New D93 high school on schedule, district leaders to propose bond for additional schools

IDAHO FALLS — The new Thunder Ridge High School being built in Bonneville County is on target to open in the fall of 2018.

The 257,000 square foot school includes 71 classrooms, plus eight unfinished classrooms that can be completed in the future, and will be able to house 1,500 students immediately.

“The building itself is over a third of the way finished. If you add in the fields, stadiums and parking lots, it is 50 percent done,” Bonneville Joint School District 93 Superintendent Dr. Chuck Shackett says.

Shackett sat down with East Idaho Newsmakers for an extensive 30-minute interview about the state of schools in District 93. The entire conversation will be posted Sunday on EastIdahoNews.com.

“Thunder Ridge is being built for traffic patterns of 1,800 students,” Shackett says. “Hillcrest and Bonneville will each have about 1,100 students. We really are experiencing phenomenal growth in Bonneville County.”

That growth means a new elementary school is needed immediately and an additional middle school will be necessary in the coming years.

“We are going to ask for another bond in August or November either for a middle school or an elementary school that will include some additions,” Shackett says.

District 93 leaders proposed a 93 million dollar bond in 2015 that would have covered a high school, middle school, elementary school, busses and other projects. It failed at the polls, but a scaled-down version including only the new high school eventually passed.

“Now we’re feeling the pains of not getting the middle school or elementary passed,” Shackett says. “We are getting 400-500 more students every year and we need a place a put them.”