Owyhee High School’s Transportation Challenges

West Ada will be opening a brand new high school this month, and there's already an issue of how to get in and out of the school safely. As we've been covering for the last few weeks, the opening of the Owyhee High School is causing concern from parents, citizens, and at least one government organization.

The Ada County Highway District released a statement today about the transportation efforts surrounding Owyhee High School.  Through the City of Meridian's usual development process, West Ada School District, and the City, with guidance from The Ada County Highway District, established required transportation improvements to be completed prior to Meridian's new Owyhee opening High School.

Unfortunately, the development of the new school has not been immune to the unprecedented impacts of COVID-19, area growth, bidding issues, contractor availability, and concurrent roadwork scheduling. West Ada School District has not only committed to completing the transportation improvement work established in the development agreement with the City of Meridian for the project, but they have also made a commitment to provide transparent communication to the public on both successes and challenges they continue to experience while they work to minimize impacts on the community as students return to school.

The Ada County Highway District has no jurisdiction to approve or deny the opening of a school and understands the tremendous benefits the new location provides in serving the community. ACHD will continue to provide support in any way feasible to help West Ada School District meet their agreed upon transportation improvement requirements as quickly as possible and based on the planned mitigation efforts provided by West Ada, confirms that the conditions of approval related to transportation improvements are satisfactory to ACHD.