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School board elections get brighter spotlight

by Judd Wilson Staff Writer
| March 22, 2018 1:00 AM

COEUR d’ALENE — Starting next year, school board elections will appear on the same ballot as municipal elections in Novembers of odd-numbered years. School board elections now take place in May of odd-numbered years.

Kootenai County Elections Manager Carrie Phillips said the new law will move the next school board elections to November 2019.

Sen. Mary Souza, R-Coeur d’Alene, worked for three years on the measure with Sen. Jim Rice of Caldwell. Gov. Butch Otter signed the successful bill on Tuesday.

Souza said placing school board elections in May attracted disproportionately low voter turnout for such important offices.

“We need to get more attention on these important positions in our community like school board, city council, and mayor,” Souza said.

The initial version of Souza’s and Rice’s bill proposed to move school board elections to the same general election date as partisan races for federal and state office, in even-numbered years. The Idaho School Board Association opposed that version for the past two years. However, with 5,989 in favor and 2,341 against, ISBA members passed a resolution earlier this year to support moving the election date to coincide with municipal elections. The ISBA resolution opined that conflating school board elections with partisan general elections would overly politicize school board elections.

Souza said the initial idea to move the school board elections to the general election date in even-numbered years was motivated by the goal to boost voter turnout.

“We wanted to get it to the election date that gets the largest voter turnout. It was never our intention to make it partisan,” said Souza, who pointed out there are both partisan and nonpartisan races on the general election ballot in even-numbered years.

The ISBA resolution also noted that with November elections, new school board trustees could take office on Jan. 1 and “be involved in the drafting of the new Continuous Improvement Plan and budget for the next fiscal year as well as participate in negotiations for the upcoming year.”

Souza and Rice embraced the ISBA compromise and resubmitted the bill this year with new language. The Senate approved the bill 22-11 on Feb. 28, and the House gave its stamp of approval 50-18 on March 13.

Souza said, “Many people have told me this was one of the more important bills of the legislative session because they value school boards and education so much and they think that these changes can make a big difference.”

She added that with two prominent elections on the same date, a symbiotic relationship could form between school board elections and city elections.

“I think that this step to the city elections will be a really good one,” she said.