Warden School Board fills vacant seat

WARDEN — During their April 25 meeting, the Warden School Board approved the appointment of Tiffany Hymas to board position 2, which has been vacant since January after former board member Dave Whitney left the position. Hymas will serve the remainder of the term, through 2025.

Warden School District Superintendent Scott West said there have been three applicants in the four months the district has been looking to fill the position.

“One applicant didn't meet the criteria, (which) is having to live in the boundary established residence within the district 2 position, so we communicated with that individual,” West said. “About a month and a half or two months ago, there was a special board meeting to interview one of the candidates, and the board at the time just didn’t feel like that one was a good fit. Then this last one, when Tiffany was interviewed, she was the only candidate for that.”

West said the board is happy to have Hymas join the board.

“The board feels like she's a good fit. She's part of the community and she's investing in the community,” he said. “She has kids coming through the program and the system and she spends a lot of time at the school, so she's highly educated on the day-to-day stuff that happens within the Warden School District.”

The next step is onboarding and training, West said.

“When we bring on new board members — we have had a couple of new board members in the last year — we want to make sure that we do appropriate onboarding,” he said. “So we'll be doing some professional development and trainings with the board and myself.”

According to West, he and the other board members are excited to finally have a full roster again.

“Overall, (we’re) pleased that we had someone willing and able to be part of the school board," he said. “Those positions are hard to fill at times.”

With only four board members while the position was vacant, West said split decisions could have been complicated.

“That position was open for a lengthy amount of time, beyond the 90-day (standard), and if, for some reason, there was a split vote at the board level, a two-to-two vote, then we would have had to rely on the (Educational Service District) to come in and help provide some assistance,” he said. “We're pleased that our board feels the same about most of the topics that we addressed, so we didn't have any split votes on any policies or other items.”

Warden School District, along with most of Grant County, is part of Washington Educational Service District 171, also known as the North Central Educational Service District, based in Wenatchee.

West detailed what he believes Hymas will bring to the table during her time as a board member.

“Her experience and understanding of the town and the community,” he said. “She has kids in our system, and just that commitment and dedication to the district are things that we need to have from our school board, and we have that from Tiffany Hymas.”

After being approved for the board position, Hymas was sworn in during the same meeting.

Gabriel Davis may be reached at gdavis@columbiabasinherald.com.