PRIEST RIVER, Idaho — Two days after West Bonner School District Superintendent Branden Durst announced he would be stepping down, he sat down with trustees.
They haven't held a meeting in over a month. Several have been canceled, including last Wednesday's when trustee Troy Reinbold didn't show up.
Reinbold attended this Wednesday night's meeting by phone and seemed to be in a hurry to wrap things up.
"We all done with business?" Reinbold asked. "Can I go?"
Reinbold took several items off the agenda and did not stick around for public comments, telling board members he was parked on the side of the highway.
"I'm soaking wet, covered in mud, trying to get home," Reinbold said.
"It is your promise and your oath to get here and do business of the district, so I'm very glad that he got here today," former board member Sandy Brower said.
Brower is sad to see the district in a tailspin.
"It's been very frustrating to watch our local government or governance of our school district kind of fall apart and kind of miss what it's all about," Brower said. "It's about our students and it's about our school district, and instead it became about politics and agendas and personal promotion."
"My daughter goes to school here at Priest River High School, and I didn't even know if there was going to be busses to drive her to school," parent Robert Bauer said. "I don't know who the superintendent is anymore because Branden Durst put his resignation in and as far as I'm concerned, he's out of office."
Durst announced on Monday he would step down as superintendent, saying members of the community wished to see him fail, as well as the Idaho Department of Education, who determined he was unqualified to be superintendent.
"The teachers, the principals are looking for that leadership and so the board has got an issue that needs to be undertaken sooner than later," former superintendent Leonard Parenteau said.
"I want to see what the board is going to do next, what the next steps are," Bauer said. "How are they going to bring our school back the way it needs to be?"
"Superintendent Durst called me woke and I think he's correct," Brower said. "I think we are awake, and I thank him for coming if that was the benefit of having him here. The community is together, we have rallied, we're paying attention."
Durst says his final day will be up to the board. KREM 2 did ask him for an interview following Wednesday night's meeting to talk about his resignation. He provided no comment.
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