At the Idaho School Boards Association convention in Boise today, two resolutions aimed at easing school districts’ financial woes were approved, reports Clark Corbin of Idaho Education News; his full report is online here. The school trustees from around the state overwhelmingly backed a resolution calling for lowering the two-thirds supermajority now required to pass a school construction bond; the change would require amending the Idaho Constitution.  

“It is not majority wins on this this,” Mike Vuittonet, said chairman of the West Ada School District board, whose district saw a $104 million bond issue fail in August despite receiving 63 percent backing. “The minority can kill a bond for needed school facilities, even when hazardous conditions exist and people need to pass a bond to repair their schools.” Corbin reports that the ISBA has been backing the proposal for the past eight years, so far without success.

The second resolution seeks authority for school districts to impose a fee on new construction, to help pay for building or expanding schools. A third resolution opposing the new tiered teacher licensing rule was withdrawn, with its former backers saying their concerns were satisfied by changes the state Board of Education made to the rule when it adopted it yesterday.