It's been a tough week starting with receiving news on Sunday that one of our students would soon pass away. This student's unexpected passing would be the sixth within the past year, as well as two of our employees. On Tuesday, we were alerted by local news agencies that a former teacher had been charged with a misdemeanor for enticing children. On Wednesday, we were notified about a social media post being circulated that intimated a possible weapons related threat at Thunder Ridge.

Each of these issues presents unique and challenging questions about what, when, and how we communicate information to our families and employees. We believe that open and transparent communication is essential to building trust with our community. This is why we have continued sending weekly updates to our families and employees, why we continue our monthly D93 Live broadcasts, and why we keep an Ask D93 button on our homepage.

To ensure that we are building trust through our communications, our most important responsibility is to communicate with integrity. That may seem simple, but in practice it is not, especially when issues are publicized involving individual students or employees.

To communicate with integrity, we work from the principle that integrity means both doing the right thing and doing things right.
Communicating transparently is the right thing to do; ensuring that the information that we send has been verified for accuracy and that we are not violating constitutional rights to privacy or laws governing confidentiality is the right way to do it.

This means it may take time for us to investigate and verify the facts of a situation before we communicate about it. It also means that we usually cannot share all of the facts that we learn about a given situation publicly. We are committed to sharing everything that we are legally permitted to share, but that may still leave unanswered questions and concerns. Here is additional information about the situations we have dealt with this week.

On Wednesday, we had to make yet another difficult decision regarding how to respond to a post on social media. A photo of a weapon with text intimating a possible threat was made on a SnapChat group titled ‘TRHS 2027.” Last night, we sent this updated joint statement released by the Bonneville County Sheriff's Office and District 93 in response to this post.

Deciding how to respond to these types of posts is never easy or simple. Our first step is to inform law enforcement and work closely with them to determine what level of risk we believe is associated with the specific post. A diligent investigation from our school resource officers determined that this specific post was not made by a student enrolled at Thunder Ridge or in any District 93 school.

The FBI has confirmed that there was no credible school threat from this post: "The actual threat post was made from a Snapchat account "Ayden" belonging to an individual in the United Kingdom. This is based on an emergency disclosure order to Snapchat confirming the user's location, as well as interviews with a Snapchat friend of the account who attends West Brunswick High School [in North Carolina]. The Snapchat photo of the assault rifle that was used was found to be taken from a Reddit post/article made in 2022."

Over the course of a school year, we will typically deal with multiple instances of these types of social media posts, anonymous swatting attacks, and other similar incidents that heighten our concern for the safety of our kids and employees. If we were to close school anytime someone made a post about having a gun in school, we would be closing schools all of the time, and these types of posts would only increase in frequency. A study of school shootings will show that while some attacks were preceded by posts on social media, there many more without any type of warnings or threat. It is a tragic fact that we have a rare but real risk of targeted violence schools. In response to that fact, we work to ensure that we are following recommendations from the Secret Service to avert targeted school violence to keep our schools safe.

I cannot express enough appreciation for the tireless work of the teachers and administrative staff members at Thunder Ridge and Black Canyon who were flooded with thousands of calls in response to this social media hoax yesterday. We cannot staff schools to the level to take hundreds, or even dozens of calls at the same time. But we will do a critical incident review of how things happened to determine what supports we can put in place for future incidents.

The worst news that we can get is that we have lost a student or employee. This news always comes with grief and sorrow for the family and friends of those individuals. These situations also present incredibly difficult challenges for communication. Our first responsibility is to the family of those individuals who have passed. We want to ensure that we are respecting their wishes regarding what they want to share publicly and what they do not. We try be very mindful of the privacy of families when they are dealing with such grief and sorrow. Sometimes unconfirmed rumors regarding how a student passed away circulate on social media, but we are typically not informed of the official determinations of cause of death. For those reasons, we do not widely publicize the news of the sudden deaths of students. We do notify families where the student was enrolled so that they are able to respond to the news with their children at home and know how we are supporting students at school. If the student who passed had siblings at other schools, then those families may be notified as well, but we do not broadly share this news across all schools and we never provide details regarding the circumstances of a student's passing.

When news of an employee or student's misconduct is reported or circulated on social media, it is always usually followed by criticism from uninformed spectators who believe the District lacks action or communication about the situation. I can assure our public that every time misconduct is appropriately reported to district-level administration, it is investigated and we take actions that are consistent with Board policy and state law. But, as much as parents and the public may believe they have a right to know details regarding how we have responded to allegations of misconduct, we simply cannot share those details publicly. Here is why:

• Student misconduct: Student disciplinary actions are included as part of their academic record, which is private and confidential as required by a number of laws including the Family Educational Records Privacy Act (FERPA). As we make determinations about appropriate consequences for misconduct by students, we must legally consider a number of factors including whether or not students have a disability that may have manifested in their misbehavior, whether we have followed an appropriate intervention plan for the student, the age and cognitive level of the student as well as other factors. Because we cannot share any of this information, social media posts speculate that we are not doing anything. That is simply not true, but we are prohibited from sharing what actions we are taking and how we made those decisions.

• Employee misconduct: Whenever we confirm a report of misconduct by an employee, that information is placed in their personnel file. Idaho State Law 33-518 prohibits us from disclosing any details regarding employment actions: school employee "personnel files are declared to be confidential and excepted from public access under any provision of the Idaho Code." When misconduct happens outside of the scope of their employment with the District, then we wait to learn what the outcome of the investigation and charges are before we proceed with any necessary employment actions. Regardless of how easily social media posts convict individuals without full knowledge of an incident, we always follow our constitutional standard that an individual is innocent until proven guilty.
  If an employee resigns prior to the conclusion of an investigation, by state law, any documentation for investigative files that we have created are placed into their personnel file. Once an employee resigns, however, we will not have any more detail regarding their legal proceedings than the general public does.

We are committed to transparent and frequent communication with our employees and families to continue to build our relationship of trust with you. Nothing is more important to the success of our students than having positive relationships that are built on a foundation of trust. We know how important communication is to building that trust. To that end, our communications will always be centered on the cornerstone of integrity which means that we will do our best to share accurate and verified information as long as are legally and ethically allowed to share.

The Southeast Idaho college fair is for all student in this region. It will be this Monday at Thunder Ridge 5-8 pm. It is free and all students are invited (not just seniors).

There has understandably been a lot of frustration with the issues we have been experiencing with the network and WIFI connectivity. The size and complexity of our network make this a complex issue to resolve. There are many layers and components of the network and there are hundreds of hardware devices in the backbone of the network. For safety and security reasons we need to have firewalls, content filters, switches, routers, and other hardware and software to monitor our network to keep it up and running. We have certain requirements as outlined in the CIPA, Child Information Protection Act, that we must adhere to which add to the complexity of the network setup.

Here is an overview of what we are doing to resolve these issues.

• WiFi Configuration Settings: To help resolve the issue we have reached out to our WIFI vendor to review the settings and configuration of our access points. We did not find any irregularities and we did make a few adjustments to the setting which at this point has not made any significant difference. We are reaching back out to get more information on the usage at each access point.

• Network Engineering: We have hired a network engineer to review our entire network and monitor the traffic to look for any abnormalities in the network. We have set up networking monitoring software to collect logs of the network traffic that he is reviewing as well as our team.

• Content Filter: We have contacted our content filter vendor and reviewed the configuration and settings on that equipment. We did not find any irregularities there as well and did confirm that it was functioning properly.

• Network Firewall: We have contacted our firewall vendor and are in the process of reviewing the firewall settings and configuration. The firewall rules are complex and will take time to thoroughly go through. We have not found anything yet and will continue to thoroughly go through the firewall configuration.

• Internet Service Providers: We are currently monitoring the connection speed and routes for our internet connections. We do have redundant connections and are in the process of modifying the configuration to route the traffic to the fastest connection we have available.

We are still in the process of trying to identify the root cause of the connectivity issues, so I don’t have a timeline to give you for a complete resolution of all of these components. We also must deal with budget constraints which limits what we are able to do in purchasing newer hardware. We are frustrated that we have not made more progress and want you to know we are doing everything we can to resolve this as soon as possible.

Gordon Howard

Technology/Safe Schools Director

In addition to the Presidential Election, on November 5th our residents will also be asked whether to approve our $5.8 million annual supplemental levy for the next two years*.

As you can see in the image below, this funding supplements pay for almost every D93 employee. It also helps to pay the contract for our School Resource Officers and provides instructional resources for our classrooms. Finally, the cost of our extracurricular activities including coaching stipends and transportation come from the supplemental levy.

By state law, to keep this funding, the levy must be approved by our voters at least every two years.

Please help to share the word about the importance of voting on this ballot question.

*Mandatory Disclosure Language

The estimated average annual cost to the taxpayer on the proposed levy is a tax of $77.13 per $100,000 of taxable assessed value, per year, based on current conditions. The proposed levy replaces an existing levy that expires on June 30, 2025 and that currently costs $77.13 per $100,000 of taxable assessed value. If the proposed levy is approved, the tax per $100,000 of taxable assessed value is not expected to change.

The Bonneville County Elections Office is inviting students who are 16 years or older to participate in the election process as poll workers. Interested students can email the elections office at vote@BonnevilleCountyIdaho.gov

The boardroom was filled to capacity with honorees and a retiree as the Board recognized and honored Deb Sorenson for his decades of dedication to Bonneville Joint School District's sports and community. Deb has served as the voice of D93 for over 40 years, and he will be greatly missed. We wish him the best in his retirement.

The Board also recognized Roman Stonhill for his achievement in making the National Merit Scholar Commended List, and Thunder Ridge High School’s Honor Society was celebrated for receiving the Excellence in Service Chapter Pillar Award from the National Honor Society.

In addition, the Board approved the FY2024 Financial Audit. The audit was a success, and Guy Wangsgard, the district’s Executive Director of Finance and Operations, attributed the achievement to the teamwork and collaboration within the accounting department.

The next Board meeting will be a Work Meeting on October 23rd at Pine Basin. Due to the change in venue, a notice will be posted shortly. Please note that public input is not permitted during a Work Meeting. If you would like to submit an agenda item request for future meetings, please click the button below.

Welcome to another episode of D93 News presented by Idaho Farm Bureau! In this episode, we recap last night’s board meeting, where we honored some amazing members of our community. One special recognition went to Deb Sorenson, the long-time voice of D93 sports. Deb shared his inspiring journey from officiating to radio broadcasting, and we reflect on our own experiences working with him in the booth.

Plus, we cover important updates on the upcoming November 5th election, and a major road closure in Ammon affecting 1st Street. And, in some fun news, D93’s Mary Hansen had a star-studded moment at the Idaho Falls Airport with none other than Henry Winkler!

Don’t miss this episode full of great stories and updates!

We have officially opened sign-ups for our 2024-2025 preschool newsletter. This is a monthly newsletter for our district’s preschool-aged children (ages 3-5). We send home a newsletter and book to district families that sign up, once a month between October and May. Please share the link with anyone that you feel may be interested. Here it is: Preschool Newsletter Sign Up

The D93 Extra Mile Award celebrates those whose hard work and positive attitudes make a significant impact on our students, staff, and community. Thanks to our amazing friends at Rusty Taco, we’ll be recognizing those who go above and beyond with this special award! 🌮🙌

Who inspires you with their dedication and effort? We want to hear from you! Nominate them for the Extra Mile Award, and they could win five tacos and a Tres Grande, courtesy of Rusty Taco! 🌮 Submit your nominations at d93.org/extramile.

Let’s continue to celebrate the outstanding achievements in our community together! ❤️ #WeAreD93

Idaho Students Invited to Celebrate the Season with 2024 Holiday Card Contest

(BOISE) – Idaho students are invited to get into the holiday spirit and put their most creative artwork on display with the Idaho Department of Education’s 2024 Holiday Card Contest. The contest is open to all K – 12 students and will be judged in a K – 6 division and a 7 – 12 division.

Winning entries from each grade level will be selected for display on the Idaho Department of Education website. From that group, two overall winners will be selected, one from each division, for use on the Idaho Department of Education’s official holiday cards. Winning artists will receive cards for their own personal use this holiday season.

“There’s a chill in the air and it’s time to look towards the holidays with this year’s card contest,” said Superintendent of Public Instruction Debbie Critchfield. “This really is a highlight of the year for me and my staff, and I’m looking forward to seeing what Idaho’s talented young artists create this year.”

The contest is open to all K - 12 public and charter school students. Drawings should reflect winter or holiday scenes and must not include copyrighted images. All submissions must be 8.5” x 11” and should be hand-drawn in either vertical or horizontal orientation. Digital submissions must be scanned and submitted as a PDF. Photography, video or digitally-created entries will not be accepted.

Mailed entries should be addressed to the Idaho Department of Education, Attn: Taylor Baggerly, P.O. Box 83720, Boise 83720-0027.

Students are permitted to create their submissions using watercolors, colored paper, markers, crayons or a combination thereof. Pencil drawings and fabric designs are not suitable for the card printing process.

Submissions must be received or postmarked by Friday, November 8.

Click here to read the complete contest guidelines and to access the digital submission form.

Come Join Steve in a 7-Week course of Parenting the Love and Logic Way. Steve Dewey has been teaching parenting classes in the community for the past 27 years. He is well known for his ability to use humor and fun stories to make his parenting classes easy to understand so that participants are able to implement the interventions immediately and successfully. The parenting classes will be for parents of children of all ages. Please click this link for more information about the class.

Classes run from September 12th to October 24th

• Sandcreek Middle School Library
• Thursday Nights 7:00-9:00pm
• 7-Week Course
• Classes are FREE to parents in the Bonneville School District
• Idaho Falls, Idaho
• Optional Workbook $10.00

Thank you to our community partners at EIRMC for supporting our D93 News Family Update.