At a Wasatch County School District board meeting Tuesday, seven candidates sat down for interviews with the board, hopeful to be chosen for the vacant Seat D. In a 3-1 vote, Jake Collett was appointed to the position.
Collett will be sworn in Wednesday evening.
Seat D was held by Tyler Bluth, the school board president until his resignation Jan. 28. Citing rising housing costs in the Heber Valley, Bluth attributed his resignation to an ill-timed move out of his district. Bluth’s resignation was effective Tuesday.
Kim Dickerson, who was voted school board president upon Bluth’s departure, said that Utah School Board Association policies in place allowed them to vote in a new school board member for Seat D that day. All seven interviews took place Tuesday night, and the board discussed their qualifications in a public conversation following the interviews.
The vote was split down the middle. First, with two votes for and two votes against Craig Chambers, who has a background as a prosecutor. After further discussion, a 3-1 vote was cast for Collett with Cory Holmes voting no.
Each interviewee faced questions about their motivation for applying for the open seat, the Wasatch County School District’s biggest strength, and the effectiveness of board’s goals. With a background in business, Collett said that he puts an emphasis on community engagement and communication.
“My job is to come in and make sure that all of the problems, the issues and the goals are on the table and addressed so they can be clearly and effectively managed and worked through,” Collett said. “I’m a glorified problem solver, and I love that I get to do that for a living.”
Collett said that he has four kids, three who attend school in the Wasatch County School District. One of the topics Collett said he is passionate about is the challenge of incorporating a new high school into the district.
“There are two high schools,” Collett said. “So now, how do we try to foster as much open communication as possible, allow people to be heard, then make the best decisions.”
Collett said that he “absolutely would” seek reelection if he was chosen to occupy Seat D. As a replacement for Bluth, Collett’s term will last until 2026.
Both school board members Dickerson and Breanne Dedrickson said they valued candidates like Collett and Charles Balch — who also came from a financial and business background — and emphasized the importance of communication.
Holmes, the board vice president, admitted the entire situation was “awkward.”
“I’ve been impressed with many of you … most of you. I don’t have anything negative to say about any of you,” Holmes said. “Any one of you can win this seat in two years.”
“This is new to all of us,” Dickerson added.
Dickerson emphasized before the meeting that the process followed by the board came from the Utah School Board Association. While Dickerson said she has not been a part of a process in which a candidate is voted in versus elected in, she said the board’s focus was on transparency. Each of the candidates’ letters of intent were posted on the Wasatch County School District website, as well as the questionnaires each candidate received and answered.
During the evening, conflict of interest turned up as a recurring topic. One candidate, Daniel Dahl, rescinded his application during the interview process. As a former employee in the district, Dahl said that he was receiving comments that suggested “some insurmountable conflict of interest exists.”
Holmes and Dickerson both pushed for the appointment of Balch despite board members Dedrickson and Bradley Ehlert opposing due to suggested conflict of interest. Balch, who works in finance for Zions Bank, addressed supposed issues of conflict during his interview. While Zions Bank conducts business with Wasatch County School District, Balch explained that he would have and has had no part in those discussions.
Holmes, school board vice president, is also an employee of Zions Bank.
Collett, who had no apparent conflict of interest with the school board, was agreed upon as a close second to each board member’s first choice.
“If there’s not going to be a consensus, then maybe we don’t get our first choice,” Dedrickson said after the first failed motion, adding that she had received community comments with concerns about the appointment of Dahl and Balch. “There’s enough coming from the community that I want to listen.”
Holmes and Dickerson, who were in favor of Balch, said that they believed conflict of interest was not an issue. Still, each board member agreed that Collett would improve the district’s communication with the Wasatch County community.
“This is the least controversial,” Dedrickson said. “And the compromise for all of our different opinions.”