Best Public Schools in Zip Code 83709

Zip code 83709 is served by 17 schools enrolling roughly 8,783 students across elementary, middle, high, and alternative programs in the Boise, Idaho area. These schools belong to three different districts: Joint School District No. 2, Boise Independent District, and Inspire Academics Inc. The district a school belongs to is the single biggest predictor of performance, with Joint District schools far outpacing the other two.

The standout schools are almost all elementary and middle schools in the Joint District. Christine Donnell School Of The Arts and Eliza Hart Spalding Stem Academy are the highest-ranked schools in the zip, with math proficiency near 65% and chronic absenteeism below 7%. Lake Hazel Elementary School and Pepper Ridge Elementary are also strong 4-star options. At the middle school level, Lake Hazel Middle School clearly beats West Junior High in every subject. Maple Grove Elementary School deserves special mention as the most improved school in the area, jumping from a 2-star to a 4-star rating in just three years.

The most at-risk schools are the alternative, online, and high-poverty programs. Frank Church High School has an 81.3% chronic absenteeism rate and proficiency below 15% in most subjects despite the highest per-student spending in the zip. Grace Jordan Elementary has essentially universal poverty (98.76% free/reduced lunch) and struggles with severe grade-level slippage, especially in math. The virtual schools—Empower Connections Academy, Boise Online School - Secondary, and Boise Online School - Elementary—consistently show very low proficiency and high absenteeism. Even Borah Senior High School, the main traditional high school, sits below state averages. For families, the clearest takeaway is that attendance and school model matter enormously: the schools with the lowest chronic absenteeism are the same ones with the best test scores, and the specialized arts and STEM academies are the strongest performers in the zip.