The West Ada school board voted unanimously Monday to decommission McMillan Elementary at the end of the school year, ending the run of a 54-year-old neighborhood school that has watched its enrollment collapse by 62% since 2014. The school now serves 171 students in a building built for 475, leaving it at just 36% capacity.
Board member David Binetti called it one of the hardest decisions a school board can make, according to Idaho Education News. District projections cited in that report show McMillan's enrollment would have kept sliding, falling to just 121 students by 2031 if the school stayed open, while the aging building needs an estimated $5.4 million in repairs and updates within the next decade. Some grade levels at the school currently have only one class, the outlet reported.
Parents Pushed Back for Months
The vote capped weeks of public pressure. West Ada held two community input meetings in September, and at an October school board meeting, nineteen parents, students and community members spoke, all in opposition to the plan, per the same account. A petition to save McMillan gathered 639 signatures.
Four community members spoke again on the night of the vote, including parent Jessica Ni, whose family has lived near McMillan for eight years and has a kindergarten student at the school. Ni said she felt devastated and had more distrust in the district, and described her children playing at the school's playground as part of what made the decision so painful, Idaho Education News reported.
Board member Lori Frasure said small class sizes and declining enrollment make the decommissioning necessary, while board member Meghan Brown said small schools can suffer from low morale when their smallness isn't intentional. District spokesperson Michelle Edmonds said the district wants students to grow with excitement about what comes next.
What Happens to Displaced Students
Of McMillan's 171 students, 104 are in grades K-4 and will be directly affected by the closure. West Ada presented information on open enrollment, meaning those students may apply to any district school with available seats. District director Miranda Carson said per the district several nearby schools have ample space for McMillan students, and that those receiving schools offer special education and multilingual learning services.
Superintendent Derek Bub said keeping students together is a priority, though he said he hesitates to guarantee that outcome to parents. McMillan teachers will get first priority for open positions at the schools that absorb their students, and the district says it will work out new school boundaries in the coming months.
Community School Services in Limbo
McMillan has functioned as a community school with a family resource center that provides a food pantry, computer assistance, and help for families finding housing, employment and transportation. West Ada's federal programs department will decide on another regional location for those services. David Reinhart said at a meeting last month that services would still be offered to the same families in need and would likely be located near their future school.
West Ada staff will also prepare a detailed proposal for the McMillan building itself in the coming months. The district could consider selling or leasing the property, though no decision on its future use has been made, and West Ada says its immediate focus is transitioning McMillan students and families to their new schools.
A Statewide Pattern of Shrinking Schools
McMillan's closure fits a broader trend playing out across Idaho. Eight of the state's 10 largest school districts recorded lower enrollment from 2024 to 2025, according to a separate Idaho Education News report, which attributes the decline partly to lower birth rates producing smaller incoming kindergarten classes. Nampa trustees voted in 2023 to close four schools after that district's enrollment fell by 3,100 students, or 20%, from 2018 to 2024, while Bruneau-Grandview residents voted in November to keep open the 24-student Bruneau Elementary School rather than close it.
