Boise School District Prepares for Next Phase of Early Childhood Education

District Announces Owyhee Transition to Early Childhood Learning Center Beginning 2025-2026 School Year

Boise, ID -- 04/19/2024 -- After careful consideration and planning, beginning with the 2025 - 2026 school year, Owyhee Elementary School will be converted from a traditional K - 6 elementary school to an Early Childhood Learning Center. 

To help current Owyhee families prepare for the change, the Boise School District will host two Parent Engagement meetings on Thursday, May 2nd or Tuesday, May 7th, 2024. Both meetings will be held at 6:00 pm in Owyhee’s gymnasium, 3434 W. Pasadena Dr., Boise.  Owyhee staff, district administrators, as well as representatives from our transportation and special education services will be on hand to provide further information and answer questions.

In addition to staff and parent notification, the district will redraw the enrollment boundaries for nearby elementary schools to include families currently enrolled at Owyhee. That process will include parent input. Details of the boundary change process will be shared with the Boise School Board of Trustees at their May 13th meeting, and the proposal for new boundaries will be presented to the Board of Trustees when the process is complete next year.

Owyhee’s planned conversion is the next step in the District’s plan to more fully support the specific needs of early learners. Earlier this year, the District announced that our existing Madison Early Childhood Center, including Head Start, will move to our Fort Boise facility for the beginning of the 2024 - 2025 school year. The District has already begun transforming Fort Boise from a temporary elementary school to a purpose-driven early childhood learning center. 

Currently, the Boise School District offers some form of early childhood education at more than 11 sites, many without facilities physically built for three to five-year olds. Early Childhood Centers offer students, families and staff a number of benefits over the current highly-dispersed system. Through the innovative Community Classroom approach, we can provide our youngest learners with the social, emotional, problem-solving, creative and critical-thinking skills they’ll need to be successful. Parents of early learners are able to build a stronger and more robust community while staff can more easily collaborate with other early childhood professionals. Also, a more robust and flexible offering of specialists such as occupational therapists, physical therapists, and audiologists will be available. 

We are excited to move forward with this opportunity to support a growing population of early learners and start our students on a bright path of learning from an early age.