Olympia School Board Leadership Table
Olympia School Board Leadership Table

Olympia School Board Leadership Table

We asked members of the community to question why the board skipped the regular rotation of leadership. It came to our attention that Board President Scott Clifthorne was sharing a table of board leadership for the past 15 years, showing many shifts from the usual rotation of leadership, and said that Vice President Tourtellotte-Palumbo was chosen due to being the only person on the board that had not been in a leadership role.

To be clear, the precedent set by the school board in choosing board leadership is to

  • Defer to the ROTATION of districts 1 through 5
  • TIME served on the board prior to leadership appointment
  • Even REPRESENTATION of district leadership
  • Extenuating CIRCUMSTANCES, such as medical emergencies, directors stepping down mid-term, directors not seeking re-election

We felt this table was misleading, and did not explain why 4/5 of the board chose to skip over Director Flores’ appointment to vice president, and how this precedent will affect future appointments.

Below is the table that has been shared in context.

Director term start in parenthesis next to their first appearance in leadership. District numbers are color-coded
YEARPresidentVice PresidentConsideration
2010Frank Wilson, District 1 December 2007)Allen Miller, District 2 (2008 appointment)Rotation
2011Allen Miller, District 2Mark Campeau, District 5 (2008 appointment)Rotation, Time, Representation
2012Mark Campeau, District 5Eileen Thomson, District 3 (December 2009)Rotation
2013Eileen Thomson, District 3Justin Montermini, District 4 (December 2011)Rotation, Time, Representation
2014Frank Wilson, District 1Justin Montermini, District 4Rotation, Circumstances
2015Justin Montermini, District 4Allen Miller, District 2Rotation
2016Mark Campeau, District 5Eileen Thomson, District 3Rotation, Circumstances
2017Eileen Thomson, District 3Frank Wilson, District 1Rotation
2018Frank Wilson, District 1Joellen Wilhelm, District 2 (December 2015)Rotation, Time, Representation, Circumstances
2019Joellen Wilhelm, District 2Scott Clifthorne, District 5 (December 2017)Rotation, Time, Representation
2020Hilary Seidel, District 4 (2017 appointment)Scott Clifthorne, District 5Rotation, Circumstances
2021Scott Clifthorne, District 5Maria Flores, District 1 (December 2019)Rotation
2022Maria Flores, District 1Justin McKaughan, District 2 (December 2019)Darcy Huffman, District 3 (December 2021)Rotation, Time, Representation, Circumstances
2023Darcy Huffman, District 3Hilary Seidel, District 4Rotation
2024Hilary Seidel, District 4Scott Clifthorne, District 5Rotation
2025Scott Clifthorne, District 5Jess Tourtellotte-Palumbo, District 2 (December 2023)
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