The Vallivue School District, securing property for a future high school, purchased farmland from a board member’s father for millions more than its appraised value.

Superintendent Lisa Boyd on Aug. 20, 2024, signed a purchase contract for $5 million with seller and former board chair Dave Christensen, even though the 87 acres were appraised at $2.87 million. Dave Christensen was a Vallivue board member for over a decade. His son, Clay Christensen, followed his father onto the board in 2022.

The price — nearly double the appraised value — raises questions about whether the deal aligns with Idaho law governing school land purchases.

“The fact that it was the Christensens just happens to be the Christensens,” Boyd told EdNews on Thursday. “If it had been somebody else, I would have bought it from them.”

The three-page agreement was not prepared by an attorney, nor was a same-day lease agreement that allows the Christensens to farm the land — free of charge — until the district decides to build a school some eight to 10 years from now. Dave Christensen agreed to pay for annual irrigation assessments and property taxes.

“I knew about what I wanted, and, you know, it was really the only way I probably would have sold it,” Christensen said about his $5 million price tag for the land.

However, seven months prior to signing the deal with Boyd, Christensen had the property on the market for $2.45 million. It didn’t sell over 73 days, according to the property history in the appraisal report EdNews obtained through a records request.

“I had this piece of property and I thought it was in a good location, so I contacted the superintendent and just said, ‘Hey, I don’t know if you have any in mind, but you might take a look,'” Christensen said.

Idaho law frowns on schools paying more for land than its appraised value. Idaho Statute 33-601 lays out the process. Before a district can purchase land, the code requires trustees to have the property appraised and that appraisal “shall be used to establish the value of the real property.”

Boyd signed the purchase contract before she had it appraised and before board approval. She said the district complied with the statute.

“It doesn’t say that we have to buy it for that appraised price,” Boyd said. “There’s nothing in the statute that says that. And every piece of property and house around here nowadays, as you know, many, many things go for well over appraisal because that’s what happens with the demand that’s out there right now.”

Boyd signed the $5 million deal in August of 2024. But the board didn’t approve the purchase until Sept. 10, 2024. According to board minutes, Boyd told the trustees that the district had been looking for land for an additional high school for a while. She shared that the 87-acre property “had become available” for $5 million. She said the land was flat and square, making it an ideal location. In an interview this week, Boyd said it is a “perfect piece of land” with no canals and no trees located in a growing area where the district will eventually need to build a school. It’s also near a district elementary school.

Trustee Jennifer Cox made a motion, seconded by trustee Amy Johnson, and trustees Toni Brinegar and Paul Tierney voted 4-0 to purchase the land for $5 million. Clay Christensen recused himself from the discussion and abstained from the vote. He also recused himself from two executive sessions in April and August to discuss “property.” Vallivue trustees did not respond to our inquiries.

“(Clay Christensen) recused himself from all of the things,” Boyd said this week. “The Christensens own thousands of acres in this valley, thousands, and that’s the area where we need it.”

Dave Christensen declined to tell EdNews how much land he owns.

On the same August day that Boyd signed the purchase contract with Dave Christensen, she also signed an appraisal agreement with certified appraiser Jess Payne. The district paid Payne $3,800 for the appraisal.

Payne completed his appraisal on Sept. 5, five days before trustees approved the purchase. But instead of relying on the appraisal value of $2.87 million, trustees voted to buy the land for Dave Christensen’s offer of $5 million.

When EdNews asked Boyd if she negotiated with Christensen on the price, she said they had “conversations.”

“We kind of talked back and forth about it, and when I compared it to the other prices … getting it for about $52,000 an acre was a really good deal,” Boyd said. The actual cost per acre was closer to $54,000.

Payne’s appraisal report includes comparable farmland sales in the area. It lists the average value per acre at $27,639. Payne used a “reconciled blended value” of $30,000 per acre for an appraised land value of $2.62 million, plus $252,960 for a home located on the property, for a total appraised value of $2.87 million. Christensen said an employee lives in the home. A metal building on the property was excluded from the sale.

Excluding the $252,960 cost of the home, the district paid a total cost per acre of $54,444 — nearly twice the average cost per acre laid out in the appraisal.

“This is the first time I’ve even heard what it was appraised for,” Dave Christensen said Thursday. “That wasn’t my business. And the school district is the one that ordered that.”

He said he thought to sell his land to the district after the passage of a $78 million bond in 2023, which included funding for property acquisition. He said he was very aware that his son was serving as a trustee and wanted to make sure that everything was above board. Regarding the purchase price of $5 million, Dave Christensen said that’s what he asked for.

Why Vallivue needs the property

In the past 10 years, the district’s enrollment increased from 8,167 to 10,700.

“We’re growing like mad over here,” Boyd told EdNews. “And we need some lands to build our schools on.”

Boyd said she looked at other available sites for a school, but they were “weird pieces of property” that would make site prep very difficult.

The land purchased from Dave Christensen sits on unincorporated land without sewer connections, but Boyd said she expects the city of Caldwell to start building utilities in that direction.

“So the fact that we don’t need the property for anything, honestly, for at least five, eight, 10 years, I think it’s a pretty good bet we’ll have utilities out there when the time comes,” Boyd said.

Vallivue’s West Canyon Elementary is about a half mile north of the property.

The district has two high schools. Ridgevue High is on the east side and Vallivue High is to the south. Boyd said the district needed property on the west side.

Ridgevue is well over capacity, she said, and it takes three years to build a high school. It could also take a couple of years to pass a bond, so it could be anywhere between eight to 15 years before the district builds on the property.

There are a lot of unknowns. Boyd said Vallivue’s population could start to slow, like Nampa, West Ada and Boise, which have all reported recent enrollment declines.

“But either way, having that chunk of property in an area that’s starting to grow is going to make money for us in the long run,” she said.

If the district doesn’t end up using the land to build a school, trustees could trade it or sell it. The property is also large, at 87 acres. Boyd said that’s big enough for two schools.

She repeatedly defended the district’s purchase of the plot for $5 million, framing it as an ideal piece of land near an elementary school in an area that is growing.

“We’re trying to do what’s best in a district that is one of the only ones growing dramatically in this state, and we’ve had to work really hard to try to keep up with that growth in the best way that we can,” Boyd said.