Middleton School District trustees voted unanimously Monday to put a $19.9 million bond on the May ballot to build a new elementary school. 

The ask comes after years of failed bonds for the growing district that hasn’t built a new school since 2008. 

It also comes at a time when school districts across Idaho are struggling to pass bonds to update crumbling schools and build new ones. The Idaho Legislature acknowledged the problem with House Bill 521 last year that gave districts funds for facilities projects. But for many districts like Middleton, which received $17 million from HB 521, the money isn’t enough for a new school, let alone repairs. 

But voters are often still rejecting bond asks from local districts. Since the bill became law, just one school district, Salmon, has reached the supermajority (66.67%) needed to pass a bond. 

Middleton is the only school district so far to put a bond on the May 2025 ballot. 

In Middleton, two of the district’s three elementary schools are over capacity and the third is 90% full. The school district continues to expand as area towns like Middleton and Star continue to grow, said Superintendent Marc Gee. “We just need to catch up.” 

Classrooms in the teachers lounge

The school district’s elementary schools are full, Gee said. 

While the district tried to reduce open enrollment students coming to the district and balance out the student load, no matter how you slice it, there’s not enough space for the current number of students, he said. 

Students are packed into “every little nook and cranny you can find,” Gee said. 

A child might have a reading intervention lesson under the stairwell at Heights Elementary or have to wait in line to use one of the overcrowded bathrooms, he said. 

Two years ago, the district temporarily turned the Mill Creek teachers lounge into a classroom. Teachers and school administrators do a great job making sure the impact on kids is minimal, Gee said. 

“As teachers they’re always trying to make things better for their kids no matter what the situation,” Gee said. “The kids then, they don’t feel it the same way, maybe a teacher is feeling it.” 

There are about 600 students currently at Mill Creek, the district’s largest elementary, and they are served in six portable buildings and the main school. While the portables help with classroom space, Gee noted it’s impossible to expand the common areas like the lunch room or hallways. 

“That’s a lot of kids running around in a school,” he said. 

The planned new elementary school would also hold between 600-700 students but in a building designed for that capacity, Gee said. All of the classrooms will open out into a center play area, making lots of doors for safe entry and exit.

In the event of a crisis, the new school has spaces between classrooms for students to hide and then exit out of the building. 

At Mill Creek, administrators and teachers do their best but “it’s just harder to have a full system because it just wasn’t designed that way,” Gee said. 

If the bond passes, the district would rezone the elementary schools to balance capacity across all four. The new school would be built just a few miles outside of Middleton in Star where a new subdivision is being built. 

For Gee, the new elementary school would mean getting the district back on track to being prepared for the influx of homes and families coming into the area. 

 “We know that these buildings are going to fill in and we’re already behind,” Gee said. 

A history of failed bonds 

The district most recently passed a $51.9 million bond in 2008 to build a new high school, which was completed in 2011. 

Since then, five bond measures in Middleton failed to pass. 

In March of 2018, the district asked voters for $25 million to build a new elementary school, among other repairs, and that measure failed with 60% of voters in support. 

The district tried again five months later and upped the ask to $28 million, and it lost voter approval. 

A third attempt in November 2018 was even more disastrous with the ask split into three separate bond measures that all failed. 

In 2022, Gee came on as superintendent and the district again asked voters for $59.4 million to build a new elementary school, complete repair projects, and build a career technical education center for the high school. Voters rejected the bond with 53.52% in support. 

Gee and the trustees took several years to regroup and solicit feedback from the community. He said many voters said they supported the idea of a CTE building but didn’t think it was a necessity. 

During that time, homeowners property tax assessments were increasing significantly, Gee noted. 

Trustees gave Gee a mandate — get the bond ask under $20 million.

The district removed the CTE building first, instead opting to build a small facility for the construction program from donations and grant money, that could be expanded later. 

Then House Bill 521 provided increased facilities funds to school districts. Middleton got $17 million. About half of those funds, $8 million, were earmarked by trustees for the new elementary school with the rest set for other facilities and maintenance projects. 

The district worked with a new architect, LKV Architects, and builder to re-do the elementary school plan and received a donation of land from Corey Barton Homes. 

All of those factors got the total bond ask down to $19.9 million with a project price of just under $28 million. The 20-year-bond would cost taxpayers about $34 per $100,00 of assessed value next year.  

For more detail on the bond, visit the Middleton School District’s Bond page.