Krista Hasler Wins Open Seat on Boise School District Board of Trustees
Hasler beat Matthew Shapiro in the district's only contested trustee race, in an election with markedly low turnout.
By Kateryna Melnyk ·
Krista Hasler has won a seat on the Boise School District Board of Trustees, defeating Matthew Shapiro in the only contested race in the district's latest trustee election, according to results reported by the district.
The district counted 3,245 ballots, or 2.5% of the 130,083 registered voters. Hasler received 1,755 votes, or 54.1%, while Shapiro took 1,490, or 45.9%. The results are unofficial until the board of trustees certifies them, which is expected at a meeting scheduled for Sept. 9.
The two candidates were seeking a two-year term left open when trustee Shiva Rajbhandari chose not to run again. Rajbhandari won the seat in 2022 while still an 18-year-old senior at Boise High School. He is now in college out of state and has attended most board meetings remotely since the fall of 2023.
Neither candidate was new to the ballot. Both ran for the board unsuccessfully in 2022, and Hasler had also applied twice before for appointment to an open seat. During her 2022 campaign, she turned down an endorsement from the far-right group Idaho Liberty Dogs, saying she neither sought nor accepted its support and did not support extremism. That year she was endorsed by the Ada County Republicans. For this election, her campaign website lists an endorsement from the Boise Education Association.
According to campaign materials, Hasler is a certified clinical social worker and a classroom volunteer. She has said she wants to concentrate on mental health and work to strengthen early education in the district.
Four other sitting trustees filed for reelection but drew no challengers. Under state code, their names did not appear on the ballot. Elizabeth Langley, Maria Greeley and Paul Bennion will each serve a new six-year term, and Debbie Donovan will serve a new four-year term.
Bennion and Donovan were both recently appointed to fill board vacancies and were required to stand for election to keep their seats. In March, board members selected Donovan over Hasler to fill the seat of former trustee Beth Oppenheimer, who left the board to move out of state.
Turnout was well below that of recent trustee elections. Nearly 20,000 voters took part in the September 2022 election, when several seats were contested. About 7,000 voted in 2020, when three candidates competed for two seats.
Originally published by News Media House · Source: Boise State Public Radio
