It’s been a challenging year for the Grant School District, from community backlash over a sexually suggestive assignment by a junior high English teacher to the abrupt retirement-then-unretirement of the new superintendent and the sudden resignation of two board members. 

Additional signs of the turmoil roiling the district could be found in two front-page stories in our most recent edition, one about apparent violations of district policy and state public meetings law in the rehiring of Superintendent Louis Dix to serve in an interim capacity next year, and another about the upcoming school board election.

The situation around Dix’s rehiring is unusual in that he is currently serving as superintendent and was originally under contract for two more years before announcing plans to retire at the end of this school year. Partly for that reason, the Grant School Board’s latest violations don’t appear to be anywhere near as serious as its breach of state law governing executive session during an August 2021 meeting, which earned “letters of education” for the board members from the state ethics commission. Still, they are concerning in that they limited the public’s ability to weigh in on the (re)hiring of a superintendent. 

Also of concern is the fact that, as our other story pointed out, five of the seven seats on the school board are up for election next month. Not only that, but every one of those races is contested — a strong indicator that local families are concerned about the course the district is on.

Other items of note in last week’s paper included a report on the new home of the county’s Emergency Management Office, a profile of local restaurateur Brian Hubbard and a feature from our sister paper in Baker City on a group of OTEC workers bringing electricity to a remote Guatemalan village.

In this week’s Eagle, look for stories on an emergency landing at the Grant County Regional Airport (already up on our website), opposition to the Greater Idaho Movement and yet another change in administration at Grant Union, as well as coverage of the Prairie City track meet.

As always, I want to take this opportunity to thank our subscribers for their support. We can’t do this work without you!

— Bennett Hall, Editor