Adam Cotterell

Idaho’s new Education Improvement Task Force started work Friday. Governor Butch Otter called for a group of stakeholders to come together to research and make recommendations for the state’s school system.

Task force member Anne Ritter calls the first meeting a good start to the conversation. Ritter is a member of the Meridian school board and president of the Idaho School Boards Association. She says the 31 member group’s big accomplishment so far is defining its goal and its job.

Students at Wood River High School had a late start today not because of snow, but because of security concerns. The Blaine County School District delayed classes until 10:30 this morning after being notified in the night of a break in at the high school.

A district spokesperson says police believe someone used a shotgun to shatter a glass door to the building then entered the school for a short time.

Police searched the premises and don’t think anything was taken or left behind. They continue to look for a suspect.   

A new group begins work Friday to improve Idaho’s education system. Governor Butch Otter called for its creation after November’s repeal of education laws known as Students Come First.

The first challenge for the 31 people on the Education Improvement Task Force is getting along. Many of the individuals and the groups they represent have strong animosities toward each other. But one member, Idaho schools’ superintendent Tom Luna says it can work.

A report-card out Thursday gives Idaho’s education system a C - and places the state near the bottom in the country. Education Week’s annual Quality Counts report card grades states in six categories and numerous subcategories. On students’ chance for success in school and beyond Idaho gets a C, for student achievement a C -. 

The task force meant to develop recommendations to improve education in Idaho could be called a team of rivals. Many of its 31 members have squared off, sometimes bitterly, in the past two years over the Students Come First education laws. Voters repealed those laws last November through three ballot propositions.

Teacher morale is low throughout Idaho.  And school administrators have serious concerns about recruiting and retaining teachers. Those are some of the findings from a new study presented to lawmakers Tuesday.

First came the preliminaries: welcomes, thanks, a nod to Abraham Lincoln for creating the Idaho Territory 150 years ago this year.  But then it was time for the money. Governor Butch Otter’s first announcement in his State of the State address Monday was a proposal to raise state spending as a whole by 3.1 percent. That’s based on an estimated 5.3 percent increase in revenue. 

Monday Idaho’s 2013 legislative session begins with Governor Butch Otter’s State of the State address. Speaking to reporters Friday Otter hinted at what he might say.

“The state of the state is in pretty good shape,” he said. “It’s in great shape when I compare it to the stories I hear from a lot of my colleagues in the different governors’ organizations that I belong to.”

Otter says he’ll propose a budget that is balanced and sound with no new revenue. But there’s a lot he hasn’t revealed.

The retiring head of the Idaho State Police will scrutinize security in Idaho's schools. Gov. C.L  "Butch" Otter has asked Colonel Jerry Russell to make recommendations for safety and security improvements. 

Along with the Department of Education, Russell will study current safety measures with local police departments and officials at individual districts.

Idaho’s 2013 legislative session begins Monday with Governor Butch Otter’s State of the State address. Otter gave some clues about what he’ll say when he spoke Friday morning at the Associated Press’s annual legislative preview.

“The state of the state is in pretty good shape,” Otter said. “It’s in great shape when I compare it to the stories I hear from a lot of my colleagues in the different governors’ organizations that I belong to.”

Idaho governor Butch Otter last week said the State Board of Education would “shepherd” a statewide discussion about improving schools. That’s something the governor and many others have talked about since voters repealed an education overhaul last November. What’s being called the Education Improvement Task Force is scheduled to start work next week, but its member list is not complete.

Boise State Wednesday released the details of its new contract with the Mountain West Conference. Last year the Boise State football team left the conference to join the Big East and the university put its other sports in the Big West.  Since then, the Big East has lost several teams. 

A Boise student was one of only a dozen in the world to get a perfect score on last year’s Advanced Placement micro-economics exam. More than 62,000 students took that test last spring. Then Boise High senior Sam Faucher was one of them.

Faucher will soon start his second semester at Yale University. He says he can’t remember much about the test he aced except that he had to draw a lot of graphs. He says he thought he did well but later had some doubts.

Idaho voters' decision to strike down three education laws in November raised a question. What happens to the money that was meant to pay for things like classroom technology and hiring more math and science teachers?

Students and adults at schools across Idaho have been on edge this week in the wake of Friday’s shooting at a Connecticut elementary.  Rumors are keeping law enforcement busy in several parts of Idaho.

In Meridian two high schools have canceled or postponed annual assemblies scheduled for Friday. A district spokesman says administrators at Centennial and Mountain View high schools became aware early this week that students were afraid.

Nampa’s school board met in a special session Wednesday night to continue work on fixing the district’s $4.5 million budget shortfall. The board decided to continue efforts to borrow money. It also agreed to move toward a spring levy but stopped short of committing to the idea.

That’s in part because they want to see how successful the loan effort is. The district has a month to meet the deadline to put a levy on the March ballot.

This week school districts across Idaho have reached out to parents to reassure them their children are safe at school under the shadow of the mass shooting Friday at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.

Last week the Nampa School District mandated four furlough days for all classified staff. That’s part of the district's plan to overcome a budget deficit of about $4.5 million. The district says teachers don’t have to take furloughs but, some say that’s not what they’re hearing.

Idaho’s Department of Education will reconvene a group that made safety recommendations for Idaho schools four years ago. That’s from a memo that schools’ superintendent Tom Luna sent Monday to district leaders, charter school administrators and school principals. The memo comes in response to Friday’s school shooting in Connecticut.