The University of Idaho is scheduled to update the Idaho State Board of Education on plans to open a law school branch in Boise. The board was hesitant in April to approve a two-location concept for the Moscow-based school. Trustees instead passed a motion allowing the university to draft implementation plans for the project. College of Law Dean Don Burnett says those plans will likely be finished in July. The university will report to trustees in eastern Idaho this week. Trustees have asked that the plans show expanding legal education in the state’s capital city won’t harm programs on the university campus in northern Idaho. The state constitution requires legal education to be based in Moscow.

Meanwhile, the Coeur d’Alene City Council has signaled its readiness to sign a $1.3 million lease that would keep the University of Idaho in the north Idaho resort town for nearly 200 years. The lease agreement is slated to be considered by the Idaho State Board of Education for approval at a meeting this week in Idaho Falls. If approved, the pact also would give the university the right to 2.5 acres next to North Idaho College that are currently part of a lumber mill that’s due to be shuttered and vacated. The leases are all part of efforts to create a controversial higher education corridor in Coeur d’Alene. Some in Coeur d’Alene including businessman Duane Hagadone have fought the plan, saying they’d rather see the land privatized to boost tax revenue. (AP)