UPDATE: The Boise School District has announced that the Board of Trustees will discuss the transition process as Owyhee Elementary changes from an elementary school to an early childhood learning center. The meeting will take place on Monday, May 13 at 6 pm. The new learning center is planned to open during the 2025-2026 school year.
- A second parent meeting was held at Owyhee Elementary, this time, a little more heated.
- On Monday, May 13th, the Boise School Board of Trustees will meet to discuss Boundary timelines for Owyhee students.
- Earlier in April it was announced that Owyhee Elementary would be transitioning from a K through 6 to an Early Childhood Learning Center.
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
Parents want answers about the possible closing of an Elementary School. I'm your Boise Bench Neighborhood Reporter Jessica Davis and we sit down with the Boise School District to discuss the transition of the K through 6 Owyhee Elementary to an Early Childhood Learning Center.
“You have changed your story since last week. We have factual proof that you guys have been saying that this will happen it is not transparent and it looks like straight deception,” says one parent.
Parents filled the Owyhee Elementary gymnasium for the second Owyhee parent meeting, this one was a little more heated, so we sat down with the District.
Becca Anderson is the Borah Area Director for the Boise School District. She tells me they started exploring ideas to expand early childhood learning options in late December and started scouting locations early this year.
She says “What we were really looking for is a place that could potentially serve about 350 kids and Owyhee is really well located.”
In early April, they brought the idea to the board, and once the board gave their blessing to move forward, the district notified staff and parents.
“We looked at those clusters of where kids were and started considering where a second early childhood learning center would go and its a lot of students on the bench. A lot of 3 to 5-year-olds who need that early education,” says Anderson.
To figure out where to put the learning center, Anderson and her team created a map of all 3 to 5-year-olds in the Boise School District area.
Anderson explains, "It’s been a neighborhood that demographically has been shifting for the last twenty years and we’ve struggled to keep enrollment up and so it's a space that kinda lends itself as an early childhood center.”
This change will then create new boundaries for students, causing them to attend neighboring schools. However, one of many reasons parents chose Owyhee was the teacher-to-student ratio.
Karoline Philp is a parent of an Owyhee student and an alumna herself she says, “Every single teacher even the 1st grade, 3rd grade, kindergarten, they all know my daughter by name, they know everybody by name and that's the great thing about a neighborhood school is that everybody knows everybody and everybody feels like this is their home.”
On Monday, May 13th, the District's Board of Trustees will have a meeting regarding the boundary timeline for students. Parents will be able to give their testimonials as well.
