Former state senator Branden Durst filed paperwork Friday to run for a seat on the Boise school board.
Durst disclosed his plans earlier this week on his Facebook page.
“Pleased to announce that I will be filing to put my substantial expertise in education policy to work for the patrons of the Boise School District as a new trustee,” he wrote.
Durst served in the Idaho House of Representatives from 2006 to 2010, and was later elected to the state Senate in 2012, but resigned in the middle of the term. He stepped down in November 2013, after spending more than two months splitting time between his Boise legislative district and the Seattle area.
At that time, Durst was one of two Democrats on the Senate Education Committee, and he served on a legislative interim committee studying K-12 issues.
Durst ran for a legislative seat in Washington state in 2016, finishing third in a three-way primary.
With Durst’s filing, six candidates are running for three seats on the Boise school board. Also on the ballot are incumbents Maria Greeley and Troy Rohn. Other challengers are Alicia Estey, Shari Fernandez and James Tooman. The filing period closes at 5 p.m. Friday.
A third incumbent, 21-year school board veteran and two-time gubernatorial candidate A J Balukoff, is not seeking re-election.
The candidates will run on a single ballot. The top three vote-getters in the Sept. 4 election will be elected to six-year terms.
Disclosure: Durst has been an outspoken critic of Idaho Education News, and this writer. Here is a link to a guest opinion Durst wrote in 2013.