A former teacher and school administrator will fill the West Ada School District’s vacant Zone 2 seat starting next month.

Trustees in the state’s largest school district chose Lucas Bacaylon from a pool of four finalists during a special meeting Tuesday. Bacaylon, a former teacher and dean of academics at a school in Taiwan, replaces former trustee Amy Johnson, who announced her resignation in February, citing exhaustion and harassment during her time on the board.

Trustees interviewed Bacaylon and three other finalists — Jennifer Halladay, Katelyn Penney and Kevin Rank — Tuesday night. The board probed candidates’ views of a trustee’s role in the district, how they might handle board decisions that they don’t support and how they would deal with pushback from community members, students and teachers.

A trustee should be a representative of the community, Bacaylon stressed, adding that all opinions should be considered in the decision-making process. Bacaylon also cited his experience at a high-poverty school in Utah to stress that proper teacher methodology can trump budget constraints in schools.

“I would say that methodology, for the most part, is over finance,” said Bacaylon, whose children attend schools in the district.

Click here to watch Tuesday’s entire meeting. 

Trustee Angie Redford nominated Bacaylon after the round of questions, pointing to his experience in education. Bacaylon’s nomination was unanimous.