Far-right trustee is resigning from an Idaho school board for ‘personal reasons’

A far-right Nampa School District trustee has submitted her resignation but hasn’t said why she decided to quit.

Tracey Pearson campaigned on a platform of opposing critical race theory, sex education, mask mandates and transgender students using bathrooms that align with their gender identities. The board will appoint someone to fill her seat for the rest of her term, which ends in December 2025, district spokesperson Kathleen Tuck told the Idaho Statesman in an email.

“I am submitting my resignation due to personal reasons,” Pearson said in an email sent to the board clerk Wednesday. “I appreciate my service with you.”

The board is expected to vote Tuesday on whether to approve her resignation and declare her seat vacant. Pearson did not respond to requests for comment from the Statesman.

Pearson was elected to the five-person Nampa school board in 2021 along with two other conservative candidates, Brook Taylor and Jeff Kirkman, as a wave of “parental rights advocates” won seats on school boards around the country.

While on the board, she was part of a three-member majority that voted to remove 23 books from school libraries because of perceived sexual content.

Tuck said the board will accept applications from residents in Zone 3, the central Nampa area Pearson represented, to fill her seat until Aug. 11. Trustees plan to interview candidates at a special meeting on Aug. 23 and may select an appointee then or call another special meeting to vote on a candidate.

Zone 3 extends from 12th Avenue Road to Southside Boulevard and East Locust Lane to Amity Avenue and Roosevelt Avenue. Residents can find their zone on the district’s website.

Once board members declare a vacancy, they have 90 days to appoint a replacement, Tuck said, citing Idaho law. That timeline also must be approved Tuesday.