SALMON (
Idaho Ed News
) — Salmon will soon have two newly constructed public school campuses.
Fernwaters Public Charter School announced this week that it received a $3.52 million federal loan to help finance construction of a permanent K-8 campus, which will include an auditorium to supplement the school’s music-focused curriculum.
Currently, Fernwaters operates a split campus for its 144 students, said Superintendent Kristin Foss. Kindergarteners through fifth graders are housed in existing buildings at the charter’s “upper campus.” Sixth through eighth graders attend school in leased buildings in downtown Salmon, known as the “lower campus.”
The $4.9 million project will bring all grades to the upper campus in a new 12,400-square-foot facility, located near the Salmon Ice Rink. The largest source of funding is the $3.52 million loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development office.
“Since 2022, Fernwaters has carefully studied its facilities needs and debt capacity,” Foss said by email, “and it has worked with local architect Don Stamp to conceive of an affordable way to provide facilities that meet the students’ needs and allow the school to achieve its mission.”
Daily music instruction is a foundation at Fernwaters, Foss said, and the new campus will include a performance auditorium. The USDA loan will finance the shell of the auditorium, but the school is seeking local donors to fundraise for acoustic treatments, seating and a lighting system.
The school plans to make the auditorium available for community use, after the new campus is completed in 2027, Foss said.
Construction of the charter school campus will coincide with a separate public school facilities project nearby. The Salmon School District’s new elementary and middle school campus (pre-school through 8th grade) is slated to open in 2026.
Salmon in recent years became the poster child for Idaho’s aging school facilities. Local voters rejected a dozen bond measures to replace the district’s traditional Pioneer Elementary School before finally approving a $20 million bond last year.
The Salmon School District authorized Fernwaters in 2018, and the charter opened the following year. Fernwaters focuses on personalized learning experiences in which “kindness and respect are taught and valued,” Foss said. All grades learn music and STEAM subjects, including computer coding in fourth grade and above.
Previously, the school served just fourth through eighth grade, but it added kindergarten through third grade for the 2024-25 school year.
Aside from the USDA loan, Fernwaters used fund reserves, leftover COVID-19 relief money and smaller grants to finance the new campus, Foss said. Caldwell’s R&M Steel also donated materials worth $58,200.
Construction is set to begin next spring, and is expected to take about a year to complete.
