Idaho Arts Charter School
Heather Best - General Music and Choir Teacher

My name is Heather Best and I am excited to be the General Music and Choir teacher for IACS.  As an Idaho native, when my husband and I moved back from living in Arkansas, I was thrilled to learn of the increasing support for the arts in the Treasure Valley. I had been attending BSU to add a teaching certificate to my music degree when I first learned about Idaho Arts Charter. I immediately began attending board meetings and became a founder. I knew almost instantly that this was the school I wanted to teach for. I also knew that my competition for a job would be substantial, so up until the day I was offered a job I tried very hard not to get my hopes up. I am so excited about what we at IACS have to offer our students. I know that the arts are an integral part of the human experience, and I firmly believe that through them our students will enjoy a rich and successful learning experience. Not only that, our community will benefit from a highly educated, thinking population of young people who appreciate the arts as a part of their daily lives.

I started making music as a very young child. I knew early on that I loved to sing, and I took every opportunity to do so. I also took piano lessons from the age of eight. Fortunately when I graduated from high school I knew without question what I should study, and I began a Music Education degree at BSU.  Shortly after my husband and I were married we sold all of our belongings and bought a 1964 Oasis travel trailer and a book called "free campgrounds of the USA". We then set off on an eight month adventure that would lead us all over the U.S.A. We learned a great deal about each other and this magnificent country. We finally settled in Arkansas where I decided to finish my degree. While we were there I taught private piano and voice lessons as well as music for K-5 at a private school. After our daughter, Hadley Grace, was born in 2002 we decided it was time to move back home. We now live in Nampa in a home built in 1905, which my husband has painstakingly re-furbished. 

When we are not working on our home we also love to garden, refinish antiques, read, travel (especially to the ocean), spend time outdoors hiking, biking and camping or whatever we can find to do as a family.

I am ecstatic to be a part of something so magnificent! I know that we will all work together to create a school we can be truly proud of.