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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Eye On Boise

School elections bill follows local fight in Coeur d’Alene

In 2013, a group aligned with one slice within Kootenai County’s GOP spectrum briefly seized control of the Coeur d’Alene School Board as three conservative appointees joined two elected trustees to push the board to the right. Led by Brent Regan, a North Idaho businessman and current board chairman of the Idaho Freedom Foundation, the group sought to make local school board elections more partisan, at the behest of the Reagan Republicans, a group whose stated goal was to push out elected Democrats and moderates in all local offices, including nonpartisan ones. Ron Lahr, president of the group, told The Spokesman-Review then, “We’re an activist organization almost all about getting Republicans elected at all levels.”

An opposing group calling itself “Balance North Idaho” promoted its own slate of candidates in nonpartisan elections, saying its endorsements were based on qualifications, not political party – and that group won. Regan, who had home-schooled his children and was appointed to the school board in December of 2012, lost to Christa Hazel in May of 2013, a Balance North Idaho-endorsed candidate with two children attending school in the district who described herself as a “reasonable Republican” and campaigned as a “common sense conservative.”

Now, Sen. Mary Souza, R-Coeur d’Alene, is sponsoring legislation to switch Idaho’s school board elections to the November general election in even-numbered years – the same time as presidential elections and other big partisan races like those for Congress and governor – from the current May of odd-numbered years, and Regan and the other former Coeur d’Alene trustees are backing the bill. Souza submitted a letter from four – Regan, Ann Seddon, Tom Hamilton and Terry Seymour – to the Senate Education Committee in support of her bill, saying it would increase turnout in Idaho school board elections and make boards more reflective of their communities.

The bill also would remove current trustees from office six months early to accomplish the switch in voting dates, and make other changes including asking school districts to align their board trustee zones to general election precinct lines. It’s opposed by the Idaho School Boards Association, the Idaho Association of School Administrators, and the Idaho Association of Counties, all of which testified against the bill in committee, saying it would pose problems with the way school elections work, from the trustee zones to the timing of school budgeting and the school year.

Souza’s bill, SB 1103a, is on the Third Reading Calendar in the Senate, awaiting a vote of the full Senate; it also was on the calendar yesterday, but was put off a day at Souza’s request. Hazel has written a guest opinion against it for Idaho Education News; you can read it here.

Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, said her constituents have been contacting her in opposition to the bill. “I’m concerned that the bill may be trying to address a problem that’s specific to the senator’s area, and in so doing causes disruption, particularly in rural Idaho,” she said. Keough said the school districts in her rural area struggle to find people to run for unpaid school board positions. “I have been active in trying to recruit people to run for these positions and step up,” she said. She noted that under Idaho’s election consolidation law, all elections already are limited to four specified dates. “I don’t know what the problem is that we’re trying to fix,” she said.

“I think it’s a local problem the senator is trying to fix. … Maybe the fix is voters need to show up.”

Feelings are running high over the proposal. Jim Hightower, another former Coeur d’Alene trustee, sent an email to every member of Kootenai County’s legislative delegation on March 9 threatening to oppose them at the next election if they didn’t support Souza’s bill. “If we are ever going to break the Democratic party's hold on our schools indoctrinating rather than educating we need to elect conservatives to these boards! Please do the right thing!” he wrote. A day later, Hightower sent the same lawmakers an apology. “I wanted to sincerely apologize for the ridiculous, angry, mean, threatening and intimidating email I sent to you the other day,” he wrote. “I apologize not only for its tone, but for its content. I don't even believe the things I said about kicking democrats out, etc. … I do support Mary's bill, but I regret hitting ‘send’ the other day, and I hope you will forgive me.”

Rep. Paul Amador, R-Coeur d’Alene, said, “I do have the concern about the school board elections getting drowned out in a general election situation where you have 50 other names on the ballot. … That’d be one of my pressing concerns.” He said of the bill, “I have a feeling it’s not going to make it over here.”



Betsy Z. Russell
Betsy Z. Russell joined The Spokesman-Review in 1991. She currently is a reporter in the Boise Bureau covering Idaho state government and politics, and other news from Idaho's state capital.

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