EXCLUSIVE: Superintendent Branden Durst Chosen To Lead West Bonner School District Out Of Ruin — The Disturbing Truth About Priest River’s Broken School System
“Leadership isn’t about making easy decisions, it’s about making the right decisions in the face of criticism.”
(Priest River, Idaho) — The tension in the air at the auditorium in the Priest River Junior High Auditorium was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Much like Coeur d’Alene, West Bonner County has become a bitterly divided community, for almost exactly the same reasons.
Unresponsive schools, an entrenched, bureaucratic, corrupt educational establishment, a lack of parental transparency, an influx of conservatives seeking refuge, and a vicious campaign waged by left-wing “native" activists have brought the community almost to a breaking point. And it’s the exact same activists wreaking havoc in West Bonner County that we have seen throughout the state who throw temper tantrums when things don’t go their way, spew slander, hatred and vitriol against conservative elected officials, and claim that conservative leadership will “destroy education” in Idaho.
Here’s a newsflash for anyone who hasn’t been paying attention to what’s really going on in Idaho Schools: the education system has already been destroyed. It was replaced by a bizarre social engineering experiment that abuses children, alienates parents, and tears our communities apart.
Priest River Schools are no different.
According to the Idaho State Department of Education’s School Report Cards, West Bonner County Schools are broken.
They are in the lowest quartile in the entire state, in spite of the fact that they are paying $4,000 more per student compared with the state-wide average.
Literacy sits at an abysmal 52.3%, while math is 23% below the state-wide average sitting at 31%.
In almost every single category, West Bonner Schools fall below the statewide average on the Idaho Standards Achievement Test.
Student engagement sits at just 40%.
Graduation rates are so low, they are almost unheard of, with almost 37.7% of students dropping out, or leaving before completing High School.
If that wasn’t bad enough, the “extracurriculures” occurring in the District are even more shocking.
Teacher/Student Sexual Abuse Case
On October 30th, 2021, a 37 year old teacher named Sarai Lynn McCormick showed up, intoxicated with Jell-O Shots and liquor to a Halloween party at the private residence of a Priest River Junior High student. According to testimony from witnesses, McCormick began “making out” with a 15 year old student at the party, before taking the boy outside to her car where she had sex with him. According to court documents, McCormick was caught on Walmart security footage purchasing emergency contraceptives, the next morning.
According to the Bonner County Daily Bee, after law enforcement was made aware that the sexual abuse had occurred, McCormick forced the students “to delete all photos and videos of McCormick at the party.” The article continued saying:
“A staff member reported to the school counselor that she saw McCormick acting ‘flirty’ with the victim the week prior to the alleged abuse. The witness described the behavior as giving her the ‘heebie jeebies.’
In court documents, the victim’s mother told law enforcement that McCormick would lock the door to her classroom while tutoring the victim, ‘so other students do not interrupt them.’”
Instead of immediately handling this situation, it appears as though the school’s administration covered this up. According to The Bee “The maximum sentence for lewd conduct is life in prison. Child sexual abuse carries a maximum sentence of 25 years. Both can also be accompanied by a $50,000 fine.”
But what actually happened to the teacher? In a follow up article published on February 3, 2023,
“McCormick, who now lives in Oregon state, was ordered to serve 45 days of jail time with five days to be served immediately after sentencing. The remaining 40 days must be served within 6 months. She was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine and pay $545.50 in court costs.”
That’s it. She raped a child and got a slap on the wrist. And guess what? NOBODY was talking about it outside of Priest River. The article was buried by the Hagadone Corporation, and no other media outlets in the state of Idaho (including ours, until we found out about it yesterday) have published a single article about how a public school teacher raped her 15 year old student.
The Entrenched Bureaucracy Lashes Out
Following all of this, the West Bonner School District put a supplemental levy on the ballot. Not once, but twice. Both times it was defeated, and both times, the “yes” campaign engaged in the same despicable tactics we saw in Coeur d’Alene. Threats that sports would lose funding, programs would be cut, children would “suffer” if the levy didn’t pass.
Parents argued that the District was not being transparent with their finances. Demands for a forensic audit peppered the School District’s Facebook posts, after a dilapidated boiler was neglected, even though money in past levies were allocated for an upgrade.
The issues remained unaddressed, and the levy failed.
Following the Levy’s second defeat, the Superintendent of West Bonner Schools, Jackie Branum, quit on March 21st 2023.
Susie Luckey, a Priest River “native” with over 30 years working for West Bonner Schools was named interim Superintendent.
Branden Durst (Left) Susie Luckey (Right)
However, instead of taking all of this context into consideration, and being responsive to the wants and desires of the District’s parents, we just heard the same old schtick about how “outsiders are moving in, and trying to destroy the school district.”
No. Conservatives don’t want to destroy the school district, or public education. They want to destroy the corrupt, incestuous bureaucracy that has left us with abysmal test scores, sexually abused students, and a crumbling infrastructure.
Meet Your New Superintendent
Branden Durst, a former Blue-Dog Democrat State Representative from Boise, renounced his party in 2016 to become Idaho’s leading crusader against the failed, woke, indoctrination regime of the Left, and a champion for school choice, parents’ rights, and a restoration of common sense in education.
Durst gained notoriety throughout the state when he narrowly lost the Republican nomination for State Superintendent of Idaho Schools in the 2022 May Primary.
Durst has authored and helped craft some of the most cutting edge education laws in Idaho.
During the closing statements of last night’s public forum, everything was laid bare. According to Branden:
“The Question is: what does the district need right now? What is the pressing issue in this district and how could either of us will really be able to solve those problems? I am an outsider, and I understand that there are folks here that are bothered by this. Let’s call a spade a spade. There are people that don’t like someone flying in from out of town, wearing a suit telling them how to run their school district. Right? Let’s be honest here. There are people that feel that way, and I’m ok with that!
There are also people that believe that this district is never going to break the cycle that it’s in, unless they bring somebody in, who flies in wearing a suit who tells them things that they could do. There’s these two competing perspectives… I do believe that this district needs to change course. I do believe that this district needs to do things differently. I do believe that this district really needs a fresh set of eyes on the problems. And that’s not in any way intended to be a slight to Mrs. Lucky.
I find problems, and I fix them, and I make them better. That’s what I do, and I believe that’s where this district is. Now there may be people sitting in this room saying ‘I like the way things are going right now, things are fine.’ I just believe - it’s my perspective that we need to change things.”
Former interim Superintendent Lucky rebutted:
“I think I would be the best candidate for a number of reasons. First off, because I am a priest river native and I have a heart and passion for this community. And, with that said, I am very, very committed towards providing and working towards unity in the community. We have so many new people who have joined our community in the last 5 years, and I believe that West Bonner County School District has really… It’s a renewal. We have had better times, but with that said in that renewal process I am open to continuous change. I am not stuck in the mud.”
She received thunderous applause from the two dozen pro-levy activists in attendance.
The system is clearly broken, and the leftists (as we have seen in Kootenai County) throw tantrums when they don’t get their way, so the board of trustees had a tough decision to make.
Speaking exclusively with the Idaho Tribune, Keith Rutledge, the Chairman of the West Bonner School Board said:
“Leadership isn’t about making easy decisions, it’s about making the right decisions in the face of criticism.
We’re looking forward to making positive changes, building trust back into the District and heading into the right direction.
We want public education to work, and right now it isn’t.”
Vice-Chair Susan Brown made the motion to nominate Durst to be the next Superintendent of Schools.
The Leftists indeed threw their tantrum, slamming the doors as they angrily walked out of the meeting, and yes, they have continued berating and harassing the members of the West Bonner County School Board of Trustees that voted for change, but what else is new?
Is it any coincidence that one of the biggest problems facing the School District is bullying? It’s a learned behaviour, and I bet you can guess where these kids are learning it.
Sometimes doing the right thing is tough. It takes fortitude, and determination. Thankfully there is a Superintendent willing to face those slings and arrows for the sake of the children. Thankfully there is a board majority willing to put everything on the line, if it means fixing West Bonner County’s broken school system.
This morning, the silent majority of concerned parents in the West Bonner School District woke up with a feeling of hope, knowing for the first time in a long time that help is finally on the way.
