Adam Cotterell

News Reporter

Adam Cotterell returned to his home town of Boise Idaho in 2007 after three years teaching university English in China. His plan was to teach high school drama and history, but in a move that almost makes him believe in destiny he took a part time job in Boise State Public Radio’s newsroom. He became a full time general assignments reporter in 2010. His main focus is on covering education but he enjoys doing all types of stories from interviewing unique people to reporting on Boise's theatre scene.  Adam lives in Boise with his wife, daughter, and dog. He is also considered a pioneer in the art form abstract expressionist origami.

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School Counselors
10:37 pm
Sun June 16, 2013

Idaho Education Department Says No To Hiring More Counselors

Getting more Idahoans to go on to college is the top education goal for the state. But sometimes state agencies disagree about how to realize that. Take a report issued last year by Idaho’s Office of Performance Evaluations. OPE evaluates state agencies and programs.

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Nampa Financial Crisis
7:16 am
Fri June 14, 2013

Nampa Teacher’s Union Calls For Raises And No Furloughs Next Year

Credit Courtesy of the Idaho Statesman

Teacher contract negotiations in the Nampa School District appear stalled.  The teacher’s union Thursday night pushed for raises and no furlough days. The district had proposed 14 furlough days next year. 

Nampa has been fighting through a budget crisis all year. It’s eliminated jobs, closed one school and made numerous other cuts.  But district officials say they still need to cut $3.5 million from next year’s budget.  

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Education Technology
7:41 am
Wed June 12, 2013

Why Sun Valley Area Schools Are In The Software Business

Credit newfilm.dk / Flickr Creative Commons

A Boise software company Wednesday will announce a cash infusion from investors totaling $2.5 million. Silverback Learning Solutions hasn’t been doing business two years yet, but CEO Jim Lewis says its sales total more than a million dollars and it has 20 full time employees. It also has one unusual partner that gets 8 percent of profits; the Blaine County School District. Lewis retired from his job as Blaine County’s superintendent to form the company.

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2013 Wildfire Season
5:04 pm
Tue June 11, 2013

Idaho Forests Expected To Burn This Year While Grasslands Will Get A Reprieve

Credit Adam Cotterell / Boise State Public Radio
Ed Delgado is with the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise.

If you live in southern Idaho you likely won't see the catastrophic fires the area experienced last year.

State and federal agencies came together to give predictions Tuesday on what the state's wildfire outlook this summer could be like. 

Ed Delgado manages predictive services at the National Interagency Fire Center.  He says there’s a big difference between fires expected in the mountains and those in the desert this year.

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StoryCorps
3:35 pm
Mon June 10, 2013

StoryCorps Boise Is Open And Wants To Hear Your Story

For the next month, an Airstream trailer will be parked on the sidewalk outside Boise’s City Hall. It’s the mobile recording booth for the national oral history project known as StoryCorps. The mobile studios travel the country collecting people's stories.

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Preschool
9:17 am
Mon June 10, 2013

Why One Idaho Republican Became An Unlikely Champion For Public Preschool

Credit Adam Cotterell / Boise State Public Radio
Tim Corder

Republican Tim Corder served two terms in Idaho’s state Senate. During that time, the farmer and truck driver became a hero to pre-kindergarten advocates and earned the ire of some of his colleagues. Corder's legislative career ended last year when he lost his primary race to a more conservative opponent. I met him last summer as he was packing up his senate office. Here is an excerpt of our conversation.

Q: How would you characterize your support for early childhood education during your time in the legislature?

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Preschool
5:45 pm
Thu June 6, 2013

Idaho Opposition To Public Preschool Is About Money And Ideology

Credit Adam Cotterell / Boise State Public Radio
Idaho Schools Superintendent Tom Luna

Idaho is one of just 10 states that don’t have a state-supported preschool program. As we’ve examined the reasons for that this week, we’ve heard from some pre-k opponents. Here we go deeper into their arguments.

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Preschool
4:57 am
Thu June 6, 2013

Idaho Would Get $20 Million Under President Obama's Plan To Expand Preschool

Credit Pete Souza / The White House Flickr Creative Commons
President Obama visits a kindergarten class in Georgia.

President Obama’s proposal to expand early childhood education could bring nearly $20 million to Idaho the first year. The president has been talking about increasing access to pre-kindergarten education for months and has proposed raising tobacco taxes to pay for it.

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Preschool
11:17 pm
Wed June 5, 2013

Why Caldwell Might Represent The Future Of Public Preschool In Idaho

Credit Adam Cotterell / Boise State Public Radio
P-16 preschoolers practice reading and writing their names.

Idaho is one of just 10 states that do not have state-wide pre-kindergarten. But some school districts are finding ways to provide early childhood education. In Caldwell, public and private partners are trying a novel strategy that supporters hope will transform children’s futures.

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Preschool
10:06 pm
Tue June 4, 2013

Idaho School Districts Take On Public Preschool Without State Funding

Credit Adam Cotterell / Boise State Public Radio
Pre-k advocates often stress that preschool is not three and four year olds in desks doing worksheets. Learning is embedded in play.

Forty U.S. states offer pre-kindergarten programs.  Idaho is not one of them.  Here, about one third of 3 and 4-year-olds attend a public or private preschool.  But none attend one that’s funded or sanctioned by the state. However, that doesn't stop some school districts from offering pre-k programs of their own.

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Pre-K Education
6:59 am
Tue June 4, 2013

State Of Idaho Lags On Preschool, Districts Lead

Credit Adam Cotterell / Boise State Public Radio
In 2008 the Boise State Public Policy Center asked Idahoans for their opinions on early childhood issues including this question.

Idaho is one of just 10 states that don’t have state-wide pre-kindergarten education. This week our education reporter Adam Cotterell brings us a series on pre-k in Idaho. Adam joined Morning Edition host Scott Graf to preview this week’s reports.

Transcript:

Scott Graf: You’ll be talking about the pre-k debate in Idaho. Are others talking about this issue?   

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Preschool
6:20 am
Tue June 4, 2013

Map: Idaho Is One Of 10 States Without Public Preschool

Credit Emilie Ritter Saunders / Boise State Public Radio
Explore the interactive map below.

Idaho is one of 10 states that doesn't offer public preschool to children. Over the next few days we'll examine why the Gem State doesn't have free pre-k, what impact that's having on kids, and the current discussion around early childhood education in Idaho.

But first, here's a map that shows the 10 states without public preschool. The states shaded in coral don't offer preschool. One thing we noticed, they're mostly concentrated in the West. Use the zoom and arrow tools to move around the map and explore.

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Nampa Financial Crisis
11:53 am
Mon June 3, 2013

The Nampa Teachers’ Union Responds To District Furlough Offer

Credit Adam Cotterell / Boise State Public Radio
Amy White (seen here negotiating in Meridian last year) is representing the Nampa School District in negotiations.

Untenable, harmful, devastating; three adjectives Nampa Education Association president Mandy Simpson uses in response to the school district's contract offer. That offer includes 14 furlough days.

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Nampa Financial Crisis
3:03 pm
Fri May 31, 2013

Nampa School District Offers Teachers 14 Furlough Days

Credit Adam Cotterell / Boise State Public Radio
Nampa elementary students learning math

Nampa teachers’ union representatives sat down this morning to negotiate with a district hired attorney. They were expecting to talk about furlough days and other ways to climb out of the district's budget hole.  The district took the offensive with a contract offer that includes 14 furlough days in the 2013 /2014 school year. The offer does not allow raises that would have come from increased experience.

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Nampa Financial Crisis
10:49 pm
Thu May 30, 2013

Nampa Teachers Will Negotiate A Pay Cut

Credit Adam Cotterell / Boise State Public Radio
Mandy Simpson

Friday morning at 7:00 representatives from Nampa’s teachers’ union and the school district will sit down to negotiate next year’s labor agreement. These negotiations may be the last chance the district has to overcome a budget crisis that has dogged it all year.  

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Idaho Shakespeare Festival
10:07 pm
Thu May 30, 2013

Supernatural Comedy Opens Idaho Shakespeare Festival Season

Credit DKM Photography
Blithe Spirit rehearsal at the Idaho Shakespeare Festival

The Idaho Shakespeare Festival opens its 2013 season this weekend. The organization “Americans for the Arts” estimates the festival put about $3.3 million into Idaho’s economy last year. More than 58,000 people spent an evening under the stars at the festival’s amphitheater in Boise last summer. Managers expect more than 60,000 this year.

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School Funding
3:39 pm
Wed May 29, 2013

Lawsuit On Idaho’s Education Funding Gets Whittled Down

Credit Adam Cotterell / Boise State Public Radio
Russell Joki

What had been a sweeping lawsuit against Idaho over the constitutionality of its support for public schools is now much smaller.

A judge has ruled that retired educator Russell Joki and a group of parents cannot sue every school district in the state over charging fees for things like science classes or school registration.

District judge Richard Greenwood says Joki can only sue the Meridian School District where he paid his grandchildren's fees.  Joki says charging fees for classes violates Idaho’s constitutional requirement for free and uniform education.

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School Nutrition
5:57 pm
Tue May 28, 2013

Idaho Schools Try Exotic Fruits Thanks To Grants

Credit MIGreenberg / Flickr Creative Commons

Each May the U.S. Department of Agriculture gives grants to elementary schools to provide healthy snacks. This year 113 Idaho schools received the awards. The program teaches kids at low income schools about nutrition and introduces them to unfamiliar foods.

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Summer Vacation
8:34 pm
Mon May 27, 2013

Idaho Schools Count Down To Summer Break

Credit Adam Cotterell / Boise State Public Radio
The end of the day at a Boise elementary school.

Most Idaho schools are days away from summer vacation. Boise, Meridian and Kuna school districts will end the year this Friday.

May 31st is the most common last day this year. Nampa students finish a day earlier and Caldwell schools are already finished. 

Other districts like Blaine County and McCall-Donnelly continue classes through the first week of June. Twin Falls will go home halfway through next week.

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Boy Scouts
10:14 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

Why One Idaho Parent Supports Lifting The Ban On Gay Boy Scouts

Credit Adam Cotterell / Boise State Public Radio
Tyler Cazier is a professional photographer, and a father of five. His 15 year old son is a boy scout and he says his three year old will be when he's old enough.

The Boy Scouts of America voted Thursday to lift its ban on gay scouts. It left in place its ban on scout leaders who are gay. But in the Boy Scout’s Western Region a majority of councils recommended not changing either policy.

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