High Schools in Bonneville Joint District

The Bonneville Joint District in Idaho has 7 high schools serving about 4,753 students in grades 6 through 12, from large traditional schools to small online, alternative, and career-technical programs. The three traditional high schools — Thunder Ridge High School (1,693 students), Hillcrest High School (1,230), and Bonneville High School (1,176) — enroll about 86% of all students. The district itself ranks 52nd out of 101 Idaho districts, but individual schools vary dramatically.

Among the traditional schools, Hillcrest High School stands out as the strongest. It is the only one to meet or beat state averages in math, science, and ELA, sits at the 57th percentile statewide, and has the lowest chronic absenteeism (9.1%) among traditional schools — all while spending the least per student at $7,531. Thunder Ridge High School and Bonneville High School are well below state proficiency averages, especially in math and science, and both have dropped sharply in state rankings over the last two years. The most dramatic outlier is Praxium Mastery Academy, a small mastery-based school where 87.1% of students are proficient in math and 95.9% in ELA, far above district and state levels. At the other end, Lincoln High School shows the biggest warning signs: 44.7% chronic absenteeism, 40.9% free/reduced lunch eligibility, and only 11.1% ELA proficiency. Technical Careers High School spends the most ($13,104 per student) with the smallest class sizes but scores very low on standard tests, likely because of its specialized career focus.

The district's data shows that spending does not predict success — the lowest-spending schools often outperform. It also suggests different school models serve different student populations; for example, Bonneville Online School has the best attendance in the district (3.2% chronic absenteeism) but below-average test scores. For parents, the clearest takeaways are that Hillcrest and Praxium are the academic bright spots, Lincoln needs the most attention, and the traditional high schools generally struggle to match state proficiency in math and science. Graduation rates are identical across all schools at 82.5%, which appears to be a district-level placeholder rather than real school-level data.