Idaho

Idaho State Department of Education increases minimum school days

Published

2 years ago

June 13, 2024

Idaho State Department of Education increases minimum school days

NAMPA, Idaho — On Wednesday the State Board of Education made a change to instructional day minimums in response to the increasing number of 4-day schools.

The minimum number of instructional days in a school year has been increased to 152.
The Department found that schools on a five-day calendar averaged 172 instructional days. That’s 26 more days than the four-day calendar average of 146 instructional days.
At the end of this school year the Nampa School District became the next, and largest, school district in Idaho to make the switch to a four-day school week.

RELATED| Impacts for the YMCA and Nampa Police Department as Nampa Schools move to four-day school weeks

(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story.)

At the end of this school year the Nampa School District became the next, and largest, school district in Idaho to make the switch to a four-day school week. On Wednesday the State Board of Education made a change to instructional day minimums in response to the increasing number of 4-day schools.

State Superintendent Debbie Critchfield and the Department of Ed team worked with education stakeholders to adjust the minimum number of instructional days in a school year to 152. The Department found that schools on a five-day calendar averaged 172 instructional days — 26 more days than the four-day calendar average of 146 instructional days. During the most recent legislative session, two bills were signed into law requiring schools to meet a minimum instructional hours to be eligible to receive state funding.

Back in January, Superintendent Critchfield outlined her opinions on four-day school weeks in an open letter.

Critchfield saying she “doesn’t support 4-day weeks if they are being considered as a money-saving alternative… little to no money would be saved in the long run.”

In that letter she also urged districts to do what’s best for students rather than what is desired by the adult workforce.

I’ve been following Nampa’s schedule shifts this year for you and I’ve also spoken with the Vallivue School District that spans across Nampa and Caldwell and, while they explored a four-day week in 2020, they decided it was not in their students’ best interest and have no plans to explore it in the future.

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Idaho

Looking forward to another year of East Idaho Sports – East Idaho News

Published

11 hours ago

January 4, 2026

Press Room

Looking forward to another year of East Idaho Sports – East Idaho News

Note: As a bonus to our readers who have followed us into Year 2, the East Idaho Sports staff will post a special story on Sundays – Could be a column, opinion, feature, or just something fun and goofy. Hope you enjoy, and thanks again for coming along on this journey.

EASTERN IDAHO — Dec. 31 marked the end of the first full calendar year of East Idaho Sports. It has been a pleasure to bring our readers coverage of local youth, high school, college and semi-pro sports.

Over the last 12 months, we have covered state champions, national champions, junior hockey league champions, record-breaking performances and so much more. Those of you who have followed along since we launched in August 2024 have seen how we have expanded our coverage to include some interactive features like this Sunday Special series, Game Balls and the Photo of the Week voting.

We look forward to the completion of the winter sports seasons — including some Winter Olympics stories — spring sports, the summer sports schedule and returning next fall to start it all over again.

But we also hope to continue adding to our coverage, and shine spotlights on even more of the great athletes and sports programs in eastern Idaho.

In order to do that, we would like some help.

With just two full-time reporters and one freelance photographer we will regrettably miss things. And while we try to fill those gaps ourselves, we are always open to tips.

If there was a sporting event or sports story that deserved coverage it didn’t receive, please email us at sports@eastidahonews.com. If there is an upcoming event that should be spotlighted, please email us.

Also, our Photo of the Week stories will continue to be posted midday every Monday. If you have photos from a local sporting event that you want to enter in the running, email those to us by Sunday morning. For those who follow the voting — on our public Facebook group East Idaho News – Sports — a reader-contributed photo was recently selected our Photo of the YEAR, and we would love to continue adding those on the weekly ballot.

This photo of West Jefferson’s Justus Burtenshaw during the first round of the state tournament, taken by reader Julie Hall, was selected out East Idaho Sports Photo of the Year.

Finally, we recently added a regular feature we are calling the “Whip-around”: A quick rundown of local high school sports action. In order to expand these stories to include more teams, we would love for coaches, players or parents to send us photos of game scorebooks. If you are linked to a local team and would like your team to be added to these stories, please email us, and we can let you know how to do so.

It has been a pleasure to highlight the many local athletes for their successes and hard work, and we look forward to another year of precisely that.

We will see you at a field, court, course, pool, etc., near you in 2026.