Newly elected officials on the Haxtun Board of Education took their oath of office in an early morning meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 5. The Board held their annual re-organization meeting following the oaths of office and later in the week, the entire local Board of Education traveled to Colorado Springs to attend the annual Colorado Association of School Board conference.

Ross Edwards, Trever Fix, Amy Kilgour, Lee Salyards and Val Wilson all took their oaths of office to serve the local school district last week. The five were elected to serve following elections in November. They join members ChristiAnne Gibson and Dean Michael to complete the seven member board that oversees the Haxtun School District.

Following oaths, board members voted to elect offices of president, vice president, secretary and treasurer. The Board also made various committee appointments. The Board elected Kilgour to remain at the head of the table as President. The incumbent has served as President of the Board for the past year. Gibson was elected as Vice President while Michael will serve as Secretary and Edwards will be the Treasurer.

The following committee appointments were also made: BOCES Board, Salyards; Chamber Committee, Edwards; CASB Delegate, Gibson; Accountability Committee, Kilgour and Edwards; Scholarship Committee, Michael; Haxtun Education Foundation, Wilson; and Safety Committee, Fix.

Later in the week, board members attended the CASB Conference. Throughout the conference, board members held a retreat to discuss core beliefs, District mission, vision and graduate profile, superintendent's and board of education roles, superintendent's evaluation tool, communication guidelines, polices, leaderships and other scenarios.

Board members attended conferences and session on topics including school finance, legal, policy, AI in education, neurodivergence, CHSAA and new board sessions. Key speakers included Liz Murray with Homeless to Harvard and Alex Sheen with Because I said I would.