by Logan Finney, Idaho Reports
State lawmakers introduced a bill Thursday that would modify Idaho’s quorum requirements for meetings of locally elected school boards.
“Currently the majority of the members of a school board, which would be three out of five, constitutes a quorum in order for the board to do business. What the change is going to do is make it a majority of the currently filled seats on the board,” Sen. Scott Herndon, R-Sagle, explained to fellow members of the Senate Education Committee.
The legislation would address situations like the one last year in the West Bonner School District. That school board was left temporarily unable to conduct business after two trustees were recalled by voters and a third was not present at the following board meetings.
The bill, if passed into law, would not retroactively address the situation at West Bonner School District. It would prevent the same circumstances from happening on any Idaho school boards in the future.
“If only two of the three filled seats showed up, they would still be able to do business,” Herndon said.
The legislation must return to committee for a full public hearing in order to advance.
Logan Finney | Producer
Logan Finney is a North Idaho native with a passion for media production and boring government meetings. He grew up skiing, hunting and hiking in the mountains of Bonner County and has maintained a lifelong interest in the state’s geography, history and politics. Logan joined the Idaho Reports team in 2020 as a legislative session intern and stayed to cover the COVID-19 pandemic. He was hired as an associate producer in 2021 and they haven’t been able to get rid of him since.