The Boise School District reports Krista Hasler has defeated Matthew Shapiro in the only competitive race for a term on the district Board of Trustees.
The district reports a total of 3,245 votes cast (2.5% of 130,083 registered voters), with 1,755 for Hasler (54.1%) and 1,490 for Shapiro (45.9%). Results are unofficial until certified by the district board of trustees, which is scheduled for a meeting Sept.9.
Hasler and Shapiro were competing to fill a two-year term on the board of trustees after current trustee Shiva Rajbhandari did not run again. Rajbhandari won the seat in 2022 as an 18-year-old Boise High School senior, but is now attending college out of state. He has attended most meetings remotely since fall of 2023.
Both ran unsuccessfully for the board in 2022, and Hasler had also twice previously applied for appointment to an open seat. Hasler during her campaign in 2022 rebuffed an endorsement from the far-right Idaho Liberty Dogs group, saying then she did not seek or accept their support, and did not support extremism. She was also endorsed in 2022 by the Ada County Republicans.
This election cycle, Hasler listed an endorsement by the Boise Education Association on her campaign website.
Hasler, a certified clinical social worker and classroom volunteer according to campaign materials, said she wants to focus on mental health and work to bolster early education in the district.
Four other current school board members filed for reelection but faced no challengers and, per state code, did not appear on the ballot. Elizabeth Langley, Maria Greeley and Paul Bennion will serve new six-year terms. Debbie Donovan will serve a new four-year term. Bennion and Donovan were each recently appointed to fill board vacancies, and required to run for election to hold their seat. Board members in March chose Donovan over Hasler during the process to fill the seat of now former trustee Beth Oppenheimer who left the board to relocate out of state.
Turnout for the 2024 trustee election was well below recent years. Nearly 20,000 voters participated in the September 2022 school board election, when multiple seats were contested. Around 7,000 voted in 2020 when three candidates vied for two seats on the board.
