‘Big volunteer effort’: Salmon eyes new school opening in 2026

SALMON (IdahoEdNews.org) — Salmon is on track to have a new school building next year, after voters last year passed a historic bond measure.

Construction on the $29 million facility, which will serve pre-school through eighth grade, broke ground in December. The project should be completed before the 2026-27 school year, said Breann Green of the Salmon Schools Needs Assessment Committee. The volunteer committee crafted the school building’s financing plan, and is now overseeing construction.

“It’s going really well, actually,” Green told Idaho Education News this week. “It’s still a big volunteer effort.”

Last year, Salmon voters approved a $20 million bond, the largest chunk of a financing plan that also includes donations, state funds, sponsorships and real estate sales. The successful bond measure, which passed with 72% approval, came after a dozen failed attempts across about two decades.

RELATED | ‘Elated’: Salmon celebrates successful school bond after 12 failed attempts

The new school will replace Pioneer Elementary. Burdened by a variety of structural issues, the school in recent years has been a poster child for Idaho’s aging public school facilities and districts’ challenges raising enough money to replace them.

Salmon has relied on volunteers to build the new school, from financing to construction. Across 15 “haul days” this winter, volunteers excavated the building site, using borrowed dump trucks, and refilled it with donated pit rock. Local businesses donated lunch to workers.

“That was basically every dump truck in town,” Green said. “We were on the radio sometimes (saying), ‘We’re hauling tomorrow. If you have a dump truck, show up.’ And people did.”

Fundraising efforts could come up about $500,000 short of the $29 million, Green said. Salmon received just $2.8 million from last year’s $1 billion state bond through House Bill 521, but it could get more from a new revolving loan fund that state lawmakers opened up this year.

House Bill 338 sparked a long-dormant school facilities fund that offers gap financing to rural school districts. The bipartisan bill increased the “school facilities cooperative fund” from $25.5 million to $50.5 million. Also, for funding requests seeking $5 million or less, the bill removed a requirement that recipients agree to state supervision for the duration of a construction project. The oversight provision had previously deterred districts from applying. 

Salmon may apply for the full $5 million, Green said. That would cover the school construction shortfall while the remaining money would help replace a maintenance shed that was torn down to make way for the new school. And it could fund relocating the district’s bus barn to the new site. “That really would finish the whole moving of the campus over to one area, if we can do that.”

This article was originally posted on IdahoEdNews.org on May 28, 2025.