Education

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.

The president of Gonzaga University has reversed an earlier decision and now says a campus chapter of the Knights of Columbus can receive official club status. The Catholic university in Spokane first denied that recognition because the Knights do not admit women or non-Catholics.

President Thayne McCulloh's decision allows the Knights of Columbus council to use the university's name in its title, use school facilities and fundraise on campus. Official club status also makes the group eligible for money from the university and student fees.

An Idaho anthropologist has risked his career in pursuit of what the rest of science considers a myth. Jeff Meldrum of Idaho State University is the nation’s lone academic trying to make the scientific case for Bigfoot. It’s no joke. Now he's even raising money to launch an unmanned aircraft that would scan the Northwest's forests for the large, hairy creature. Meldrum now hopes drones can finally prove his critics wrong.

Jeff Meldrum gets frustrated when he walks into Barnes and Noble. It's one of the stores that carries his book.

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.