Middleton School District’s board of trustees approved new elementary boundaries on Monday, extending the borders of Purple Sage Elementary to cover more of Middleton’s more densely populated areas and condensing Middleton Heights’ boundaries closer to the school.

The district will not require in-district transfers to return to their neighborhood schools.

Also Monday, the board tabled the renewal of the district’s contract with Applied Concepts, the district’s security contractor (Middleton does not employ School Resource Officers). School administrators provided positive reports about their security guards, and trustees wanted to meet the guards before renewing the company’s contract.

Following the board’s approval, Middleton is moving forward with a two-phase plan to redraw elementary boundaries. Phase 1 was completed Monday night with the redrawn borders. Phase 2 will come into effect for the 2026-2027 school year with the addition of portables at Purple Sage to increase its capacity. Superintendent Marc Gee and trustees discussed purchasing portables Monday night but did not make any decisions.

After reviewing constituent feedback and consulting the district’s attorney, Gee said the district couldn’t require transferred students to return to their neighborhood schools because of an Idaho statute about school transfers.

A section in Idaho law says that students who open enroll in a nonresidential district are effectively considered residents after two consecutive years of enrollment in that district. Middleton is also applying this to its school boundaries. The Boise School District has a similar interpretation written into its policy.

Still, many families and their students will be subject to some different enrollment boundaries, sending more students to the barely-under-capacity Purple Sage elementary. Families will have the ability to appeal to stay at their current schools, but Gee said appeals will be granted on a strict basis. Despite the redrawn borders, Gee told Idaho Education News the district is cautious of overloading Purple Sage by moving too many students there.

“It would need to be more of an appeal than just, ‘I’ve been in this school for a long time.’ I think that’s something that will affect everybody. Not that it’s unimportant; this is a hard decision, this is a hard thing to do. It’s not something anybody wants to do,” said Gee.

Levy talks

The board discussed potentially running a levy in November to pay for bussing costs with added bus routes. In the wake of a failed bond ask, trustees worried how successful a supplemental levy would be.

“I think the big thing is just education. I think people get confused by the levy and the bond,” said trustee Jake Dempsey.

“[Voters] see this [bond] and say ‘Oh, we just passed something recently for $1.5 million,'” said Dempsey. He hopes educating more district constituents about the way bonds and levies work will help future bond and levy asks.

Representatives from Idaho Power kicked off Monday’s board meeting with a pitch about a cost-saving program that would involve shutting off school facilities in summer months to save power. At one point, a representative noted a participating school district recently passed a bond, stopping just short of suggesting that the program could possibly help Middleton succeed in a future bond ask. The board did not vote on the program on Monday.