Adam Cotterell

Elections this week have resulted in a major shakeup in Nampa’s school board. Voters elected two new members to the five person group largely prompted by the district’s ongoing financial crisis. The district blames accounting errors for a deficit of more than five million dollars. After a year of difficult cuts Nampa still has a long way to go to reach a balanced budget.

New school board member Mike Fuller has a handle on why it’s so difficult for the district to climb out of its financial hole.

A mountain lion has likely attacked four dogs in Boise in the last month. Early Tuesday morning a woman reported seeing an animal attack her two dogs in her east Boise back yard. She thought it was a bobcat. One of the dogs was later found dead. Idaho Fish and Game officers examined bite marks on the body and on the injured animal and determined they came from a young mountain lion.

The Salmon School District did not get the super majority it needed to pass a bond for a new school. 901 district voters said no to the $14.6 million dollar bond for a new combination elementary and middle school. Just 645 people said yes. This was the 9th failed bond vote for the small district on the Montana border.

Unlike previous elections this ballot had an alternate bond proposal. It was $3.6 million dollars for safety upgrades to the existing schools. Voters rejected that even more definitively; 1,184 to 354.

Of the 50 states and the District of Columbia only Utah spends less on education than Idaho. A new report Tuesday from the U.S. Census Bureau says Idaho spent $6,824 for each student in its public schools in 2011. The National average is $10,560. New York tops the list spending $19,076.

The Salmon School District’s middle school is unsafe according to the state of Idaho. It has structural problems and a heavy snow could cave in parts of the roof. The 940 student district on the Montana Border has been trying for years to convince voters to pay for a new building. Tuesday Salmon weighs in on the issue for the 9th time.

An Uzbekistan national pleaded not guilty on three federal counts of terrorism Friday morning in Boise. Fazliddin Kurbanov was arrested Thursday at his Boise apartment. Adam Cotterell was in the court room and described Kurbanov to All Things Considered host Samantha Wright.

Transcript

Cotterell: I don’t think he’d stand out on the streets of Boise or on the Boise State campus for that matter. He’s 30 but looks a bit younger. A little taller than average. Stocky. Olive skin, short black hair, dark eye brows with maybe a couple weeks growth of beard.

A Boise man appears in federal court at 8:30 Friday morning on terrorism charges.  He was arrested Thursday in Boise at an apartment complex near Borah High School.

Wendy Olson is the U.S. Attorney for the District of Idaho. She says the suspect is a national of the central Asian nation of Uzbekistan and legally in the U. S.

The Nampa School District voted Tuesday night to eliminate 27 teaching positions next fall. That’s the  latest cost cutting measure to overcome a more than $5 million deficit blamed on accounting errors.

But the state’s third largest school district has a way to go before it reaches a balanced budget next year. Adam Cotterell covers education and has covered Tuesday's  meeting. He talks with Samantha Wright about what’s next for Nampa schools.

Transcript

Wright: Adam I understand it was no ordinary school board meeting.

The Nampa School Board voted Tuesday night to leave 27 teaching jobs unfilled next fall (15 secondary and 12 elementary.) The jobs are opening due to retirements and resignations. It’s the latest step in a year-long effort to overcome a $5.1 million budget deficit blamed on accounting errors. The cuts will result in larger class sizes. In fourth grade for example, average class sizes will increase from 26 students to 32 students.

The Nampa School Board meets Tuesday to discuss the next steps in overcoming a $5.1 million budget deficit.

Thirteen Idaho high school seniors have won the prestigious National Merit Scholarship for 2013. It comes with $2,500 for college and a lot of bragging rights. Most of this year’s winners could get together on their lunch break.

This week the U.S. Department of Education released its annual list of Presidential Scholars. The award honors the highest achieving high school seniors in each state. Idaho’s 2013 Presidential Scholars are Josephine Minick of Centennial High School and Joseph Regan Bell of Boise’s Riverstone International School.

The media team of Newsweek and the Daily Beast has released its annual list of the nation’s best high schools. Seven Idaho schools made this year’s top 2,000 list. Coeur d’Alene Charter Academy is ranked 89, the only Idaho school to crack the top 100.

The Nampa School District’s financial hole keeps getting deeper. The most recent figure for the budget deficit in Idaho’s third largest district was a little more than $5 million. But at a school board meeting Tuesday night district officials revealed they also owe another $1.2 million in building bonds. The money had been used for general operations instead of being paid back on time. 

Each year the state of Idaho sends school districts about $900 million for teacher salaries and benefits. This is the time of year when decisions are made on how to spend that. Many Idaho school districts are in contract negotiations with teachers unions now. But those negotiations are complicated by changes to the laws.

More teachers are leaving Idaho than people in other professions. That’s according to a report released earlier this month by the Idaho Department of Labor.

Of people who left Idaho between 2008 and 2011, 3 percent where K-12 teachers and 4 percent were college or university instructors. Both are among the top five groups of professionals leaving the state, with K-12 teachers at number four and college instructors number three.

The Treasure Valley Education Partnership this week released what it calls a baseline report card. The coalition of schools, businesses and nonprofits wants to “advance a world class education system” for the area’s children. Jake Alger with the United Way says before the group launched any projects it wanted to know what it was up against.

Idaho’s Education Improvement Task Force finished a statewide listening tour Thursday night in Boise. The group was created to recommend ways to improve the state’s schools after voters repealed an education overhaul last November.

Thursday night’s public meeting was well attended compared to some past meetings. About 200 people squeezed into the state capital building’s Lincoln Auditorium and 37 spoke. It lasted more than two and a half hours.

Idaho’s Task Force for Improving Education wraps up a series of public meetings Thursday in Boise. The task force’s final public listening meeting will start at 6:30 p.m. at the state capital. 

It has been traveling Idaho for two weeks. The group’s goal is to put together recommendations for overhauling the state’s education system that can find broad support.