Welcome to The Summit, the Blaine County School District newsletter that’s designed to keep you informed of the latest happenings in our schools.

The Board of Trustees adopted a 5-Year Strategic Plan in 2024. The Board wants to hear from you! Please submit your public comments here.

Para ver este boletín en español, pulse aquí.

BCSD Cell Phone Ban Leads the Way

Last year, BCSD was one of the first districts in Idaho to institute a cell phone ban in schools.

Now Governor Brad Little and State Superintendent Debbie Critchfield are encouraging all districts to do the same. They are even providing a $5,000 incentive to districts that put a cell phone ban in place. Superintendent Foudy has shared our policy with districts across the state.

“When kids are more concerned about what’s happening on their cell phones than what they are learning in class, we need to respond,” Governor Little said in a press release. “Cell phones, and social media in particular, present negative effects on young Idahoans’ mental health and learning environments.”

Read IdahoEdNews.org Little, Critchfield push for statewide cell phone restrictions in schools

Going Straight to the Source

In October, Wood River High School students in Ms. McGraw's and Ms. Strachen's dual credit College English classes had a unique opportunity: They got to meet with the author of the memoir they'd just read, Solito. Author Javier Zamora joined them in the classroom virtually, answering their questions about his migration alone as a 9-year old child from El Salvador to the US.

WRHS senior Asher Knowles wrote, "Getting to learn about what it's like to go through a hardship such as migrating across the border was truly amazing. With the help of his imagery, it was as if I was immersed in history. While the book itself was great, to meet him live was unbelievable."

Seniors Samuel Yallico, Deva Burns, Asher Knowles, Jesus Avila, Brooke Wilde, and Addison Blamires share with The Summit how this experience affected them.

Many thanks to the Blaine County Education Foundation for purchasing the students' books and to the Sun Valley Writers' Conference for sponsoring the virtual meeting.

Blaine County Youth Well-Being Update

The Blaine County Communities for Youth Initiative will be hosting three community "Data Walks" in December to discuss the 2024 student survey data and make plans for how we can better support the needs of our youth in Blaine County.

Thu, Dec 5 from 3:30-5:00pm at

Ernest Hemingway STEAM (Ketchum) RSVP

Thu, Dec 5 from 6:00-7:30pm at

Wood River High School (Hailey) RSVP

Fri, Dec 6 from 4:00-5:30pm at

Carey School (Carey) RSVP

"Data Walks" provide community members with opportunities to better understand and process the Youth Well-being Survey results for middle and high school students in Blaine County Schools.

Read more..

Sleep: How Do We Get More?

Not sleeping enough turning you into a monster? In one of Science Vs most popular episodes, they bring you the cutting-edge science that helps us understand why. And they sort through the fads to find out what really works to get more ZZZs. 

In this episode, they cover:

(00:00) Not sleeping sucks

(03:00) What does lack of sleep do to us?

(06:07) Our beer vs. sleepiness experiment

(10:56) What happens in a sleepy brain

(17:45) How circadian rhythm affects sleep

(21:19) Does melatonin help with sleep?

(23:50) Does blue light keep us awake?

Listen to the podcast or read the transcript.

Idaho's Ranked 51st in K-12 Funding

Although the State of Idaho has recently provided some much-needed funding for facilities, it remains at the bottom of the list for per-student K-12 funding in the US.

Idaho spends 37% less per student than the average across the US. Only Puerto Rico and American Samoa spend less.

Idaho Mountain Express BCSD Leads State in Teacher Salaries

Cause for celebration! 60% of BCSD English language students reached their state-determined growth goal compared to the Idaho average of 45.8%. BCSD outperformed state averages in EACH grade level!



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