ROAR Together: Building Idaho’s Future with Rural Communities North Fremont

North Fremont High School: A Legacy of Loyalty, Leadership, and Local Pride        

North Fremont High School: A Legacy of Loyalty, Leadership, and Local Pride

In Ashton, Idaho, education is not just a service, it is a promise. A promise passed down through generations. A promise honored daily in the halls of North Fremont Junior-Senior High School. For Principal Jarren Bean, a first-year leader and Idaho State University alumnus, stepping into this role has been more than a professional transition, it has been a deeply personal calling.

“This year has been wonderful. It’s been awesome,” Bean says. “The community, the kids, the faculty, the board... everyone’s been great.” But he knows that trust in small towns is not given lightly. “History is a hard barrier,” he reflects. “After COVID, there were three or four principals in a short time. You have to earn it. I have to sleep every night knowing I have set these kids up for success.”

Bean, once just two classes away from medical school, turned to education after tutoring in college and finding joy in teaching a class during an internship. “I came home and said to my wife, ‘Honey, how would you feel if we were poor?’” he recalls with a smile. That moment led both him and his wife into teaching, and now, into a leadership role where the mission is clear: build a stable, inspiring place where students and teachers thrive.

He also feels a sense of pride in this unique, dynamic community and the people who live in it. It’s a rural area with 320 students from grades 6-12, an integrative middle and high school. Bean exudes an intense energy, moving at a fast pace to meet the needs of a community that has a large geographic region with a lower population. Although North Fremont is separate from South Fremont, they are two schools within one district, and he wants them to be aligned and to share a vision as a district. The aim is to build on the foundation that residents have built and create a school that is deeply connected to the community on every level. This means a good deal of support and a strong sense of identity and purpose.

One of the principal instruments to achieve these ends is the Kandler Scholarship, set up as an endowment designed to be a scholarship fund. Bean notes that they have given out more than $1.8 million to students in the last decade. “I’ve never seen a local scholarship of that magnitude” Bean beams. It is awarded to graduating seniors and has a focused criteria and award system to ensure that students meet the requirements and intend on achieving their stated goals. The scholarship grants awards for either two years or four years of post-secondary education. Students can even reapply for an additional two years once they successfully complete the first two. This scholarship will also fund trade school programs, provided that students present their plans upon graduation. 

“The hope is that people will get an education and come back and contribute to the community,” Bean says. With a graduating class of 39 students, the support of the parents and community “is at another level” he says. He notes that the school is the heart of the community, no surprise in a rural location like this one.

As with other rural schools, a history of high turnover and difficulty retaining teachers is a constant obstacle to overcome. Bean explains that this can be done through continuity and consistency, and by creating a culture of quality teaching where people want to be. They also celebrate success and athletic achievements, including a school Instagram account with a Husky highlights page. 

With both sports and academics, Bean wants to create and develop structure and stability so that “it feels good to be here,” he says. His outlook on education is that “learning isn’t just about facts or obtaining information. It’s about learning how to learn, becoming a problem-solver and a critical thinker. That is what leads to success in the real world.” He also emphasizes respect and hard work as essential in discovering the best approach or finding a solution. “I have to sleep at night knowing that I did everything I could to help our students succeed,” Bean says. “I’m here to educate; you never stop being a teacher.” Thanks to dedicated professionals like him, parents and students can sleep better as they chart their futures together.

Behind the scenes, Bean is focused on culture. “I want this place to be a stable place for society,” he says. “I want kids and faculty to feel good about being here. My goal? Come spend an hour in my building and you are going to want to be here for the rest of your career.”

That vision aligns with the district’s broader “Vision of a Graduate,” crafted under Superintendent for Fremont County Joint School District #215, Dr. Brandon Farris’s leadership. A Fremont County graduate, Farris explains, is a critical thinker, an effective communicator, a problem solver, and a respectful, work-ready individual with strong social skills. “We are proud of our vision,” he says. “It reflects what we want to build across our schools.”

And while North and South Fremont may have a spirited rivalry, both schools are united under one mission. “We share a vision as a district, even though we are two different schools,” says Bean. “We are agriculture based. We are rooted in tradition. But we are also preparing kids for a changing world.”

That preparation includes honoring every path. Not every student will go to college. But every student, Bean says, “is going to have questions every day. If we teach them how to find the answers, how to problem solve, they are going to be successful.”

North Fremont is a place where that success is not measured just by test scores, but by confidence, connection, and character. “There is a hope,” Bean says, “that people will acquire education and skills and come back to Ashton, Idaho. There is a lot of opportunity here.”

With strong ties to Idaho State University, community-driven endowments, and a deep-seated pride in their past and future, North Fremont Junior-Senior High School stands not only as a school but as the heartbeat of Ashton, a place where students are noticed, teachers are trusted, and excellence is something everyone builds together.

About our contributors:

Md Masud Un Nabi “Shuvo” is pursuing a Doctor of Arts in Political Science at ISU. He holds an MA in Communication from ISU and both a Bachelor’s and Master’s in Mass Communication and Journalism from Khulna University, Bangladesh. With a background in journalism, he is passionate about storytelling that amplifies voices, informs communities, and inspires positive change, combining academic insight with practical experience to create meaningful content.

An accomplished English language editor, educator and author, Jason Kindree brings a diverse skill set to any project he is engaged in. He is a Research Fellow in the doctoral program in the Political Science Department at Idaho State University, with a focus on Global Security and US Foreign Policy. Prior to arriving at ISU, Jason spent time overseas in South Korea teaching English as a second language. He returned to the corporate sector as a senior English editor/writer and manager of special projects. He has experience as a business and government consultant, and in developing writing workshops and conceptual frameworks for scientific government agencies and writing business plans and proposals. He is currently working on various research projects and attending academic conferences with the aim of publishing in scholarly journals in his field.