Idaho
Idaho Board of Ed sets new minimum number of school days – Local News 8
POCATELLO, Idaho (KIFI) – Students in Idaho will need to attend school a minimum of 152 days per school year. That is the new requirement from the State Board of Education.
The board held its regular meeting at Idaho State University in Pocatello on Wednesday.
The board said, “The recommendation was based on findings that Idaho public schools operating on a four-day calendar currently average 146 student instructional days per year, compared to an average of 172 instructional days conducted by schools operating five days per week.”
More than half of Idaho’s schools are holding four-day school weeks, they reported.
House Bill 521 and House Bill 766, recently signed into law, require LEAs to meet minimum instructional days or hours to be eligible for state school facilities funding.
The new minimum requirements will begin with the 2025/26 school year.
Other Board actions include:
- Extended president contracts for one year for three of Idaho’s institution presidents along with FY25 salaries for:
- Dr. Marlene Tromp; Boise State University – $473,448.77
- C. Scott Green; University of Idaho – $479,191.78
- Dr. Cynthia Pemberton; Lewis-Clark State College – $297.412.50
Idaho State University President Dr. Robert Wagner was appointed president six months ago will be eligible for a potential salary increase next year.
- Approved the FY25 Athletic Spending Limit increases of state appropriated funding at Idaho’s four-year institutions by the following amounts:
- Boise State University; $1 million increase – FY25 Athletic Spending Limit: $10,004,500.
- Idaho State University; $1.2 million increase – FY25 Athletic Spending Limit: $7,832,800.
- Lewis-Clark State College; $500,000 increase – FY25 Athletic Spending Limit: $4,574,900.
- University of Idaho; $1.35 million increase- FY25 Athletic Spending Limit: $9, 251,700.
The institutions requested spending limits increases to help pay increased athletic department inflationary costs, support future program growth, and accurately reflect indirect expenditures.
- Approved contracts for Boise State University’s head football coach; University of Idaho’s head football coach; and Idaho State University’s head women’s basketball coach.
- Boise State Head Football Coach Spencer Danielson’s contract runs through February, 2029. His FY25 base compensation is $1,555,000, with incentives.
- University of Idaho Head Football Coach Jason Eck’s contract was extended until January, 2029. His FY25 base compensation is $375,000 with incentives.
- Idaho State University’s Head Women’s Basketball Coach Seton Sobolewski’s contract was extended until May, ,2029. His salary was increased from $139,287 to $151,287.
- Approved contracts for three Boise State University assistant football coaches:
- Offensive Coordinator Dirk Koetter’s FY25 base compensation is $460,000 in addition to a $5,000 signing bonus.
- Defensive Coordinator Erik Chinander’s FY25 base compensation is $440,000, with incentives.
- Assistant Head Coach Stacy Collins’s FY25 base compensation FY25 base salary is $350,000 with incentives.
- Approved a University of Idaho request to begin the bid and construction phase of expansion of Huckabay Medical Education Building on the Moscow campus. The building houses the Washington Wyoming Alaska Montana Idaho (WWAMI) medical education program. The project is expected to cost nearly $4.5 million and will add additional classrooms and faculty office space
The Board meeting will continue tomorrow morning (June 13) starting at 8 a.m. Mountain Time.
Idaho
Idaho resolution opposing same-sex marriage advances
For the second year in a row, House lawmakers will consider urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn its ruling legalizing same-sex marriage.
The nonbinding resolution, which carries no legal weight, says the decision in Obergefel v. Hodges violates the longstanding religious definition of marriage between one man and one woman.
“The current definition of marriage that allows for same-sex marriages is a defilement of the word marriage,” said Rep. Tony Wisniewski (R-Post Falls), who sponsors the measure.
The resolution further states that the Obergefel decision “arbitrarily and unjustly” rejects the historical definition of marriage.
Idaho voters passed a constitution amendment in 2006 that defines marriage as between one man and one woman, which was invalidated by the Obergefel ruling.
Wisniewski said regulating marriages should be a power left to the states.
Rep. Brent Crane (R-Nampa) agrees.
“If you want to get things … closer to the people with respect to some of these more complex social issues, I think the best place for those things to happen is in the states,” Crane said.
Doing so is a risk, he said.
“You may have states that choose to acknowledge [polyamorous relationships]. You may have states that choose to have relationships between adults and younger children,” Crane said.
Cities in neighboring Oregon and Washington, for example, are considering giving those in polyamorous relationships legal recognition.
But he said that risk is worth it to allow other states that choose to only recognize traditional marriages.
Four lawmakers on the House State Affairs Committee opposed the resolution.
Rep. Erin Bingham (R-Idaho Falls) said she’s tried to balance her own religious beliefs with those of others while considering the measure.
“I do feel like that it is important for us to work together, to find ways to compromise and to live together in peace and mutual respect,” Bingham said.
The resolution now goes to the House floor for consideration.
House lawmakers last year passed a similar measure, but it never received a hearing in a Senate committee.
Copyright 2026 Boise State Public Radio
Idaho
University of Idaho professor awarded $10M after TikTok tarot influencer claimed she ‘ordered’ quadruple murders
A University of Idaho professor won a $10 million judgment after a tarot TikTok influencer publicly pushed false claims that she was behind the savage quadruple slayings of four college students.
A Boise jury in US District Court ordered fortune-telling Texas TikToker Ashley Guillard on Friday to pay $10 million after concluding she falsely accused professor Rebecca Scofield of having a secret romance with one of the four victims and orchestrating their killings, the Idaho Statesman reported.
Following the verdict, Scofield thanked the jury and said she hopes the case sends a clear warning that making “false statements online have consequences in the real world.”
“The murders of the four students on November 13, 2022, were the darkest chapter in our university’s history,” Scofield told Fox News.
“Today’s decision shows that respect and care should always be granted to victims during these tragedies. I am hopeful that this difficult chapter in my life is over, and I can return to a more normal life with my family and the wonderful Moscow community.”
Scofield, the university’s history department chair, filed the lawsuit in December 2022 — just weeks after Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were brutally stabbed to death at an off-campus rental home in Moscow, Idaho, on Nov. 13, 2022.
Guillard began uploading videos to her more than 100,000 TikTok followers in late November 2022, accusing Scofield of a secret relationship with one of the students and claiming she had “ordered” the killings, garnering millions of views across the social media platform.
The complaint states that Scofield had never met the victims and was out of state when the murders occurred.
Even after being served with cease-and-desist letters and after police publicly confirmed Scofield had no connection to the murders, the Houston-based tarot reader continued posting videos, the history professor’s legal team argued.
Guillard doubled down on her accusations against Scofield after being sued, posting a defiant video saying, “I am not stopping,” and challenging why Scofield needed three lawyers to sue her “if she’s so innocent.”
The professor’s legal team argued the defamatory accusations painted her as a criminal and accused her of professional misconduct that could derail her career.
Bryan Kohberger, then studying criminology at Washington State University, pleaded guilty in July 2025 to the quadruple murders in a deal that took the death penalty off the table. He is currently serving four consecutive life sentences in Idaho.
In June 2024, Chief US Magistrate Judge Raymond Patricco found Guillard’s statements legally defamatory, leaving damages to be decided by a jury.
During the damages trial, Scofield described the anguish of seeing her name tied to the murders online, the Idaho Statesman reported.
However, Guillard, acting as her own attorney, insisted her comments were simply beliefs based on tarot card readings.
She claimed to have psychic powers and testified that she relied on tarot cards to try to solve the shocking homicides that shook the rural college town and sparked global attention.
It took jurors less than two hours to return their verdict, the outlet reported.
The jury awarded Scofield $7.5 million in punitive damages in addition to $2.5 million in compensatory damages.
With Post wires
Idaho
Gas prices expected to exceed $3 as the Iran conflict prompts supply shortages
BOISE, Idaho — AAA is warning Idaho gas consumers that pump prices will likely rise as the conflict in Iran disrupts oil and gas supply chains worldwide.
The ongoing turmoil in the Middle East will likely push the price for a gallon of regular gasoline past the $3 mark over the coming days.
“On one hand, the crude oil market had time to account for some financial risk in the Middle East as forces mobilized, but a supply shortage somewhere affects the global picture,” says AAA Idaho public affairs director Matthew Conde. “If tankers can’t move products through the region, there could be ripple effects.”
On Monday, March 2, the average price for a gallon of regular gasoline is $2.97, reports AAA, which is 12 cents more expensive than it was a month ago but 20 cents less than this time last year.
State / Price: 1 gallon of regular gasoline
- Washington / $4.37
- Oregon / $3.92
- Nevada / $3.70
- Idaho / $2.97
- Colorado / $2.89
- Montana / $2.82
- Utah / $2.74
- Wyoming / $2.73
In terms of the most expensive fuel in the nation, Idaho currently ranks #14. However, buying a gallon of regular gas in neighboring states such as Oregon and Washington could cost a whole dollar more. In contrast, gas prices in Utah, Montana, and Wyoming are anywhere between 15 to 24 cents cheaper than fuel in the Gem State.
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