NAMPA — The Nampa School District board approved the closure of four schools at its meeting on Monday night.

West Middle School, Snake River Elementary, Centennial Elementary, and Greenhurst Elementary will close at the end of this school year. Central Elementary, which was being considered for closure, will remain open. The decision differed from the original district proposal, which suggested closing Central Elementary and either Greenhurst or Centennial. The decision passed in a 3-2 vote.

The board asked questions of district staff and discussed the different options for about two hours Monday evening, including walking through multiple scenarios that would allow the district to keep one of the schools under consideration open.

Trustee Mandy Simpson moved to keep Central Elementary open. That option, she reasoned, included decommissioning two other buildings that are being used for specific school programs, as well as Centennial Elementary, and would therefore save the district the most money.

“And so, as a mathematician, that’s my rationale,” Simpson said, but she emphasized just how difficult of a decision it was to make. “I hope as a district that we can rally around the kids and make this work.”

Under the planned changes, some shuffling will happen of the district’s programs. The Snake River Elementary building will become the new home of the district’s Gateways program, while the Greenhurst building will house the district’s preschool program and the Nampa Online Virtual Academy, or NOVA. The West Middle School building will house the Union School program and the Nampa Academy.

Ahead of her motion, Simpson said that a great issue facing the district is the Idaho Legislature’s lack of funding for schools, noting that Idaho is one of two states where bonds require a two-thirds majority to pass. A $210 million bond presented by the district in March failed to pass.

“This is largely why we’re in the predicament we’re in,” Simpson said.

Following an emotional town hall event earlier this month, where teachers and community members voiced concerns about how the closures would affect students, the district had asked the board to make a decision on the school closures at Monday’s meeting.

The prospect of closing schools entered the district’s radar in 2018, but the district only formally began discussing the changes in July 2022, as previously reported. A decrease in district enrollment is driving the move, along with other factors like a lengthening list of maintenance and repairs, and the end of federal pandemic-related funding.

The district’s enrollment has fallen by 1,900 students over the past decade, from about 14,900 students to under 13,000, according to a slide deck included as part of Monday’s meeting agenda. School districts use a range of tools to help project student enrollment, including local births and housing permits, according to the materials.

A report presented to the board in 2018 indicated that enrollment in the district would flatten or decrease, but this year, enrollment dipped even further than expected, as previously reported.

Nampa School District Superintendent Gregg Russell previously estimated that 26 staff would be laid off as a result of the closures.