2 Richland school vacancies attract 9 applicants. Here’s the plan to narrow the field
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Richland School Board Recall Effort
A high-profile group of voters filed to recall board members Semi Bird, Audra Byrd and Kari Williams after their controversial vote to make face masks optional.
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The Richland School Board will interview all nine candidates who recently applied to fill two vacancies created by a successful recall election.
The decision was made at Tuesday night’s meeting. The district accepted applications for a week, Sept. 1-8.
“It gives the community an opportunity to see what we’ve seen,” said board Vice President Jill Oldson. She added that it would also give the district “value and feedback” to hear from everyone.
Time is ticking for the Richland School Board, which has until Nov. 13 to fill the two seats, under Washington state law. But the board says it plans to fill the vacancies quicker so that they can be present for the Sept. 26 regular meeting.
All nine candidates will be interviewed at a public meeting at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 20.
After interviews, the three-member school board will recess into executive session before returning publicly to make two appointments.
Here are the candidates who applied to fill Position No. 1, formerly held by Audra Byrd:
- Ron Higgins
- Heather Cleary
- Bonnie Mitchell
- Tony Gonzalez
Whoever is selected to fill that position will serve out the rest of Byrd’s term, which is about two years.
Here are the candidates who applied to fill Position No. 4, the seat formerly held by Kari Williams:
- Gary Wargo
- Jeffrey Dennison
- Richard Raymond
- Katrina Waters
- Brianna Watson
Whoever is selected to fill the position will serve until the November general election is certified on Nov. 28.
Board member Lindsay Lightner — who was appointed by the Educational Service District 123 board on Aug. 29 to fill out the rest of Semi Bird’s term — called Oldson’s proposal to interview all the candidates a “refreshing approach.”
“I was really impressed with the dedication that each person took in filling out this application,” Lightner said. “Clearly everybody has a passion, everybody has different things to bring to the table. And I really think that getting to talk with them would help us see not only those individual qualities, but it would help the community to see that as well.”
Bird, Byrd and Williams were removed from office by Aug. 1 primary voters over recall charges that they violated the Washington Open Public Meetings Act, knowingly violated state law and broke district policies when they voted in February 2022 to make COVID face masks optional.
Their vote put the school district in financial and legal jeopardy, and forced district administrators to close school for two days for their 14,000 students.
Bird, who was Richland’s first Black school board member, says he will run for governor as a Republican in 2024.
Meanwhile, Williams hopes to win back her seat in the Nov. 7 general election. She will face off against scientist Katrina Waters.
