Editor’s note: This story was updated to include the state’s investigation report, which the district received Aug. 13.
The Bonner County prosecutor and the Idaho Department of Education cleared the Lake Pend Oreille School District of wrongdoing in connection with a complaint filed by a community group opposing the relocation of the district’s alternative high school.
Superintendent Becky Meyer announced the findings, alongside those of a district internal and legal review, at a school board meeting Tuesday night.
“It makes me sad that there are people in the community that have read this or read things online that are not true about you as leaders of the district, about district leadership, or about our practices, thinking that anything might lack integrity in our district,” Meyer told trustees. “It’s just not true.”
Opponents of the relocation filed the complaint with local and state agencies in late June, after a months-long controversy over the district’s plan to move Lake Pend Oreille Alternative High School students from their current historic building to portables and a former driver’s education building behind the middle school.
The Idaho Department of Education issued its report Thursday afternoon, saying investigators did not find any violation of state law or administrative rule.
The department found some unclear areas of law that could be addressed in proposed changes to the state’s funding formula this legislative session.
Bonner County Prosecutor Louis E. Marshall also found no wrongdoing by the district, while the Special Education Dispute Resolution Office rejected the grievance.
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For months, Meyer argued the move would allow students to take elective classes at Sandpoint High School and the district’s career technical center, set to open next month. Meyer said declining enrollments have led to a reduction in staff and electives offered at the current campus.
Opponents argue that the move puts struggling students back in an environment they left by enrolling in the alternative school. They also argue cuts to electives offered at the district led to enrollment declines.
The complaint, filed by Jackie Branum, retired West Bonner School District superintendent, alleged misuse of consent agendas, manipulation of attendance data, misallocation of public funds and open meeting violations.
The district initially issued a broad denial of the claims in the complaint. Tuesday, Meyer went into detail, refuting each claim.
She pointed out that many of the complaint’s citations to Idaho Code are inaccurate, inserting language not found in statute.
Branum doesn’t deny the point, arguing in an email to EdNews that she relied on “a digital search engine index to compile statutory summaries.” When asked, Branum said it was Google’s Gemini artificial intelligence.
“There are blatantly false allegations, there’s misinterpretation of the law, and there’s outright fabrications,” Meyer told trustees Tuesday. “I hesitate to be this blunt, but I just think it’s important that the board knows and the public knows.”
Marshall cleared the board of all alleged open meeting violations in a July 17 letter provided by the district.
Marshall found agendas were posted properly, with action items correctly identified. He also noted trustees took a formal vote to approve the move, despite not being required to do so as requested in Branum’s grievance.
Branum argued in a statement to EdNews that the findings are less meaningful than they appear because the prosecutor only reviews issues if a complaint was filed within 30 days, and many of Branum’s complaints were outside that window.
“The central office escaped legal nullification on a technical timeline expiration, not an administrative clearance of their methods,” Branum wrote.
The Idaho Department of Education’s Special Education Dispute Resolution Office wrote in a July 9 letter that the concerns in the grievance did not meet the threshold of a complaint under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA.
The district posted a lengthy rebuttal of the other grievances on the alternative school’s website.
Following Meyer’s presentation, Board Chair Lonnie Williams said the allegations were taken seriously but have been addressed and found to be false.
