BLACKFOOT — While a handful of districts statewide are closing schools due to funding shortages and enrollment declines, the Blackfoot School District is opening a new elementary this month.
Superintendent Brian Kress acknowledges that growth didn’t necessitate the new Riverbend Elementary — Blackfoot’s enrollment has continually declined since at least 2021.
Instead, the new school was built to support career technical education programs, address student safety concerns and help curb behavioral issues.
Plus, the new elementary replaces one built in the 1960s, and could attract students who might otherwise choose charter schools, Kress said.
“It’s a dream come true for us,” he said. “Hopefully we can increase our enrollment due to amazing facilities like this.”
New school is one of a series of major facility changes, funded by local taxpayers and grants
In March 2021, Blackfoot voters approved a $23.9 million bond with a whopping 82% approval rate — which is unusual in Idaho, where bonds usually fail. Kress attributes the success to a grassroots effort led by a committee of community members and stakeholders— an approach that’s becoming more common.
District leaders also applied for two grants geared toward career technical programs — one from the Idaho Career Ready Students program and the other from the federal Economic Development Administration, for about $4 million each. The combined $31.9 million will fund a handful of projects.
Blackfoot School District facilities projects
Riverbend Elementary
- $16 million
- About 46,500 square feet
- 23 classrooms
- Grades K-5
- Opening this month
Improved athletic facilities and grounds
- Relocating baseball and softball fields. “It’s one of the best complexes here in southeast Idaho, hands down,” Kress said.
- Redoing track and football stadium. “Our track was quite literally falling apart,” Kress said.
- Creating a new, lighted soccer field.
New Blackfoot Technical Education Center
- Six shop areas with adjoining classrooms.
- May be open for students by fall 2025.
Retrofitting I.T. Stoddard Elementary for non-shop CTE classes
- I.T. Stoddard is the school Riverbend is replacing.
- Will host CTE programs like cosmetology, culinary arts, and early childhood education.
- This may be done by fall 2026.
New high school student center
- Will provide a place for students to eat and congregate.
- Will likely be ready for students in fall 2025.
Riverbend Elementary cost about $16 million, Kress said. With inflation, the same school would’ve cost $20 million today. But that inflation will impact projects that are not yet complete, like the new technical education center. But Kress said district leaders will not go to voters for more money, even if prices go up.
“That was something that was really, really, really, important to me,” he said.
That’s why district leaders applied for those grants, and made some cost-saving measures at Riverbend — like using stucco instead of brick for the exterior, and building fewer classrooms than originally planned.
While Blackfoot voters approved a multi-million dollar bond in 2021, other communities have rejected levies and bonds, leading to a school closure in at least one recent case — even with an influx of facilities dollars that the Legislature approved last spring.
Blackfoot is expecting $15-$16 million from the state facilities fund, which it plans to put toward maintenance and upgrades at its older buildings.
“We’re so grateful for that money, but it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the need,” Kress said.
In Blackfoot, school modernization means bullet-resistant windows and in-class bathrooms
The new elementary school was designed with student safety in mind.
Riverbend features a vestibule entrance that requires visitors to be buzzed in. The windows are bullet-resistant, and cameras line the hallway. Plus, all the windows open, creating a possible secondary exit in each classroom.
The school was also designed to curb behavioral issues that commonly arise in places like bathrooms and playgrounds.
Traditionally-designed bathrooms can become places where students congregate to vape, vandalize sinks and soap dispensers, or bully other children, since they are away from teachers’ eyes and ears. The design at Riverbend keeps the bathrooms doorless but still private, with sinks visible to all. And gapless stall doors prevent possible attempts to violate others’ privacy.
On the playground, there are two separate play sets — one for older children, and one for younger children — to further minimize behavior issues that can arise between differing age groups.
Some classrooms have in-class drinking fountains, reducing the need to leave class. And the kindergarten and first grade classrooms all have in-class bathrooms, since young learners have increasingly been arriving at school without having learned how to use the restroom without help.
For students who struggle to pay attention, chairs in the fourth and fifth grade classrooms allow for fidgeting and movement.
The new school also includes a music room, library, lunch room, and gym.
Unknowingly completing a campus vision dreamed up decades ago
The changes to Blackfoot’s campus are realizing a vision first dreamed up in the late 1950s or early 1960s — though that last part came as a surprise to Kress.
An overlooked, forgotten drawing in a district storage area had been discovered to reveal a plan for the future Blackfoot School District campus. As chance would have it, it almost perfectly matches the campus that’s taking shape. Kress had it framed, and proudly displayed it at a recent media tour of the new school.
“Every single thing that you see in this picture has now been brought to fruition,” he said.
Idaho Education News data analyst Randy Schrader contributed to this report.
