Our History

12 Street Campus

Idaho Arts Charter School (IACS) was envisioned by a committed group of founding parents in 2003 because of a need for high quality college preparatory offerings with a focus on the arts. The vision of the IACS founders was to create a school that was highly engaging for students, using the arts as the conduit for that engagement. At the time many schools were cutting arts programs and the founders were among a group of concerned parents. They wanted to design a school where the arts would be in the forefront, giving students a space to create and explore their personal talents. Our mission statement is “Engaged learning through the Arts” and we continue to expand on this every year.


Old CampusIACS opened in 2005, serving 450 students across grades K-10, growing into a K-12 school. Every year since IACS has maintained a robust waitlist. Families in the Nampa community and surrounding area want an alternative to traditional public school.

In order to meet this need, IACS has expanded several times and currently serves 1,240 students across grades K-12 on two campuses. Over the next few years the growth will continue to a maximum of 1560 students.

Idaho Arts Charter opened up in a rented space and with portables before moving to its current location on 5th St. N and remodeling the original Lakeview School. Lakeview was built in 1890 and was the first large school building in Nampa. IACS has added 2 additional wings to the building and updated it throughout.

An additional elementary building was built in 2015 about a mile away where the Broadmore Country Club and golf course used to be.

Broadmore Campus