McCowen, Dieu and Wallace take oath of office

DAYTON–Newly elected Dayton School Board members Jeffrey McCowen, Aneesha Dieu and Korinda Wallace took their oaths of office at the work session hybrid meeting on January 5.

McCowen had been previously appointed in July of last year to replace Katie Leid after she stepped down and he also ran for election to the position. Recently appointed Board Member Zac Fabian was also present in person and Grant Griffen was present by Zoom.

Following the swearing in, McCowen was voted in for the Chair and Griffen for the Vice-Chair positions. Other business was Executive Director of Washington State School Directors' Association Tim Garchow who informed the Board that WSSDA offers support to school board members statewide with leadership development and training as well as policy and legal resources. Weekly webinars are available for members providing this support including information about current State legislation about education.

Also, on the agenda was determining which board members would cover various positions, but it was tabled until the next regular meeting on January 19 to give time for the Board to review the different positions. McCowen made mention that some positions pose a conflict of interest for particular Board Members, so those positions would have to be filled by a member without a conflict.

The Board voted on the meeting format going forward and was unanimously in favor of holding hybrid meetings that can be attended both online and in-person.