D93 board discusses future, superintendent search

Bonneville School District 93 held a work session Wednesday night to discuss topics such as the future of the district and the search for the new superintendent.

The board discussed who should do the search for the new superintendent, themselves or the Idaho School Board Association. They won’t decide on that Wednesday night, but will do so in a later board meeting. They also discussed what hiring process they want to use. The district says they know this is an important decision and want to find the best person for the job.

“Somebody I think that is just really focused on kids and their education,” said Guy Wangsgard, chief financial officer for District 93. “Somebody who can look past the political things that have to happen. And certainly those political things have to happen, but really has the true interest of the education of our students at heart.”

They also discussed what the next 12 years could like for the district. They looked at areas such as growth to determine what facilities the district will need for students in the future. The district has grown about 3 percent every year since 1950. Some early recommendations include building two more elementary schools, or build a new middle school and move sixth grade to middle school, and expanding Bonneville and Hillcrest high schools by 2030.

“We’re really talking about the students we already have in our system so we know exactly how many kindergarten students we have now,” said Scott Woolstenhulme, assistant superintendent for District 93. “We can look at the growth trends and we can really anticipate how big that class will grow by the time they’re seniors. And so I think 12 years is a really good time frame to look at facilities because we’re really dealing with pretty hard data as far as our current enrollment.”

The school district just opened its newest high school, Thunder Ridge, and is currently building a new middle school.