Financially Strained Idaho School District Loosing Teachers

NAMPA, Idaho (AP) — A school district in southwestern Idaho that is reeling from budget problems has lost 20 percent of its teachers in the last few months. Nampa School District Superintendent Pete Koehler said during a board meeting Tuesday that 151 teachers have left since the end of the school year — far more than the usual 5 percent annual turnover rate.

The district has suffered a series of financial blows starting last year, when officials discovered almost $3 million in one-time budget money had been counted twice. In May, a financial analyst discovered that $1.2 million went to general operations rather than bond repayment. The end result is a $5.1 million deficit that has officials looking at cutting costs by forcing teachers to take 14 unpaid furlough days and imposing other cuts.