BONNERS FERRY — The North Idaho Classical Academy announced Thursday, Dec. 11, that it has received a $50,000 grant from T-Mobile to help build a playground for its future campus. 

The announcement comes about a week after the charter school officially closed on the property where the school will be built, near the Boundary County Fairgrounds. 

The grant was awarded through Main Street America, a nonprofit organization that partners with T-Mobile to distribute Hometown Grants to small communities. 

North Idaho Classical Academy is scheduled to open for the 2026–’27 school year. Enrollment has already begun and 137 students have registered so far, according to Principal Jacob Francom. 

The school held a celebration Friday, Dec. 12, at the Boundary County Fairgrounds to mark the grant award. Two representatives from T-Mobile attended the event. 

“We applied about two or three months ago,” Francom said. “We heard back probably two weeks ago, but they told us we couldn’t announce anything until (Dec. 11).” 

Francom said the school was surprised and grateful to be selected. 

“We were really excited, really surprised that they selected Bonners Ferry as a place to focus their funds and then specifically the playground,” he said. 

Francom said the school had planned to include a playground from the beginning, but the grant will allow it to add higher-quality equipment. 

“Playgrounds are so expensive,” Francom said. “This grant will help us purchase key equipment and make a beautiful playground. It’s going to be tremendously helpful.” 

This is now the third major grant that NICA has received. 

“We have the charter school program grant for $2 million and then we had the Albertsons Foundation grant for $1.5 million. This grant is for $50,000 and they all support different areas.” 

“I think it's really exciting to be able to see that there's a lot of entities out there that are supporting communities and supporting schools and specifically supporting our type of school,” Francom said. “Grants are what really help a school to maintain what they need and supplement what they're doing. We had letters of support from several different entities.” 

The playground will be for several different age groups. 

“Part of the playground does have a court, basketball court,” Francom said. “It’s not just like a play area for primary age students, but it's for all grades to be active in.” 

It will not be the only area that students will use for recreation. 

“We're fortunate enough to be right next to the park and we'll utilize the park in appropriate means and be in communication with the park board to make sure that we're being good neighbors,” Francom said. 

Francom said that this award was recognition for Boundary County. 

“That's pretty cool for a small community like Boundary County to be able to receive this type of a grant and have that recognition from a big organization like T Mobile.” 

T-Mobile has donated grants up to $50,000 for 450 different projects since 2021, totaling $20 million. This appears to be the first hometown grant given to a city in North Idaho and Idaho’s fifth overall.