But averages tell only part of the story.

The latest survey data illustrates the highs and lows of engagement at schools across Idaho, along with some other trends from prior years.

Student surveys, which measure students’ levels of curiosity, interest and optimism at school, are one accountability metric state superintendent Sherri Ybarra chose for Idaho’s plan to comply with the federal Every Student Succeeds Act.

Students in high school, for example, still express lower rates of engagement than elementary and middle school students. And while some schools appear stuck in a post-pandemic downturn, others continue to nearly double the state average.

Here’s a closer look at the numbers, including a breakdown of engagement at all Idaho schools.

Engagement varies greatly

On average, just 45.5% of Idaho’s K-12 students reported being engaged at school in 2022. That’s down slightly from 45.7% in 2021, and down notably from 52.6% the next available year, 2019.

Most numbers from the state’s largest school districts reflected the state average:

• West Ada: 44.1%
• Boise Independent District: 45%
• Nampa School District: 39.8%
• Pocatello District: 46.9%
• Idaho Falls District: 44.4%
• Coeur D’Alene District: 45.8%
• Vallivue School District: 45.6%
• Twin Falls District: 46.3%
• Jefferson County Joint District: 47.9%
• Oneida County District: 56.9%

Yet like last year, some schools far exceeded the state average this year. Grand View Elementary School led the pack in 2022 with over 80% engagement.

Here are the Top 10 schools, along with their associated districts:

• Grand View Elementary School 80.2% (Bruneau-Grand View Joint district)
• Howard E Thirkill Primary School 80.1% (Soda Springs district) 
• Thomas Jefferson Charter School 78.8% 
• Barbara R Morgan Elementary 76.8%(McCall-Donnelly district) 
• Edahow Elementary School 76.3% (Pocatello-Chubbuck district) 
• Hayden Meadows Elementary School 76.3% (Coeur d’Alene district)
• Gem Prep: Meridian North 75.9% 
• Pioneer School of the Arts 75.7% (West Ada School district) 
• Rockford Elementary School 75.1% (Snake River district)
• Hibbard Elementary School 75.1% (Madison district)

Click here for engagement numbers at all Idaho schools for 2022.

Age plays a factor, again

One notable reality from the 2022 numbers: age is again a determining factor.

Last year, all of the state’s top five schools for engagement were elementary schools, four of the bottom five were high schools and one is a junior-senior high school.

A similar trend played out in the state’s 2019 surveys, and 2022 was no different:

• Seven of the Top 10 are elementary schools, the latest numbers show.
• All of the Bottom 10 were either junior high schools or high schools.

The 10 schools with the worst engagement in 2022:

• Lakeside Junior High: (Plummer-Worley) 24.6%
• Columbia High: (Nampa)24.5%
• Kellogg High: 24.5%
• Rocky Mountain High: (West Ada) 24.3%
• Tammany High: (Lewiston) 23.4%
• Venture High: (CDA) 23.3%
• Lakeside High: (Plummer-Worley) 23.2%
• Hansen Junior-Senior High: 23.1%
• Black Canyon High: (Emmett) 22 22%
• Salmon River Junior-Senior High: 21.6%

It’s hard to pinpoint why engagement decreases as students age, but one principal last year suggested that older students have the capacity to feel more “detached” than their younger peers — especially during school closures and shifts to online learning that rocked schools during the pandemic.

A pandemic-induced slump?

State Superintendent Sherri Ybarra on Tuesday emphasized some positives from the latest engagement numbers — despite how minute.

A .3% increase among third- through 12th-grade students was the “encouraging” part of a “rebound,” Ybarra said in a news release.

But overall engagement among this age group still hovers around half, at 53.5%.

But the SDE’s announcement tied to the numbers also flagged a continued, notable drop in engagement among high schoolers — a 12 percentage point plunge over three years year, from 43.1% in 2019 to 31.1% in 2022.

The turnaround Ybarra eluded to remains to be seen, but she’s hopeful.

“Our educational communities are healing from the enormous disruptions of the past two years,” Ybarra said. “As we continue to move toward normalcy both in and out of school, I believe we’ll continue to see improvement in all areas — from test scores to engagement and beyond.”

The russet-burbank spud dubbed “Boomer” skinned (scalloped?) 11 of 12 competitors vying for Scorebook Live’s “Best High School Mascot in America” competition.

The potato commanded 72,502 votes in the closely watched yet highly unscientific poll, but it still trailed the winner by a staggering 110,953 votes.

The top dog, or dag, in this case: The Hodags of Rhinelander, Wis.

Not Hotdogs, but Hodags, which Scorebook defines as a “fearsome creature resembling a large bull-horned carnivore with a row of thick curved spines down its back.”

Hot dog.

And speaking of dogs, Idaho had two doozies make the competition’s final round. The Camas County Mushers slid into fifth place overall, with 3,271 votes.

Twelve teams survived a bracket round to compete “as supreme ruler of the high school mascot-verse,” Scorebook announced prior to the final round of voting, which ended late Tuesday. Each school emerged from one of 12 themed brackets, ranging from mythical creatures to food.

How a scepter-wielding spud loses to anything — ever — is beyond us, but here’s Scorebook’s final tally:

1. Mythical Creatures Bracket: The Rhinelander Hodags, Rhinelander, Wis. (183,455 votes).
2. Food Bracket: Shelley Russets (72,502 votes).
3. Pun Bracket: The Poca Dots of Poca, W. Va. (19,030 votes).
4. Class Struggle Bracket: Muskogee Roughers, Muskogee Okla. (6,179 votes). (How any team from Muskogee isn’t automatically dubbed the Okies is also beyond us.)
5. Jobs Bracket: Camas County Mushers (3,271 votes).
6. Animals Bracket: Hutto Hippos, Hutto, Texas (3,175 votes).
7. Historical Figures Bracket: Lincoln Railsplitters, Lincoln, Pa., Mich., N.Y. and Ill. Apparently, at least five schools bear this nickname. What do you expect? It’s Honest Abe, baby. (Lincoln embraced the nickname in 1860 to boost his image as a backwoodsman candidate, according to Scorebook.)
8. Stuff Bracket: Roxanna Shells, Roxanna, Ill. (833 votes). We got nothin’ for this one.
9. Action Bracket: Mount Clemens Battling Bathers, Mount Clemens, Mich. “Mount Clemens’ bath houses were a hot spot for the rich and famous in the late 1800s and early 1900s in the Detroit area,” Scorebook explains.
10. Geography Bracket: Lanai Pines Lads and Lasses, Lanai, Hawaii. (519 votes).
11. Science Bracket: Mars Fightin’ Planets, Mars, Pa. (364 votes). Far out.
12. Random Bracket: Lake Forest Academy Caxys, Lake Forest Ill. (288 votes).

Just over 51% of about 1,000 parents recently surveyed by the district said they’d prefer year-round school if trustees have to “take drastic steps to address safety, security and overcrowding at high schools,” survey results shared by the district show.

Just over 48% said they’d prefer split sessions, where half the students attend classes in the morning and half attend in the afternoon to reduce the number of students in buildings at any given time.

Trustees are considering ways to address overcrowding issues if the district’s $250 million bond issue fails to meet the supermajority of votes it needs to pass Nov. 8, Idaho Falls Superintendent Jim Shank wrote in an Oct. 18 email to parents, which included a link to the survey.

The measure — which would fund construction of a new Idaho Falls High school, two new elementary schools and extensive upgrades to Skyline High School — is the largest general obligation bond to make it onto an Idaho ballot. It’s also the third time since 2017 that Idaho Falls has asked local property owners to bankroll major facilities upgrades. Both prior attempts failed.

The latest measure would address overpopulated schools, including Sunnyside Elementary, which the district says is at 145% capacity, and Idaho Falls High, which it says is at 141% capacity. Upgrades to Skyline High revolve around a range of safety concerns and other improvements, the district says.

But the price tag for improvements has rapidly increased over the years. Two newly proposed elementary schools and rising construction costs have more than doubled the estimated cost for upgrades since 2017.

The latest measure’s estimated cost to taxpayers: $100 per $100,000 of taxable property.

Local bond opposition group D91 Taxpayers has criticized the $250 million measure, and questioned its actual financial impact on patrons in light of rising interest rates, which are expected to increase again this year.

Local taxpayers who say they’re already strapped by inflation have also raised concerns over costs in the weeks leading up to the election.

D91 Taxpayers added the parent survey to its list of issues with the bond, casting the questionnaire as a last-minute scare tactic to rally votes.

“The district is campaigning, pure and simple, and that is illegal,” D91 Taxpayers spokeswoman Lisa Keller wrote in an Oct 18 email in response to the survey.

Some of that criticism showed up on the survey itself.

“It’s a scare tactic from a (sic) incompetent school board,” one respondent wrote when asked to share their “greatest concern” about the prospect of split sessions.

Still, others lauded the measure.

“We would be happy to hand out flyers and inform anyone that will listen,” one supporter wrote in the survey.

The survey also gauged parents’ primary concern over split sessions or year-round school. Nearly 28% and over 37% chose “disruption to family routines and traditions” as their greatest concern over split sessions and year-round school, respectively. Other key concerns ranged from “siblings being on a different schedule” to “disruptions of regular school calendar.”

Respondents also had a chance to write in their top concern if it wasn’t listed.

Click here for a complete look at the results.

Further reading: Idaho Falls’ bond issue is one of four requests from school districts for local funds heading into Tuesday’s election. Go here for more on the $266.1 million school election day, and watch for these and other results on our homepage on election night.

Voters in the Idaho Falls, Bonneville and Fremont County school districts will decide on a combined total of $266.1 million in local funds to cover various expenses and projects, including Idaho Falls’ plan to build a new high school and two new elementary schools.

Bonneville’s share of the requests includes a pair of measures totaling just $13.1 million:

• A two-year, $11.6 million supplemental levy for a range of expenses, including classroom supplies, a school resource officer, coaches and extracurricular activities advisors and to support other positions.
• A $1.5 million request for construction cost savings and interest earnings from the proceeds of a previously approved $30.5 million in bonds for updates and “repairing, renovating, remodeling, equipping and furnishing other existing schools and facilities.”

Fremont County is asking for a two-year, $3 million supplemental levy to cover textbooks, technology, musical instruments, building security needs and to “attract and retain highly qualified staff.”

The rest of the $266.1 million — Idaho Falls’ record-breaking $250 million bond issue — would fund construction of a new Idaho Falls High school, two new elementary schools and extensive upgrades to Skyline High School. It’s the largest school bond issue to ever make it onto an Idaho ballot.

Idaho’s seen much bigger school election days. March 2017’s election featured a mammoth $715 million in bonds and levies. August 2022’s total: $261.4 million.

But August’s lineup included a dozen districts asking for bonds and levies, which, if approved, flow to schools through local property taxes. Idaho Falls’ ask nearly meets August’s total in one swipe.

The bond issue would address overpopulated schools, including Sunnyside Elementary, which the district says is at 145% capacity, and Idaho Falls High, which it says is at 141% capacity. Upgrades to Skyline High revolve around a range of safety concerns and other improvements.

The measure marks the third time since 2017 that Idaho Falls has asked local property owners to bankroll major facilities upgrades. Both prior attempts failed.

Rising construction costs and the need for more space at the district’s elementary schools has more than doubled the price tag for proposed updates since 2017. And the $250 million now on tap for the election accompanies rising interest rates, fueling concerns from local taxpayers who say they’re already strapped by inflation.

The district puts the measure’s estimated tax burden at $100 per $100,000 of taxable value, but a local opposition group, which fought both prior bond issues, has criticized the request, referenced rising interest rates and blasted the district’s consideration of revised class schedules if the measure fails.

Idaho Falls’ bond issue and Bonneville’s $1.5 million request both need a supermajority of votes to pass, while both supplemental levies require a simple majority.

Polls opening from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Election Day. Click here to find your polling place.

What do a potato, musher and (Poca) dot have in common?

Not much. But they are among the finalists for best high school mascot in the country, and you could help one of them win.

Scorebook Live’s very unscientific competition pits some of Idaho’s doozies against some clever national competition.

The Shelley High School Russets (for Idaho’s newcomers, that’s something you eat) and the Camas County Mushers (for you Californians, that’s someone who pulls a dog sled) both slid into the championship round of Scorebook’s Best Mascot in America competition, Scorebook announced on its website earlier this week.

Help either Idaho school mash (mush?) the competition by voting here. Voting closes Tuesday, Nov. 1, at midnight.

Twelve teams survived a “grueling” bracket round to compete “as supreme ruler of the high school mascot-verse,” Scorebook announced. The two Idaho schools won their respective “food” and “job” brackets in prior voting.

“It’s not Alaska, but Fairfield, Idaho (home of Camas County High) — does average over 60 inches of snow per year, and mushing is one efficient way to get around during winter in the rural town of 567 people,” Scorebook announced in a writeup of schools still in the running.

And Shelley’s Russet “isn’t just any potato — it’s a russet-burbank potato that wears a crown, robe and scepter,” Scorebook writes, referencing the school’s beloved mascot, Boomer.

Other lingering contenders include the Lake Forest Academy “Caxys” of Illinois and the “Dots” of Poca, West Virginia, who claimed Scorecard’s “pun” bracket.

The “Caxys,” who claimed Scorebook’s “random” bracket, is ancient Greek for “ribbit.”

“In the early 1900s,” Scorebook explains, “Aristophanes’ comedy ‘The Frogs’ was the subject of a popular Greek literature class at the school. Thus, the Caxys.”

One notable Idaho school not in the running: the Orofino Maniacs of North Idaho.

We know: crazy.

“Once a maniac, always a maniac,” the school’s website reads.

Bond opposition group D91 Taxpayers called a recent email from Idaho Falls Superintendent James Shank “despicable.” The email raised the prospect of split sessions or year-round school if the bond fails.

“It seems like they know that many families cannot afford their new huge tax, so instead of looking for reasonable options, they are trying to twisted (sic) voters’ arms,” the group’s spokeswoman, Lisa Keller, wrote in a press release last week.

Idaho Falls trustees are considering ways to address safety, security and overcrowding issues if the record-breaking bond fails to meet the supermajority of votes it needs to pass Nov. 8, Shank wrote in an Oct. 18 email to parents, which included a link to a patron survey tied to the possible changes. The district could either split sessions or turn to year-round school to fight overcrowding, Shank added, encouraging parents to head for the polls, and to invite their “friends, family, neighbors and colleagues to vote.”

The district just closed the survey and is reviewing all the comments, spokeswoman Margaret Wimborne told EdNews Tuesday.

The measure — which would fund construction of a new Idaho Falls High school, two new elementary schools and extensive upgrades to Skyline High School — is the largest school bond issue to make it onto an Idaho ballot. It also marks the third time since 2017 that Idaho Falls has asked local property owners to bankroll major facilities upgrades. Both prior attempts failed.

The measure would address overpopulated schools, including Sunnyside Elementary, which the district says is at 145% capacity, and Idaho Falls High, which it says is at 141% capacity. Upgrades to Skyline High revolve around a range of safety concerns and other improvements.

But rising construction costs and the need for more space at the district’s elementary schools has more than doubled the price tag for proposed updates since 2017. And the $250 million now on tap for Nov. 8 accompanies rising interest rates, fueling concerns from local taxpayers who say they’re already strapped by inflation.

The district has met those concerns with informational meetings, information on its website and an impact calculator for patrons to estimate how much they would pay on a property-by-property basis to fund the measure. The district puts the estimated financial burden on local taxpayers at $100 per $100,000 of taxable value.

But the opposition group, which fought both prior bond issues, points to at least one unknown heading into the election: rising interest rates.

To curb inflation, Fed officials have pushed up their short-term rate by a hefty three-quarters of a percentage point three times in a row, the Associated Press reports. And more interest-rate hikes will be necessary to rein in inflation, Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook has said.

Shank told EdNews during an informational meeting earlier this month that current cost estimates for his district’s measure include inflationary factors and the prospect of future rate hikes.

But it’s still unclear exactly how future increases could impact the final price tag if the measure passes. An attorney representing the district recently reiterated this reality to a patron.

“For each 1 percent rate increase, what is now the anticipated interest rate and what is now the cost per 100k of taxable value … ?” patron Chelsie Liljenquist wrote to the district, according to documents D91 Taxpayers sent EdNews last week. Liljenquist shared the letter with the group out of concerns over transparency heading into the election, Keller said.

“District 91 objects to this request as it requires speculation,” Tolson and Wayment attorney Aaron J. Tolson wrote on behalf of the district in response to the question on Sept 28. “The requester will need to seek their own advice from a competent professional as the answer to this request is not within the bailiwick of District 91.”

Another question included in the response letter revolves around the district’s capacity to even put a $250 million bond issue on the ballot.

“What is the district’s current bond capacity?” Liljenquist wrote, in reference to a section of Idaho Code that caps a district’s bond requests for new and updated facilities at 5% of its market value.

Idaho Falls has a market value of just over $8.6 billion, according to the latest numbers from the Idaho Tax Commission, which district spokeswoman Margaret Wimborne shared with EdNews Thursday. That amount, along with an urban renewal value recognized by the state, puts the district’s debt capacity at over $441.8 million — well above the $250 million the district is asking for.

Tolson didn’t address that reality in his response letter to Liljenquist.

“While we are unsure what the requester means by the phrase ‘current bond capacity,'” Tolson wrote, ” … we note that the bond optioned by District 91 sets forth information regarding the amount of the bond.”

Tolson told EdNews Wednesday that it was initially unclear to him if Liljenquist was asking if the district “had a bonding partner … but I now think she was just asking for capacity.”

“Most school districts can tell you their bond capacity on a simple phone call. It’s common everyday stuff,” Keller said in response to Tolson’s response letter.

What other K-12 measures are on the Nov. 8 ballot?

EdNews has tracked other bond issues and levies in districts across the state. So far, we’ve found just two other requests, both from the Bonneville School District:

• A two-year $11.6 million supplemental levy for a range of expenses, including classroom supplies, a school resource officer, coaches and extracurricular activities advisors and to support other positions.
• A $1.5 million request for construction cost savings and interest earnings from the proceeds of a previously approved $30.5 million in bonds for updates and “repairing, renovating, remodeling, equipping and furnishing other existing schools and facilities.”

Bonneville’s supplemental levy requires a simple majority of supporting votes to pass, while the $1.5 million request requires a supermajority.

We always find value in sitting down with their teachers, but the refrain is often the same: Here’s what they do well, here’s what they can do better, here’s what you can do with them at home.

And the fact that our kids attend the same elementary school my wife and I attended decades ago only adds to our sense of monotony. On Thursday, we sat with our daughter and her fifth-grade teacher in the same fifth-grade classroom I sat through class in decades ago.

Same coat rack along the side wall. Same white board on the front wall. Same corner where my teacher once rightfully reamed me for not being very nice to a kid who — unbeknown to me — was suffering the trauma of a family death.

Same, same, same. Except one thing was different Thursday. Our fifth-grader’s thoughtful teacher let our fifth-grader take the reins during the meeting.

And you guessed it: Our fifth-grader is doing great at school, says our fifth-grader.

She, not her teacher, walked us through a series of Google slides our fifth-grader created for the meeting. She, not her teacher, shared her own standardized test scores, where she fell short of and exceeded her own academic goals.

She walked us through the results of a self-evaluation she completed earlier this year and shared some thoughtful questions for everyone to consider and respond to at the end of the presentation.

It was a simple changeup, but it was meaningful and refreshing. I realized about halfway through Parlie’s speech that my wife and I were more engaged, listened more closely than we normally do at parent-teacher conferences and were more eager to ask questions about her well-being.

There’s something valuable about letting parents watch their kids take charge, get out of their comfort zone and take a risk.

And the experience seemed more meaningful for Parlie. I had the clear sense that she had come away with a better idea of and more regard for how she was doing — and how she could do better.

She understood where she stands in the class because she reviewed, compiled and self-reflected on details about her own performance so far this school year.

And it’s obvious that self-reflection is a vital part of learning. Because Parlie now knows better where she is in her learning, she has a better sense of where she can go from here.

Afterward Ms. Miskin quietly gathered a few papers up and handed them over to us. She maybe said 20 words the whole time, but she did let us know that we could reach out with any questions or concerns.

“It’s all about them,” Ms. Miskin told us before telling Parlie to “Go for it, girl.” “I want to let them take charge.”

“Were you nervous?” I asked Parlie on the way home from the school.

“Yes,” she said, “but I think it went OK. I’m just glad it’s over.”

Just 45.5% of third- through 12th-grade students reported being engaged at school, the State Department of Education reported Tuesday. The average is down slightly from last year’s 45.7%.

It’s also down from 52.6% average from the next most recent available year, 2019 — before the pandemic’s heaviest impacts on schools.

The surveys, which measure students’ levels of curiosity, interest and optimism at school, are one accountability metric state superintendent Sherri Ybarra chose for Idaho’s plan to comply with the federal Every Student Succeeds Act. The surveys are administered in in the spring, yet some school leaders question their value altogether.

Still, the numbers provide a grade-by-grade and school-by-school look at student, staff and parental engagement.

“The 2022 results for students show marked differences between students in grades 3 through 8 and those in grades 9 through 12,” the SDE pointed out in a news release tied to the data.

Overall engagement in 2022 for students in grades 3 through 8 was 53.5%, up slightly from 2021’s 53.2%. Fifty-eight percent of students in grades 3 through 8 reported overall engagement in 2019.

Older students continued a downward trend, however. Overall engagement for students in grades 9 through 12 dropped 12 percentage points in recent years, from 43.1% in 2019 to 31.1% in 2022. The 2021 average was 32.2%.

The 2022 survey drew 190,005 student responses.

Results from parents and school staff showed some improvements from recent years.

Staff satisfaction remains above pre-pandemic levels, despite a downturn in participation and reported satisfaction since 2021, the SDE pointed out:

• The number of staff members completing the survey dropped 8%, from 21,245 to 19,451 in 2022.
• 75.9% of staffers reported they were satisfied, down from 79.3% in 2021, but still above 2019’s pre-pandemic level of 75.7%.

Fewer parents also responded to the survey last spring than in past years, but results show a rise in overall satisfaction:

• This year, 45,735 parents took the survey, a 10% decline from 2021.
• Parents’ overall satisfaction came in at 75.1%, up from 74% in 2021 and 74.5% in 2019.

“Though it’s clear that there is still work to be done, these results should lend Idahoans some comfort,” Ybarra said. “Our educational communities are healing from the enormous disruptions of the past two years. As we continue to move toward normalcy both in and out of school, I believe we’ll continue to see improvement in all areas – from test scores to engagement and beyond.”

Look for a closer, district-by-district look at the numbers from EdNews Wednesday. 

EdNews recently surveyed over 500 teachers across Idaho to reveal that more than 90% are sticking it out. Teachers remain far more likely to stay in their job than a typical worker, even after a global pandemic, politics and technology have added more stress to an already challenging job.

Still, many report feeling underpaid, disrespected, overworked and unsatisfied — even as they’re being asked to do more. 

Teachers today must keep students safe from school shootings, catch them up academically in COVID-19’s wake and deal with a burst of mental health issues pushing youth suicide rates to record numbers. 

So what’s keeping them around? 

We asked, and learned a lot. Some are only staying until they find a way out. Others feel trapped by what they see as a lack of options. A love of teaching overshadows the mounting challenges for others. 

EdNews’ weeklong series, “Teachers: in their own words,” dives into the state of the profession in Idaho, and where it goes from here. 

Here’s an overview of the series, and what to watch for this week: 

Survey says: Nearly all of Idaho’s teachers are staying, but almost half are unsatisfied

Earlier this year, 511 K-12 teachers from every grade level and 64 school district and charter schools responded to an unscientific EdNews survey aimed at gauging the state of the teaching profession in Idaho. 

We asked teachers a range of questions, from their overall satisfaction with their jobs to how the profession has changed over the years. 

Key takeaways: 

• 93% said they were returning to the classroom this school year.
• 48% said they are “very” or “slightly” unsatisfied with their jobs. 
• 90% said their feelings about the profession have changed since they started teaching.

And the list of concerns is long. The following percentages of survey respondents classified a range of issues as either “serious” or “very serious:”   

• Lack of respect: 82%. 
• Unfilled jobs leading to more work for remaining staff: 79%.
• Students’ mental health: 79%.
• Student behavioral issues: 76%.
• Unpaid hours outside of contract time: 74%.
• Stress from introduced or passed legislation: 71%.
• Burnout: 69%.
• Stress from the pandemic: 63%. 
• Lack of planning time: 61%.
• Student misuse of cell phones or technology: 54%.
• Low pay: 52%.

The 23-question survey wasn’t scientific. But it did document the experiences of hundreds of Idaho teachers on a broader scale. We announced on Aug. 10 our plans to write about our findings. We shared the survey on our social media platforms and via emails and text messages. The survey remained open for two weeks. 

We contacted over a dozen respondents for followup interviews via contact information they had the option of providing. We’ll share our findings from those follow-up interviews Monday. 

Click here for the full survey results. 

Teachers are sticking it out, but challenges persist

Most teachers return to the classroom despite a range of morale issues, but many schools are still struggling to fill positions. 

A separate EdNews survey of 60 Idaho K-12 administrators revealed concentrated staffing challenges in districts large and small across Idaho. Most schools are able to fill positions, but leaders have grown more reliant on hiring teachers with alternative authorizations. And long-running struggles tied to hard-to-fill positions, such as special education, persist. 

These realities could jeopardize fragile teacher-retention efforts in districts across the state. 

Our series, at a glance: 

Sunday

Idaho’s teachers are tired, but they’re sticking it out.

Monday

Idaho teachers open up about classroom realities. 

Tuesday

Schools are losing teachers faster than they can replace them. 

Wednesday

Administrators explain the concentrated challenges of hiring teachers and other staffers. 

Idaho Education News reporter Carly Flandro and data analyst Randy Schrader contributed to this story.

And many are experiencing higher rates of teacher turnover than usual.

Twenty-four of 36 administrators recently surveyed by EdNews say they still have teacher openings in their districts. Of the same respondents, 27 rated their teacher turnover this school year as “more than average.”

The survey follows two tough pandemic years and a slew of lingering concerns from teachers about their profession. Most teachers returned to their classrooms this school year but point to a range of issues, from feeling underpaid and disrespected to being overworked and unsatisfied.

And with teacher attrition a constant struggle for administrators hoping to keep classrooms staffed, some schools are facing steeper shortages in certain content areas — and turning to alternative teacher authorizations and four-day school weeks for respite.

Some open positions are typically harder to fill than others, but local leaders say a range of problems, from a retirement uptick to unusual job mobility, augment the challenges.

On top of that, filling other classified positions, from substitute teachers and bus drivers to janitors and paraprofessionals, is even a bigger struggle for schools, and that’s impacting teachers’ views about their own jobs.

“Our biggest challenge is filling paraprofessional positions for special education,” Bonneville superintendent Scott Woolstenhulme told EdNews. “This has led to an escalation in student behaviors, which is impacting the learning of students and the morale and effectiveness of teachers.”

By the numbers: What administrators are saying

On top of a slew of teacher openings across Idaho, just nine of 60 superintendents surveyed said their teacher turnover was less than average this school year.

Fifty of 59 said it was at or above average:

Meanwhile, 51 of the 60 superintendents surveyed pointed to openings among classified staff, where substitutes, bus drivers and paraprofessionals are in extra high demand.

Click here for the full results of our survey.

What gives?

Twin Falls School District Superintendent Brady Dickinson sees several problems.

Months into the school year, his district of 9,410 students is still searching for three fourth-grade teachers, teachers for 3.5 special education positions, a reading and a math teacher.

A staff member’s sudden passing left the district scrambling to fill one of those openings, Dickinson said, but the others are typically hard to fill.

And for Dickinson, that’s part of a broader problem: some positions are simply trickier to fill than others — and have been for years.

Fourteen of the 60 districts EdNews surveyed pointed to vacancies in special education — an area schools, including those in Twin Falls, typically struggle to fill.

But Dickinson also sees problems with the teacher pipeline in Idaho: “There simply are not enough teachers coming out of university pipelines to fill the positions left open by educators retiring, leaving the profession or relocating.”

Schools are leaking teachers faster than they can replace them, EdNews recently found.

And then there’s the surge in job mobility across the country. Many Twin Falls educators are relocating to different areas when their spouse or family member finds employment elsewhere, Dickinson added. The upsurge in home prices in and around Twin Falls has made it “increasingly challenging” to attract educators to the area.

Nampa interim superintendent Gregg Russell agreed. Nampa is another larger district with numerous teacher openings: 13 currently, from special education to science.

The district has for years “struggled with finding teachers in various disciplines like math, science, and special education,” Russell told EdNews. And higher housing prices in Ada and Canyon counties haven’t helped. For Russell, income for educators plays a big part: “Teacher pay typically does not match that of other careers with a professional licensure, and the difficulty of the job.”

Russell also pointed to a baby-boomer retirement wave — something he sees as a both a state and national issue.

Still, more districts are having a hard time hiring classified staff than teachers, from bus drivers and substitute teachers to paraprofessionals and janitors.

Administrators say the struggle for classified staff boils down to funding.

For Bonneville, that doesn’t necessary mean more funding, just more flexibility tied to funding.

“We do not necessarily need more state funding to address our staffing issue, especially with the additional $300 million approved in the special session,” Woolstenhulme said. “What we absolutely need is to be given more flexibility by the Legislature in how to use the dollars we are given.” 

West Side School District Spencer Barzee said to ease the challenge in his schools, classified employees would need to see a 30% to 40% increase in their paychecks.

West Side has no teacher openings at the moment, but classified openings exist for office staff, custodians, bus drivers, substitute teachers, paraprofessionals, classroom aids and kitchen staff.

Schools scramble to adjust

Barzee credited one thing for filling all teacher positions in his district this school year: dropping a learning day from the calendar.

“The primary purpose for our district transitioning to the four-day school week was for the recruiting and retention of teachers,” he said of his district’s recent decision to drop Fridays from the calendar.

Three years into the change, Barzee said it gives school districts like his an “advantage over industry for recruiting and retention.”

Four-day weeks have spread rapidly across Idaho in recent years. As of September, 81 of 186 Idaho districts and charters had made the switch. The number has more than doubled since 2012-13, when only 39 districts had a four-day schedule.

The hope, administrators say, is that this will encourage teachers to apply for jobs.

But districts opting for four-days are largely smaller and rural, like West Side. Bigger districts have come to rely on another primary means for making sure classrooms stay staffed: alternative teacher authorizations.

Idaho allows would-be teachers to become fully certified teachers through alternative programs like Teach for America and the American Board for Teacher Certification. Districts can also hire teachers on an “emergency provisional” basis, which puts a teacher in the classroom before they complete their certification.

Here’s a look at how the number of Idaho teachers who pursue these routes to the classroom has increased over the last seven years. 

Administrators say the flexibility is good, and bad.

“We would not have been able to fill all of our teaching positions without the use of alternative authorizations and emergency provisional authorizations,” Dickinson told EdNews.

Russell called alternative authorizations a “given necessity” for filling Nampa’s teacher positions.

But drawbacks include streamlined training and the need for enhanced professional development, both administrators said.

“These educators come without the traditional education background,” said Dickinson, “which requires extra training and support while they are on the job.”

And that demands a “much more robust professional development and instructional coaching program,” which are beneficial for all educators in the district but do require additional resources.

Russell said: “A larger burden falls on the district to ensure quality mentors support those folks and (that) the district provide further training around the nuances of teaching.”

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