823 N Balsam St
Boise, ID 83706

As a parent I have had a great experience with the teachers. They are so willing to help in any way. They are kind, understanding and compassionate. My kids also really like their teachers and have had a good experience at this school. It would be nice if they had more parent involvement other than with sports but then maybe the faculty likes it that way. For me the most important part of a school is the quality of the teachers and the teaching, and that is where Borah shines.

I attended Jefferson Elementary as one of the students in the Excel program who moved over from Collister in 2012. I spent the fourth through sixth grades there, and while many of my memories of the school have been lost to time I wanted to share what I can remember. After years of struggling with difficult teachers and administration, Jefferson was a hail mary for my development, and my teachers and administrators' drive to watch me succeed was astounding. When I was able to read more effectively than my peers, my teachers went out of their way to find higher level content for me to read to continue developing. When I was clearly gifted in mathematics, my teachers explained and offered to me a program to get the first two years of junior high algebra out of the way in sixth grade, and helped me build friendships with the other kids in this math program which have lasted to this very day.Jefferson is an exceptionally diverse and multicultural school, but it has the unfortunate circumstance of serving some of the poorest families in the city of Boise. As a result, Jefferson has received a fraction of the attention and funding that its wealthier counterpart schools normally would, and the struggle to keep up with the demands of students who are already heavily disadvantaged is visible in the actions and behavior of every one of the staff that works there. Even as a student, I got the impression that these teachers were deeply saddened with how little they could do for these students given their circumstances, and looking back I have no doubts in my mind that the staff at Jefferson Elementary had anything but unrelenting compassion in their hearts for the students.No institution or organization has come close to having the positive formative impact on me and my character that Jefferson had, I doubt any ever will. Thank you.

This school is full of bad people that don't know how to be respectful and include a lot of drugs. I constantly get bullied for the most random stuff and other students get involved in fights. The new vice principal is extremely strict. (They suspend you for running in the halls to get to your class on time.) The teaching is okay but is hard for someone with mental issues. Other peers tend to make fun of each other for being different. Especially if you are in a special needs class. This school needs to straighten out their community. Was a living hell and felt like eternity after just one day.