Lynn in, Hill out on WSD board

WALLACE — Despite being voted in at a previous board meeting last month, Joe Hill will not be assuming the role of Wallace School District Zone 4 Trustee due in large part to a procedural violation. At the most recent meeting on March 7, the WSD trustees voted to not only vacate their previous decision to appoint Hill (a non-resident of the zone), but also approved former educator Amy Lynn to now step in.

Detailed at the beginning of the Monday meeting by WSD parent Kristen Krulitz Voorhees, the board acknowledged that they had unintentionally not followed the proper hiring procedures outlined in Idaho code.

“By now you have undoubtedly received my letters to the Superintendent with my deep concerns over the meeting violations, as well as procedural misconduct, and ethical violations as the board sought to review Title 33-504,” Voorhees said.

The statute that Vorhees references states:

“The board of trustees shall appoint to such vacancy a person qualified to serve as trustee of the school district provided there remains in membership on the board of trustees a majority of the membership thereof, and the board shall notify the state superintendent of public instruction of the appointment. Such appointment shall be made within ninety days of the declaration of vacancy. After 90 days, if the board is unable to appoint a trustee from the zone vacated, the board may appoint a person at-large.”

Prior to Vorhees’ impassioned speech, the board voted 3-0-1 to vacate the appointment of Hill, seemingly acknowledging the breach of code. Schoolboard chairwoman Anna Berger recused herself from the night’s discussion and votes regarding the new Zone 4 appointment to avoid a conflict of interests, due to her being Hill’s employer.

Following the public comments and vacation vote, the board turned their attention to filling the once again empty trustee position, this time looking at another applicant with teaching experience and that lives in the zone — Amy Lynn.

“We need to revisit the trustee appointment, and the portion that we failed to finish in its entirety at the last meeting,” said board trustee Amber Valley. “This is the portion where Molly Mcgee was going to make the motion for Amy (Lynn), and allow the motion to fail. That would be according to the people that Todd Howard spoke with in Boise. That is where we missed following all of our procedures. The motion should have been made, failed, and then the next motion made. We skipped that part.”

Howard further explained in an interview with the News-Press that the process of calling for a motion, then allowing it to receive no second, satisfies a board requirement that they must strongly consider trustee candidates that reside within the zones over those who do not.

After calling for the separate motions to appoint – one for Lynn by Mcgee and another for Hill by Valley – with neither receiving a second, the WSD trustees then held a discussion on revisiting the appointment.

Mcgee pointed out during this discussion that it was important to her that they appoint a trustee that resides in the zone.

“My original belief was that we should be appointing Amy,” she said. “I do feel as though we have the obligation to be appointing someone in-zone. I find education to be a higher qualifier than four years on the board. I still think that Joe is a qualified candidate. I do not think that this is in any way speaking to his ability to not perform his duties as a board member.”

After the discussion, board trustee Dan Hussey, in attendance over the phone, made a motion to appoint Amy Lynn with Mcgee seconding the motion.

“I would like to say that I hope Joe has no hard feelings about this,” Mcgee said after seconding the motion. “This is just about following the procedure of Idaho code, and wanting to stay within our guidelines. This is nothing about your character, or your ability to be a good board member.”

Hussey added, “it’s unfortunate that this got messed up along the way, but hopefully everyone will accept this decision.”

By a 3-0-1 vote, Lynn was then sworn in as the new trustee to join the board.

Lynn graduated from Wallace High School in 1979 and has always considered Wallace to be her home. Working in education for 33 years, she considers it to be the cornerstone to every community and very dear to her heart.

“I think my background as an educator gives me a unique skill set to bring to the board,” she said. “I am excited to take on this new challenge, learn from other board members, and make our schools the best in the state and beyond.”