Open houses scheduled for proposed changes to D93 high schools, elementary
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IDAHO FALLS — Bonneville Joint School District 93 is wanting to move forward with plans for several schools and is seeking the public’s input during an open house.
The D93 Board of Trustees is holding two nights of open houses to gain insights on how to best update Hillcrest and Bonneville High Schools. They’re also wanting to upgrade special needs services at Falls Valley Elementary School and looking into plans for a new elementary school within the district.
During the open houses, a tour will be given of the current science rooms and entrances as well as a presentation of the boards’ ideas. They’re hoping to put in new science wings within both schools that are more conducive with STEM education, which wasn’t part of the school’s original designs. District spokesman Phil Campbell says the schools need to have more controlled access as well.
“We want to bring Bonneville and Hillcrest up to that level of Thunder Ridge mainly in the area of science and… safety as well,” Campbell says. “The technology has changed and it’s not meeting those needs at the level that it could.”
As for Falls Valley, Campbell says the school’s structure is divided into pods. A potential re-design would be to transform one of those pods into a special needs wing, adding that current special needs offerings at other schools wouldn’t change.
“We would centralize and consolidate some of the things that are happening with our special needs program just to make things move more efficiently,” Campbell says.
Campbell says there currently isn’t an official bond proposal as ideas are still in the brainstorming phase. If the board continues with the ideas they have, there will also be a new elementary school within the district to help with overcrowding.
The entire bond cost for all of these improvements would be under $40 million dollars but would not increase the tax levy rate because of growth within the district, according to Campbell.
The bond would potentially be on the ballot in August, but there is no set time as of yet. The board wants to find the right solutions that the public will be ready to go out and vote for, Campbell says.
“There’s a lot within that price tag that the district is looking to do while not increasing that tax levy rate,” Campbell says.
The open houses will be held at Hillcrest and Bonneville High Schools on March 6 and 7 from 6 – 8 p.m. Parents and families can attend the informal open house at any time. To help with traffic flow, families are encouraged to attend according to their home school as follows:
Attend the Hillcrest meeting if your child attends one of these schools:
Ammon Elementary, Falls Valley, Hillview, Rimrock, Mountain Valley, Sandcreek Middle School, Tiebreaker, Woodland Hills.
Attend the meeting at Bonneville High School if your child attends one of these schools:
Bridgewater, Cloverdale, Discovery, Fairview, Iona, Rocky Mountain Middle School, Summit Hills, Ucon