PRIEST RIVER, Idaho — West Bonner School District Superintendent, Branden Durst, submitted his letter of resignation to the school board on Monday. It comes after months of controversy.
Durst’s resignation came as a surprise to many Priest River locals. Last month, the Idaho State Board of Education ruled that Durst is not qualified to be the district’s superintendent. Durst fired back, claiming the state board was discriminating against him and the move was fueled by political motivation.
Regardless, it left West Bonner School District without a superintendent.
NonStop Local left a message with Durst Monday for an interview but has yet to hear back from him.
We did speak to Candy Turner, a former teacher at the school district, who headed the recall efforts of the two board members who, she says, fought to hire Durst.
“I don’t trust the man (Durst) and I don’t think the community trusts him, so that’s why I think everybody within the school district will be glad to see him gone,” Turner said.
It’s now up to the board to accept his resignation. In fact, the school district posted on Facebook Monday notifying the public that the board plans to take up the matter this week.
But Turner has questions about this latest development.
“I’m just wondering if it’s a ploy of his, again, to get the sympathy of everybody. We cannot accept his resignation until we have a quorum of the board,” Turner said.
Last week the board was supposed to meet to discuss the discipline of a district employee, although, the board didn’t meet quorum because one of the trustees didn’t show up.
In Durst’s resignation letter, he pointed to a number of career highlights, including staff enhancement, an implementation of the district’s five-year strategic plan, and what he calls a renewed commitment to listening to the community. He also pointed to those in the community, he feels worked against him, “throughout my short tenure, I remained cognizant of the fact that not everyone in the community welcomed my hiring, and there were those who hoped to see me fail…”
Although Turner claims some of what Durst is taking credit for was already in the works. She said, right now, she’s looking for brighter days ahead.
“We’re looking forward to rebuilding our board and rebuilding our school district and we will work with them as much as we can, like we always did before,” Turner said.
You can read Durst’s resignation here.
