Trimmer to fill vacancy on school board

PALMER — A local business owner has been selected to fill a school board seat vacated by a relocating member, school officials said Monday.

Kelsey Trimmer was selected to fill a position vacated Jan. 21 by Tiffany Scott, who resigned from the school board Jan. 21 after her husband took a job in Kotzebue. Trimmer owns and operates the waste removal company A2 Septic, which operates in both Palmer and Wasilla, according to the company website.

A desire to serve the community led Trimmer to consider joining the school board. Trimmer is married to wife Stephanie, and has a stepson, Mykal Nelson, 14, enrolled at Colony Middle School. His son, Kristian, is slightly over a year old and a prospective student, Trimmer said.

Trimmer’s first board meeting after taking office will be April 1.

“I just happened to find the vacancy,” he said. “I’ve been getting more involved in the community,” he said. “My family has been in education for years as teachers, and different things. That was kind of a natural way to go.”

Trimmer, a native Texan, moved to the Valley from Eagle River in 2007, and arrived in Alaska via Colorado in 2004, he said.

The interview process was challenging, Trimmer said.

“It wasn’t really an interview,” he said. “It was a five-minute presentation on why I can contribute to the school board. It was kind of an open-type deal. It was one of the more stressful things I’ve gone through.”

The vote’s numerical tally won’t be known for some weeks because of a secret ballot system for appointments designed to minimize political strife for incoming school board members, said school board president Susan Pougher, who also said she voted for Trimmer. A simple majority, or four votes, were required, Pougher said.

She listed Trimmer’s youth relative to the other school board members, his position as a parent, and his business experience among the reasons she voted for him.

“He was a person with a child in the school,” she said. “He was a little bit younger than the rest of the board. We tend to be middle-aged on the board.”

However, the most important factor may have been Trimmer’s desire to serve.

“He didn’t seem to have any preconceived agenda,” she said. “It seemed like he was genuinely concerned about education. He didn’t seem to have other political aspirations. It didn’t look like he was running for the board as a stepping stone to something else.”

Numerous Valley delegates to the Legislature started out as school board members, Pougher pointed out.

“We’d like to school board members to be people who are genuinely interested in education, or at least that’s the way I think about it,” she said. “I obviously can’t speak for the other board members.”

In all, 10 applicants filed for membership, four withdrew, and the board interviewed the remaining six candidates, Pougher said. In the original time frame for the applications, only two applicants — both with previous connections to the school board — applied, Pougher added. Board officials held the position open slightly longer to garner more interest (a borough assembly seat came open about the same time), Pougher said.

Board members eventually winnowed the list down to three candidates, she added.

“I was really pleased with the top three,” she said. “They are really great candidates. They put a lot of time and thought into their applications.”

All 11 were formidable candidates, Pougher added.

“Any one of them could have made a great school board member,” she said.

Contact Brian O’Connor at 352-2269, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.