Board selects new trustee

Tyler Martineau
Posted 10/28/21

The Goshen County School District Board appointed Sarah Chaires to fill the vacant trustee position.

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Board selects new trustee

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TORRINGTON – The Goshen County School District Board appointed Sarah Chaires to fill the vacant trustee position. 

Branc Barnum, Justin Hurley, Jeff McClun, Wade Phipps, Dustin Ricker, and Chaires were interviewed by the board on Tuesday during executive session. Interviews lasted about 10-15 minutes each. 

After the final interview, the board moved out of executive session and the board approved the motion to appoint Chaires as the new trustee. 

According to Chairman Zach Miller, Chaires needed to leave the meeting early and they planned to call her to let her now she was selected. 

After the meeting, Miller thanked all of the candidates for applying.

“We appreciate all of the candidates that came out this evening and put their time and effort into this,” Miller said. It’s not a small thing to consider even applying for a trustee position and so the fact that they made that commitment I appreciate all of the engagement this evening.”

Miller also said they selected Chaires because she is a good fit for the board.  

We selected [Chaires] because we felt her qualifications matched the needs of the board at this time,” Miller said.  

After finding she had been appointed to fill the vacant board position, Chaires said she was happy to start her new role. 

“I’m very excited to serve our schools and our community its a wonderful opportunity,” Chaires said. I care very deeply about our community and our kids and our education system and serving on the school board [is] a good way for me to give back.” 

Chaires also said she doesn’t have any specific issues to focus on as a board member, but is just ready to work with the rest of the trustees. 

“I am just hoping to work with the other board members to make decisions to make our schools as successful as they can be for our kids and the staff working in our district, and whatever issues come up,” Chaires said.  

The board’s meeting on Thursday, Oct. 28 was set to discuss reversing the mask mandate policy in the district, and is also when Chaires will be officially sworn in. Chaires said there is a lot of pressure for her first meeting, but she knows how she will vote. 

“It’s a pretty intense first board meeting to be a part of, but my daughter actually started school this year… and so I’ve been putting a lot of thought into all of it,” Chaires said. “I’ve been kind of preparing myself for that since school started, and I do know how I’m going to vote and handle that situation.” 

The board meeting was set to take place in the Torrington High School Auditorium at 6 p.m.