David Wagers, president of the Idaho Candy Co., was elected to the Boise School Board on Monday night during a regularly scheduled meeting.
Wagers was away on a business trip in Seattle so he did not attend the meeting and was unable to be sworn in.
He was educated in Boise schools and he and his wife have four children who attend Boise schools. He has served the last eight years on the Anser Charter School Board.
Wagers was selected over five other finalists. The six trustees interviewed the six finalists last week so only voted on Monday. All the other five finalists were in the audience.
“We were extremely impressed with the qualifications and applications we received,” board president Nancy Gregory told the audience. “The screening process has been more rigorous than an election and it was a struggle for us to selected just one. We have ideas for involving many of these candidate for future work.”
Originally, 15 people had applied to serve out Joan Boren’s term on the board, which ends in 2016. Boren resigned on Oct. 31.
These were the six finalists:
- Nancy Baskin, a staff attorney with retiring U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge.
- Mike Lanza, who worked in 2012 as a spokesman for the campaign to overturn Propositions 1, 2 and 3, and worked in 2014 on A.J. Balukoff’s gubernatorial campaign.
- Wendy St. Michell, an independent contractor with the State Department of Education.
- Brian Scigliano, a member of the Idaho Public Charter School Commission.
- Lachelle Smith, local administrator for AmeriCorps VISTA and Senior Corps.
- David Wagers, president of Idaho Candy Co.
Boren resigned from the the seven-member board because, she said, it is “not an independent, governing body and instead serves at the pleasure of district administration. … I am no longer willing to be a part of a board that surrenders its responsibilities to provide oversight and governance on behalf of citizens and taxpayers.”
Her comments drew fire from several current and former trustees.
