STAR, Idaho — A lot of families are now calling Star home, and with that comes construction for a new elementary school and added traffic around Star Middle School. The city is teaming up with the school district to keep students safe, and improvements are already taking shape.
Principal Jason Meyers has witnessed Star's remarkable transformation firsthand, having lived in the community for 23 years and serving at the middle school for four years.
"I've lived here in the Star community for 23 years, and when I first came here, it was about 800 people living in Star, and you can imagine the growth that has happened over that 23 years," Meyers said.
Mayor Trevor Chadwick explained how the pathway project began with strategic planning and community partnerships several years ago.
"Several years ago, we were able to secure easements from the cemetery district and from the adjoining landowners over here to put this pathway in. We had a future plan to put the pathway in so we could get kids into the middle school, pretty easy," Chadwick said.
Watch to learn more about the newest upgrades at Star Middle School
The city secured a state grant to help fund the extensive pathway construction.
"After we secured that, we were able to get a grant from the state of Idaho to help pay for this pathway to go all the way into the school. I think it's almost 1200ft of concrete that is 10ft wide," Chadwick said.
The project also required significant infrastructure work, with a nearby development contributing $400,000 for major canal work to ensure safe crossing for students.
When Star Middle School was built in 2018, the surrounding area was relatively undeveloped, but as enrollment increased, so did traffic congestion.
"When the school was built in 2018, there wasn't a whole lot out here in the area and so traffic wasn't too bad, but as the school grew, traffic grew and we have traffic sometimes that goes all the way from our parking lot, all the way out the road, all the way out to Floating Feather, which is about, you know, half a mile down the road," Meyers said.
When Meyers became vice principal three years ago, he worked to modify the existing parking lot to accommodate more vehicles, but congestion remained a significant issue.
The project evolved into a comprehensive solution that includes both a park and a 160-space parking lot off Floating Feather Road.
"It just continued to evolve from there. We turned this into a park and built this parking lot with the idea then of bringing parents over here to drop kids off to walk into the school versus going up into the middle school, where it's pretty busy every morning and every afternoon," Chadwick said.
The new infrastructure addressed a critical safety gap for students who wanted alternatives to bus transportation or parent drop-off.
"That was really the first time that we gave some access to kids riding bikes or walking to school. Because on Pollard Road, there's no sidewalks, there's nothing there. And so they gave us a way to get kids to school besides just the bus or parents dropping them off and that's been a real help," Meyers said.
The impact has been substantial, with approximately 200 students using the walkway daily.
"We have probably close to 200 kids that use that walk path every single day," Meyers said.
Beyond traffic congestion, Chadwick emphasized the public safety benefits of the new infrastructure.
"A lot of concerns that we have more than the congestion is the public safety aspect, you know, when there's so many people going in and out Pollard, up there by the school, how does public safety, if they have a 911 call, get into the facilities? Easy, right? And so we're hoping that this over time, will help alleviate some of the challenges that we have," Chadwick said.
The pathway has seen increased usage, particularly during favorable weather conditions, with the project recently completed.
"We've seen a lot more parents coming over here dropping off kids and we see this being used a lot, especially during the early months when it's nicer out, unlike today, right? The kids are coming up and down this pathway. Parents are dropping them off right here. We just finally actually finished this, this last week, with the concrete into the road, so you'll probably see it used a lot more," Chadwick said.
The city is implementing additional measures to improve traffic flow on Pollard Road.
"The other things we're doing down here on Pollard, you know, just some simple stuff, right? We're trying to do some traffic boxes with ACHD in the road so people don't block those intersections so you can get vehicles in and out up there," Chadwick said.
Chadwick outlined future road improvements that will be necessary as traffic patterns change.
"We're also trying to work with ITD and ACHD to try to get them to jointly widen that road because when ITD is going to shut off access to Highway 16 here at Floating Feather here in the future... that's going to push all the traffic up Pollard to go to Beacon Light, and we think they should work on it together to get that widened," Chadwick said.
Star's new Independence Elementary opens next fall and will have its own entryway and turn lanes, which will help keep traffic off the middle school's roads during peak times.
Check out this sky view footage of Star Middle School and progress on 'Independence' Elementary.
"The nice thing is they put in a second entryway for the elementary school off of Pollard, and I know that the city is working hard to try to expand Pollard Road and to put some sidewalks, so that gives us more access to kids being able to walk to school," Meyers said.
Chadwick explained how the timing and design of the elementary school will help manage traffic flow.
"The elementary school is not operating at the same time as the middle school, as far as opening and closing. They're different times, and so it won't add to the congestion at one time. It's going to spread it out a little bit, but we asked the school district as a city to add an extra in lane into the school, which is going to stack on the property more than it is out on the roadway," Chadwick said.
The school district is also required to add turn lanes at key intersections.
"With this new elementary school being built up here, they have some requirements that the school district does as far as adding some turn lanes here at Pollard and Floating Feather and at Pollard and Beacon Light, which is going to help with that traffic because right now it's a single lane where people are turning left and right and people get backed up there. So if we get multiple lanes in there that make those left and right turns, it's going to help push traffic out a lot sooner," Chadwick said.
Despite concerns about growth, Chadwick highlighted a significant benefit of the new elementary school's funding structure.
"The positive thing is that the need for this elementary school obviously came because of growth, but the beauty of this elementary school being built is it's 100% being paid for by state dollars and zero property tax dollars, so no one's bearing the burden of paying for that. It's already funded through the state," Chadwick said.
"That's a win for our community, right? So I mean if there's a silver lining to that, that to me is, is a silver lining is that we're not paying for that school through our property taxes, but the state provided the funding for it," Chadwick said.
Chadwick acknowledged the ongoing challenges of managing community growth while emphasizing the city's commitment to proper planning.
"We're going to continue to grow. That's part of living in a free country that allows you to move wherever you choose to move, and we manage it the best we can, using our planning tools that we have with the comprehensive plan. Following with the loss of the Land Use Planning Act that we have to follow," Chadwick said.
The collaboration between the city and West Ada School District has been essential to the project's success.
"It's a great relationship that we have with the West Ada School District. It's obvious by getting our school out here, you know, and us working on this pathway to help alleviate those challenges for the middle school and, you know, even up on the middle school property there, we extended the pathway for them," Chadwick said.
The city's grant funding helped extend the pathway onto school property, reducing the financial burden on the school district.
"With the grant, just so we can make sure that the kids get in there easily and safely, so the school district didn't have to try to come up with funds to do that. And so, I mean, anytime a municipality can work together with the school districts to get stuff accomplished, everybody wins," Chadwick said.
Meyers expressed gratitude for the collaborative approach.
"I'm grateful for the mayor and the city council to be able to put that walk path in for us. That helped us out tremendously and gave kids a different way to get to school and helped parents out tremendously," Meyers said.
