people don’t feel valued in their work, it impacts our kids.”

Christiansen said the post counteracted goals she’s been working toward in the district, like recruiting, hiring, and retaining quality staff members and improving school culture. 

District principals and leaders joined Christiansen in denouncing Haar, signing a letter that Principal Brian Ashton read aloud at the meeting. The district’s administrators and Teton Education Association representatives attended the meeting and stood as Ashton read the letter in a sign of solidarity. 

“We are asking you to stop targeting individual schools, individual teachers, and individual administrators,” Ashton read. “Your actions are having a negative impact on staff morale and our ability to keep students at the center of our focus. It is causing realtime harm and we are having a hard time keeping up with the damage. Your approach is also generating mistrust that is unfair and very difficult to repair.”

Haar was at the meeting, but did not visibly react as the letter was read.

Ray Hinchcliff, the board chair, offered his support for the superintendent, administrators, and teachers. 

“The most important thing we as a school board can do is promote policies, practices, and governance that lead to improved student achievement,” he said. “We need to get behind our superintendent, our admin team, the staff, teachers, and everybody to make that happen and not be a hindrance.”

Hinchcliff penned an apology for Haar’s behavior to the community, which was published in the Teton Valley News Monday, and reached out to the Idaho School Boards Association for advice on how “to improve the way we function as a board.” The ISBA suggested the board implement new operating protocols, which Hinchcliff plans to add to the board’s ethics and compliance standards. 

The remaining trustees also spoke in support of district teachers and staff and condemned Haar’s actions. 

“I don’t know at this point how the challenge with your behavior could be clearer,” Trustee Shannon Brooks-Hamby said. “If the behavior doesn’t change, I think it is a willful inability to comply with what we agree needs to be in place to function highly, not only as a board but also as a district … And if the behavior doesn’t change, I think your zone four constituents have some conversations and some decisions to make.”

Brooks-Hamby and Trustee Michael Adams implored Haar to comment, respond, or explain her actions, but she declined to comment. 

“Not tonight,” she said. “Everybody else has had a chance to think about what they wanted to say, and I think I’m entitled to that also.”

In a Thursday email to Idaho Education News, Haar said she has “always encouraged community members to do their own research, and have provided links, examples, and suggestions to help them in researching their questions.” She indicated that’s what she was doing in her social media post — explaining, in response to a post about district hiring practices, “that the top five applicants for a certified position were public record” by showing an old public records request.

“My intent was not to create discomfort for our teachers, although it would have been more considerate to not include the names from the example,” she said. “I believe that transparency and accountability include ensuring that the community understands what data is available and where to find it. I see this as part of my responsibility as an elected official.”

Haar is one of several trustees statewide who have been publicly reprimanded this year.

In April, Boise Schools Trustee Shiva Rajbhandari was similarly rebuked by his board chair for a social media post in which he swore at and threatened Gov. Brad Little for signing a bill that banned gender-affirming care for transgender minors. 

And earlier this month, two West Bonner trustees were recalled by voters after a controversial decision to hire Branden Durst as superintendent, even though he lacked the required qualifications. 

These unusual checks on trustee behavior and decisions come as school board races are becoming increasingly competitive and politicized. 

It was the only Idaho school — among 353 nationwide — to receive the honor, which is based on a school’s progress in closing assessment achievement gaps or for its overall academic progress.

“I’m delighted to congratulate Teton Elementary School today and I’m so excited that the U.S. Department of Education is raising the profile of an Idaho school that’s going the extra mile to make the difference for their students and community,” Debbie Critchfield, the state superintendent, said. “National recognition is always exciting, and I hope that everyone at Teton is taking a moment to celebrate their well-earned place in the spotlight today.”

U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said the 2023 National Blue Ribbon honorees “set a national example for what it means to Raise the Bar in education.”

“The leaders, educators, and staff at our National Blue Ribbon Schools continually inspire me with their dedication to fostering academic excellence and building positive school cultures that support students of all backgrounds to thrive academically, socially, and emotionally,” Cardona said in a press release. 

This is the program’s 40th cohort, and to date, it’s bestowed about 10,000 awards on more than 9,700 schools, which often have a blue ribbon flag at their entryway or on their flagpole as a “symbol of exemplary teaching and learning.” Top education officials across the country are invited to nominate schools each year.

To learn more about the National Blue Ribbon School award and to access a complete list of 2023 award winners, visit this website. 

It’s fallout from a perfect storm of challenges facing school employees, officials say, including the pandemic, a lack of adequate training, and low wages. 

Bonneville is one of many districts that have struggled to recruit and retain staff, from cooks and bus drivers to paraprofessionals and teachers. It’s led to hiring more employees who are inexperienced, and who are more likely to leave their jobs within five years. 

The revolving door of new employees — especially teachers — impacts students’ education, and will continue to do so going forward if the problem isn’t resolved. 

“As this Baby Boomer generation ages and hits retirement, are we finding or preparing enough teachers to fill the gap?” Heath Jackson, the district’s executive director of planning and personnel, said at a Sept. 13 board meeting. “We’re really in that crunch time right now… If we don’t keep these 0-10-year teachers in the profession, we’re not going to be able to provide the same educational opportunities.” 

“We’re really in that crunch time right now … If we don’t keep these 0-10-year teachers in the profession, we’re not going to be able to provide the same educational opportunities.”  — Heath Jackson, Bonneville’s director of planning and personnel

Jackson has suggested implementing job satisfaction surveys and exit interviews to better understand why school staffers are leaving and what would encourage them to stay. Building principals and supervisors will also start filling out a form each time someone resigns so the district can “gather more accurate information” about why they are leaving — beyond the common but too-vague explanation: “personal reasons.”

“There are a lot of growing pressures on our teachers in the classroom and we’re seeing more teachers leave the profession,” Jackson said. “It’s a little bit of a concern going into future years.”

Jackson said it’s been “eye-opening” to see the amount of employees resigning during their first five years. Last school year, over 100 resignations in the district were from people with less than five years of experience.

And when a sizable chunk of the district’s employees are inexperienced, it’s worrisome. 

Jackson said turnover has been increasing since the pandemic, and he already knows some of the reasons:

• Employees leaving for districts with a four-day week
• Employees leaving for districts that opted in to the state insurance plan
• Employees moving out of the district
• Employees retiring at increasing rates

District superintendent Scott Woolstenhulme said the district is increasingly hiring teachers with alternate authorizations — meaning they didn’t go through a traditional college program to become teachers.

“They used to be an exception,” Woolstenhulme said, adding that it seems like half of new hires are now on alternate authorizations. “And as a result, they’re just not as prepared for the realities of the classroom.”

But there is some good news. This school year, the district provided $4/hour wage increases to all classified staff — funded by monies from the state and from a supplemental levy. The lowest wages jumped from $10.50 an hour to $14.50 an hour. 

Jackson said the pay is still not competitive with the private sector, but it does help Bonneville compete with other districts. So far, the pay increase seems to be bringing in more classified staff members — which includes paraprofessionals, bus drivers, custodians, cooks, and servers. 

“We’re seeing a much higher ability to hire employees this fall than we’ve had in the last two years.”

Idaho EdNews data analyst Randy Schrader contributed to this report. 

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The opinion came a day after the State Board said it could not consider Branden Durst’s application for such a certificate, effectively stripping him of any chance to become the official superintendent at West Bonner County School District. 

“We understand that, historically, the board may have approved provisional certificates for a superintendent candidate in a manner that effectively waived the endorsement requirements for that candidate,” the attorney general’s analysis reads. “However, this practice does not appear to be consistent with the statue or the board’s regulations … This means that the State Board could face legal liability for issuing provisional certificates for administrators and superintendents.”

The analysis goes on to say the prior certificates could “create some risk” for the State Board. 

Since 2015, the State Board has issued two emergency certificates to principals and one to a superintendent — Teresa “Susie” Luckey, who served as West Bonner’s interim superintendent from March to June, when Durst was hired. 

Mike Keckler, spokesperson for the State Board, said all three emergency administrator certificates — including Luckey’s — are expired and not in use. 

In a statement Durst provided EdNews Thursday, he questioned the State Board’s motives for not considering his application, and said it was “odd” that the State Board did not rescind Luckey’s certification after learning it was in the wrong. 

“They will be held accountable for their discriminatory actions,” Durst wrote. 

Durst had previously delayed applying for his emergency certificate because he said two superintendents could not hold emergency certificates at the same time in the same district (Luckey’s expired in August). However, the State Board said that was not true, and chastised West Bonner trustees in an Aug. 16 letter for employing “a non-certified individual as superintendent,” which it said “violates Idaho law.”

Durst is missing at least one requirement to hold a superintendent endorsement: four years of full-time, certificated employment in a school. In Durst’s emergency application, attorney Chris Yorgason argued that the state could waive any missing requirements because Durst met “certain minimum emergency requirements,” including having passed a background check, having two years of college training (Durst has a master’s and an education specialist degree from Boise State University), and the district having declared an emergency.

The West Bonner School Board will meet Wednesday and plans to address the recent ruling on Durst’s certificate at that time, according to acting chair Margaret Hall.

EdNews Data Analyst Randy Schrader contributed to this report. 

The State Board of Education ended Branden Durst’s quest to become the certified superintendent of the West Bonner School District, declining to consider his application for an emergency provisional administrator’s certificate. 

In a letter to a school district official, State Board Executive Director Matt Freeman said, “There is no pathway for Mr. Durst to obtain the legally required certification to serve as the West Bonner County School District superintendent” because he has not met all the five requirements to do so. 

Freeman said the State Board does not have the “legal authority to grant such certificates” to administrators — even though it has done so three times since 2015.

Durst responded Thursday in an email to Idaho Education News.

“The State Board of Education curiously decided it no longer had authority to grant emergency provisional certificates to any administrator applicant. This decision was not limited to me. However, the timing is particularly strange,” Durst wrote. 

State Board officials recently realized their limitations after conducting a “legal review” prompted by “the decision by West Bonner trustees to hire an uncertified individual to serve as superintendent this summer.”

But when West Bonner trustees hired Teresa “Susie” Luckey as interim superintendent in March, she also lacked the requirements to do so, including not completing the needed coursework or degree. Yet, the State Board approved her emergency certification — valid from September 2022 to August 2023 — at its June meeting. 

“When did the State Board of Education come upon this new knowledge and interpretation? Certainly, as the State Board acknowledged, they have granted them in the past. In fact, they granted one just a couple of months ago for an applicant in the West Bonner County School District. Further, it seems odd that the State Board would have not rescinded an emergency certification that it knew it didn’t have the authority to grant, if that is their new position,” Durst wrote.

Mike Keckler, spokesman for the State Board, said Durst’s situation was “unique” because he does not hold “any sort of endorsement or certification,” whereas Luckey held teacher and principal endorsements. 

The other two emergency administrative applications approved since 2015 were for principal positions, Keckler said. 

Going forward, the State Board will no longer consider any emergency applications for administrative positions, Keckler said. That comes after a new understanding of its legal abilities, as spelled out in Idaho administrative code (08.02.02.042). Board members will only consider emergency provisional certifications for teachers.

“This leads to a simple conclusion: this was a discriminatory act by a board run by those with a political axe to grind. They will be held accountable for their discriminatory actions,” Durst said. To read his full response, use this link.

Wednesday’s decision is the latest development after months of tumult — including raucous meetings, a recall of two trustees and a restraining order against the recalled trustees — following Durst’s selection as superintendent. The State Board’s decision means West Bonner does not have an official superintendent, and the State Department of Education will not provide funds for Durst’s salary — the district will have to cover it. While Durst can’t be the superintendent, he may be able to serve the district in another capacity or under another title.

West Bonner had delayed Durst’s application for weeks due to a disagreement over interpretation of state law. But trustees acquiesced last month after the State Board told them in an Aug. 16 letter to comply with state law and file the application.

Margaret Hall, acting chair of the school board, wrote in an email Thursday night that both letters from the State Board — the August compliance letter and Wednesday’s letter — “are taken seriously. Review of these two letters are to be included on the Board’s September monthly meeting agenda, which is scheduled for Sept. 20. Any other statement at this time would be premature and inappropriate.”

The meeting will be the first without recalled trustees Susan Brown and Keith Rutledge.

EdNews Data Analyst Randy Schrader and reporter Darren Svan contributed to this report. 

It can determine whether bonds and levies get passed and for how much, whether teachers will be highly paid, and whether students learn in new or outdated schools.

It comes down to this: Some communities are wealthier than others, and are more willing and able to spend on education. 

Most Idaho districts supplement state and federal funds with local dollars, collected through bonds and levies. But that system — of depending on local taxpayers to foot the bill for teachers, classroom supplies, new schools, and more — creates haves and have-nots among Idaho’s traditional school districts. 

And sometimes, those districts are neighbors — a proximity that only highlights the stark differences between the two.