State Board of Education approves school district trustee zone boundaries

BOISE, Idaho (KIFI) - The Idaho State Board of Education Thursday approved plans to rezone school district trustee boundaries in school districts throughout Idaho during a Special Board Meeting held in Boise.

The Board approved 108 district proposals to amend trustee zone boundaries to balance populations with trustee zones and rejected two proposals that were still in process. 

Five additional school districts submitted proposals that made no changes to trustee zones because their zone populations had not changed enough to require amendments.

Idaho statute requires school districts to submit proposals to equalize populations within each trustee zone following the decennial census – the 2020 U.S. Census in this case.

Six exceptions were approved - three for “chartered” school districts that predate statehood and are subject to the terms of their individual charters. They are the Boise, Emmett and Lewiston School Districts.

Two districts received exceptions because they are very rural and have areas within the district with zero population.  They are the Arbon and Avery School Districts.

The Cottonwood School District was also granted an exception because it requested to exclude the prison population at the North Idaho Correctional Institution because offenders living there do not vote in the district and do not remain there after they are released.

The Board rejected plans submitted by the North Gem and West Jefferson School Districts because their proposed plans were incomplete. Both districts have 45 days to resubmit their proposals to the Board for consideration.

The five school districts that have not seen significant population shifts within their trustee zone boundaries since the last decennial census in 2010 are the Blackfoot, Gooding, Jerome, Lake Pend Oreille and Wallace School Districts.

Trustee zones are established to determine the geographic area represented by each elected board trustee within a school district.