Updates From D91 Supt. LaOrange

Idaho Falls School District 91 is committed to our guiding values of Courage, Compassion, and Conviction. These values are central to engaging our community in the important work of educating our children. We need and want your input!

This year, each school in District 91 will create a School Advisory Council. The purpose of the School Advisory Council is to engage parents, teachers, staff members, and patrons in the work of helping every child learn and successfully graduate. Each School Advisory Council will include at least one patron who does not have a child enrolled in D91, but who lives within the school's boundaries.

The School Advisory Council will meet several times during the second trimester to review school data, identify strengths and needs. Council members will collaborate to develop plans for their school that will increase student achievement, and help students reach their potential.

The work of the School Advisory Council will drive each school’s Continuous Improvement Plan, which will outline goals and action plans to decrease the number of students who are not proficient in reading, mathematics, and science, and increase D91's graduation rate. Once each year, the School Advisory Councils will meet together as a District Advisory Council to share successes, challenges, and planning for continued growth across the district.

The School Advisory Council embodies our guiding values. Councils act in Courage as they review school data. They demonstrate Compassion as they discuss how to best meet the needs of each student. Conviction is shown as School Advisory Councils develop and commit to plans to improve student learning. Our School Advisory Councils are the first step in engaging our community in helping our students learn and grow. This is an exciting time to be part of Idaho Falls School District 91!

We wanted to provide some updates on D91's dispute with the Idaho Tax Commission, which was in the news this week. Trustees filed this lawsuit in late August so that it could be resolved before tax bills are finalized in November.

At the heart of the issue is whether an Idaho school district can have two plant levies. The Idaho State Tax Commission says school districts can only have one. After extensive research, D91’s legal counsel maintains school districts can have more than one plant levy as long as the levies adhere to the provisions in Idaho code (33-804). These provisions say “no levy may exceed ten years in length and that the aggregate of any levies may not exceed .4%.” The district’s levies comply with these limitations.

D91's patrons renewed the district's longtime plant levy in 2022. Then, in 2023, patrons approved a new plant levy to pay for a new elementary school on Idaho Falls' south side. Almost 70 percent of D91's taxpayers voted in favor of that levy.

The action that made headlines this week --the lifting of an injunction that prevented the tax commission from notifying Bonneville County the levy was illegal -- was a procedural matter. It didn't impact the core issue, and the case continues to work its way through the courts. A hearing on the merits of the case is set for next week. Ultimately, it will be up to the courts to rule on whether Idaho Falls School District 91’s 2023 plant levy is illegal or not.

Idaho Falls School District 91’s trustees are committed to pursuing this matter in court because they believe patrons and taxpayers would expect the district to pursue all avenues to confirm the will of the voters.

• Every Friday! D91 schools start an hour later than normal so teachers can collaborate on student achievement.
• Oct. 24: Board Work Session, 4 pm, D91 District Office (This meeting will begin with an executive session.)
• Oct. 31: Halloween
• Nov. 7: School Board Election, Polls are open from 8 am to 8 pm
• Nov. 8: School Board Business Meeting, 5:30 pm, IFHS Library
• Nov. 17: End of the 1st Trimester
• Nov. 20: Teacher Work Day
• Nov. 20-24 Thanksgiving Break

We are #d91proud of all our transportation staff as we celebrate National School Bus Safety Week this week! Making sure that our students safety get to school, and then back home again, is the No. 1 priority for our bus drivers, bus aides, mechanics and support staff.

As we celebrate National School Bus Safety week, here are some fun facts about D91's transportation staff.

• More than 3,000 students ride our school buses every day.
• our school buses drive more than 15,000 miles each week.
• In the wintertime, our drivers see the sun rise when they start work at 6:30 am, and they see the sun set when the last of the drivers check out at about 5:30 pm.
• We gave 90 transportation staff, including 62 drivers, 2 lead drivers, 18 bus aides, 4 mechanics and office staff.
• D91 currently has 60 buses. (Each bus typically lasts 20 to 25 years.)
• We have an experienced crew! D91's drivers have won the Idaho School Bus Safety Roadeo three times in the last 10 years.

Thanks again to our transportation staff for all they do every day to keep our students safe.

D91 students this week took part in some great activities as part of D91's K-12 districtwide career and college pathways focus on Wednesday, Oct. 18. Some students worked in Next Steps Idaho, a great tool that allows teens to explore potential careers and educational pathways. Others heard about exciting careers from local professionals who work as farmers, firefighters, X-ray technicians and more.

Our mission is to graduate students with the knowledge, skills and attributes they need to be successful beyond high school. So, we're always looking for ways to encourage students to think about what they want to do after high school. We encourage families to follow up on this week's activities. Ask your child about what they learned, what jobs interest them, and what they will need to do to land that job.

Not sure how to start that conversation? Check out our Within Reach tools, a collection of resources for students in K-12. Through a partnership with Idaho Business For Education and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, we've assembled a toolkit for parents with activities and information about important topics such as: the Importance of Postsecondary Education, Career and College Exploration, the Many Paths to Career Preparedness and How To Invest in Education.

Eight candidates are running for Idaho Falls School District 91's three open school board seats in Zone 3, Zone 4 and Zone 5.

• Zone 3 Seat: Patrick Jackson, Jordan Oseen and Jeremy Westwood are facing off in this zone. It includes the Theresa Bunker, Edgemont, Longfellow, Linden Park and Sunnyside school areas.
• Zone 4 Seat: Elizabeth Cogliati and Shay Ricks are vying for this seat. Zone 4 includes Erickson, Linden Park and part of Hawthorne school areas.
• Zone 5 Seat: Melissa LaPray, Hillary Radcliffe and Kari Vogel are competing in this zone. It includes Hawthorne, Longfellow, Sunnyside and Taylorview school areas. Jamie Lea Braithwaite has withdrawn from the race.

D91 has a districtwide reporting system called STOPit that allows students, parents and patrons to report concerns about school safety.

The district added STOPit to its safety systems last year to provide students, parents and patrons a way to report issues – anything from bullying to threats of violence – 24 hours a day, seven days a week during the school year.

Schools have posters with a QRU code that allows students to easily access the STOPit platform. Concerns also can be reported through STOPit in the D91App, through a link on school and district websites or via a telephone hotline at (855) 999-0932.

All reports will be reviewed by D91’s administrators, its School Resource Officers and STOPit’s incident command center. As part of the review process, reports will be assessed and catalogued. STOPit makes it easy for administrators and SROs to reach out to those who submit concerns to request additional information. Those filing a report also can upload evidence like photos or videos.

If you or your child have any concerns about school safety, we encourage you to use STOPit so we can all work together to keep our schools safe.

Congrats to Skyline's Athletes of the Week this week: Emery Galbreaith and Hudson Prigge! Emery scored her first goal in the district tournament, and Hudson has been trimming his swim times every week.

As most of Skyline's falls sports teams wrap up their seasons, the Grizz football team will face Shelley in Shelley in the last game of the regular season. Kickoff is at 7 pm. Click this link for all the latest in Grizz Sports.

As most of Tiger Nation's sports teams have wrapped up the fall season, the IFHS football team is preparing for its last game of the regular season. They face Hillcrest TONIGHT at Ravsten Stadium. Kickoff is at 7 pm. And, it's senior night. Click this link for all the latest in Tiger Sports News.