Schools in Idaho Falls (Public) (school districts, taxes, live in)

[PriscillaVanilla]

What are the public schools like in Idaho Falls? I am thinking about moving there.

[Theotherdude]

There are two separate school districts in the county. D91 has older schools in which tuition has been flat and D93 has seen a lot of growth/ newer schools. There are 5 high schools (the newest of which is big enough to be 5A) and soon to be 5 middle schools. Generally D91 is in a more developed area while 93 schools are in the more country areas and small towns. While D93 is growing rapidly, they have bonded several new schools so taxes may be a bit higher. It wasn't til about 1 or 2 years ago that the city of IF has been growing at similar pace to Bonneville county. So there may be additional schools needed in both districts in the near future. Also, D91 has been itching to modernize their buildings but couldn't pass a bond in the last few years.
I have kids that have attended school in both systems. While very similar, I liked D93 slightly more although I would rather live in 91's boundaries.

[PriscillaVanilla]

thanks for the info.

[banjomike]

A lot of the older Dist. 91 schools have undergone extensive remodel and expansion.

The 2 different districts had different problems.

For a long time, Idaho Falls grew much faster than the county, in many spurts each about 15 years apart, so new schools were also built in spurts, following the growth. The oldest school buildings that are still being used in 91 were all built in a time span that began around 1950 and lasted into the early 1970s.

Newer schools were built after the 70s, but fewer, and not as often. the largest new school is a Junior High built in the 90s.

So, for Idaho Falls, the best solution was to remodel what was already there as the city growth slowed. 91, the city district, has less land available, but had more serviceable schools.

In Bonneville County, there simply weren't enough schools to accommodate the sudden almost explosive growth. Many of the old county schools dated back to the 1930s or earlier. So the county simply had to build more new schools.
The county had plenty of land that could be purchased, so the new schools could be placed in the fastest-growing areas of the county.

Idaho Falls High is the exception to this; it was built in 1952, and a civic auditorium was constructed at one end of the school at the same time. At the time, both were built on the leading edge of the technology of the period, and was built large to accommodate future city growth as the only high school in town.

The problem with I.F. High is partly its design, which is now obsolete but handsome, partly its high build quality, and partly its inability to enlarge it much further than it is now. At the same time, there's a lot of community affection for the school, and it's still very serviceable as it is, though it's now crowded.

I.F. High has the outdoor football and track stadium that the other high school uses for its sports events, 4 tennis courts across the street, and still has plenty of student parking. The District's offices are in a separate building at the end of the school grounds.

The Civic Auditorium is still hosting civic events all the time, and it was recently remodeled. It also has its own parking lot. It's all on one of the arterial streets, almost in the center of town.

The bond measure to replace it failed mostly because the citizens thought that the school would be better off to remodel it than to replace it. Replacement would require a new lot, out at the edge of town, and the common thought was remodeling would be cheaper.

Skyline High, the other high school in town, was built in the late 1970s, along with a bunch of new elementary schools. It underwent renovation recently.

Since the city is now fast-growing again in another spurt, I fully expect a new bond measure to construct a 3rd high school that includes modernizing I.F. High to come up pretty soon.

That new high school would likely be built on the west side of the river, I think, and the bond could come as soon as 5 years or less.

Essentially, the county is growing east and northward, while the city is growing south and westward.