Marsh Valley School District voters to decide whether or not to remove Zone 1 trustee from office

POCATELLO — Voters in the Marsh Valley school district will soon vote to decide whether one of the school board trustees will stay on the board.

A recall election for Kathy Egan, the trustee representing Zone 1 of the Marsh Valley Joint School District, is on the ballot for Tuesday’s upcoming election, and a simple majority of Marsh Valley voters will determine whether or not she’s removed from office. Egan, who was an educator in the district for 22 years, is currently serving her second term as trustee, which ends in November next year.

“I’ve been on the board for seven years (and) I’d really like to finish my last year. You have to finish it up, but if that’s what happens then I’ll live with it,” Egan said.

If a majority of voters vote in favor of the recall, Egan will leave office. The school board would then take in a number of applicants and appoint one of them to fill the seat for the remainder of the term. That applicant would have the opportunity, alongside those not selected and others who didn’t apply, to run for election to the seat.

The ballot language states that reasons for Egan’s recall is “poor performance of the school district, declining enrollment and poor financial oversight.”

While those are the key reasons for the recall, Barbara Hill, a Downey resident a part of the group that organized the recall petition, said the “catalyst” was talk of the school district looking to close Downey Elementary School.

“When those, I’m going to say rumors started to circulate, it was kind of the final straw. We were not happy with how the district was functioning but it was not the primary reason,” Hill said.

Egan said that she doesn’t want to close Downey Elementary School, and also believes that the school has the best building and the best teachers in the district.

“Our job is to provide the best schools, the best teachers and the best programs. That’s our job, and I feel like we have that in Downey. I know we have it in Downey, so there’s no reason to close that school,” Egan said.

Ever since the recall petition got enough signatures to appear on the ballot, Hill and other concerned Zone 1 residents have tried to draw attention to it by hosting community meetings, talking to neighbors and friends and erecting signs.

Hill said one of the factors that has led to declining enrollment at Marsh Valley schools has been the district’s poor curriculum.

“There are students that are going to Preston, they’re going to Malad, they’re going to Bancroft (and) they’re going to Century. They’re leaving because of the curriculum, and this whole unrest is not helping us,” Hill said.

Additionally, many voters have raised issues with the way the school district has been spending funds, often using the Assistant Superintendent, Troy Thayne, as an example. Some voters have advocated cutting his position, as the district didn’t have an assistant superintendent before him.

“We’ve just felt that they weren’t doing a good job with the taxpayer dollars,” Hill said.

Egan agrees that there have been issues with the district’s curriculum, the primary one being that the district didn’t have a curriculum director. Because of this, teachers across Marsh Valley schools were often teaching out of different books, and students would end up at different educational levels as they progressed through grade levels.

Sometimes, teachers within the same schools were teaching out of different books. Egan said that the teachers were doing the best they could with what they had at this time.

“How can you collaborate when you’re doing that?” Egan said. “It was a mess.”

Egan said that Thayne wears “many hats” in the district, and one of them has been curriculum director. In order to standardize curriculum, the district has had to and is still in the process of purchasing all-new materials.

“Now, where’s that (money) going to come from? (Thayne) wrote grants for all of that,” Egan said.

Thayne is still working on improving the district’s curriculum, and she said he’s bringing in more funds in grants than he takes in his salary.

While Hill doesn’t plan on applying to fill Egan’s seat if she’s successfully removed from office, she has talked to a number of people who do plan on it. Hill said that they’re hopeful that the recall will be successful.

“We’re doing everything we can to try to be successful,” Hill said. “We have tried to stay on point and on our message. This is not about closing Downey Elementary. This is about the three things that are listed on the petition.”

While Hill has some concern that the school board would appoint someone who continues the district’s status quo, she believes that the effort is still worth it.

“That’s a risk we have to take,” Hill said.

While Egan hasn’t tried to go out and do “politicking,” she has talked to a number of people who signed the recall petition, but changed their mind on their vote after talking to her.

“They should know that I’ve never wanted to close Downey, and I just want the best for the kids. So (if) they’re gonna vote against me for that, well, then I guess they are,” Egan said.