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Sherri Ybarra

A candidate for Superintendent of Public Instruction, State of Idaho in the 2014 Nov. 4 Idaho General Election

Party: Republican

City: Mountain Home, Idaho

Occupation: Mountain Home School District school administrator

Curriculum director and federal programs director for the Mountain Home School District. She has a master’s and is working toward a doctorate in education. Ybarra taught school in Mountain Home for 11 years before becoming a vice principal and then a principal; she’s in her second year in her current administrative position with the district. Has struggled with a series of gaffes during the campaign, from a campaign website that copied Jones’ to mistakenly identifying a former primary rival as a backer; she says she’s “not a polished politician.”

Contact information

Race Results

Candidate Votes Pct
Sherri Ybarra (R) 216,961 50.67%
Jana Jones (D) 211,246 49.33%

Details & headlines

Related Coverage

Ybarra unclear on budget figures in public instruction presentation to legislators

BOISE – Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction Sherri Ybarra wants local school officials to decide how money should be spent in the classroom. During her first budget presentation to the Legislature on Thursday morning, Ybarra said she hadn’t yet determined how funds for some of her biggest policy initiatives would be spent. Instead, Ybarra said, she wanted to determine those details once she saw how much money the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee budgets for each line item.

Ybarra’s first school budget pitch is brief, short on details

New state schools Superintendent Sherri Ybarra gave an unusually brief public school budget pitch to the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee this morning, calling for a 6.4 percent increase in state funding for schools next year – well under Gov. Butch Otter’s proposed 7.4 percent increase. “I…

Ybarra addresses school choice rally, backs charter schools as part of system

Sherri Ybarra More than 500 people, including hundreds of Idaho charter school students wearing bright-yellow fleece scarves, gathered on the state Capitol steps today for a rally celebration National School Choice Week, and state schools Superintendent Sherri Ybarra offered supportive words. “Instead of pitting charter…

Ybarra hires her local newspaper editor as new spokesman

Idaho state schools Superintendent Sherri Ybarra, who is from Mountain Home, has hired Kelly Everitt, who was managing editor of the Mountain Home News for the past 26 years, as her communications specialist, Idaho Education News reports. Reporter Kevin Richert writes that Everitt had announced in a newspaper column last…

Eye on Boise: Otter names Field to head correction board

Gov. Butch Otter has named Debbie Field, former chairwoman of the House Judiciary Committee, former state drug czar and former chairman of Otter’s re-election campaign, as the new chair of the state Board of Correction. That’s the board that oversees Idaho’s prison system; former chair Robin Sandy retired from the post a week ago. “Debbie has had a distinguished career as a first-rate lawmaker and member of my Cabinet. I am pleased she is joining the board and I have no doubt she will make a meaningful contribution in her new role,” Otter said.

Eye on Boise: ‘Instant racing’ terminals concern some lawmakers

Idaho legislative leaders say they’re concerned about the slot machine-like “instant racing” terminals that are cropping up around the state, including at the Greyhound Park in Post Falls. The machines were authorized under a 2013 law aimed at allowing pari-mutuel betting on past horse races. “I think the extent of it maybe is a surprise, how fast it’s growing, and exactly what they’re doing,” said Senate President Pro-Tem Brent Hill, R-Rexburg. “The machines have been upgraded a lot since what we saw.”

Ybarra: State ed department will be the ‘go-to place’

New state schools Superintendent Sherri Ybarra is holding her first press conference today, at which she introduced her executive staff. In addition to interim Chief Deputy Pete Koehler, Special Assistant to the Superintendent Tim Corder, and Special Education Director Charlotte “Charlie” Silva, she introduced Will…

Eye on Boise: Correction officials considered firing squad

Bring back the firing squad as a means of execution in Idaho? That’s something the state Department of Correction has been exploring, as states continue to struggle to obtain drugs for executions by lethal injection.