Members of the Battle Ground School District Board of Directors voted during their Dec. 12 school board meeting to elect John Idsinga as the new board president. Member Monty Anderson was elected to take over as vice president for Idsinga.
During the meeting, Idsinga first nominated Steve Pagel, who has been the school board president for the past two years, for the position. However, Pagel said he wanted to respectfully decline, as he said that he is a firm believer in term limits and different leadership. Pagel then nominated Idsinga for the position and board members voted unanimously to make him president.
Mavis Nickels then nominated Anderson for vice president and the board members unanimously voted him in as vice president.
Idsinga and Anderson were first elected to the school board in 2009. Idsinga, 67, is a Battle Ground real estate consultant and is also a former mayor of Battle Ground and is the current president of the North County Community Food Bank. He was selected as Battle Ground Citizen of the Year in 1997.
“Thank you for your confidence,” Idsinga said after he was elected as board president. “I will do my best to uphold the practices of this district and put the kids first.”
Anderson, 44, will take over as vice president on the school board. He currently works as a controller for Tapani Underground, Inc.
Also during the Dec. 12 school board meeting, board members Ken Root and Mavis Nickels were administered the oath of office for new four-year terms. Nickels and Root were appointed to their positions last spring to fill board vacancies and won election to full terms during the election this November.
In other action during the meeting, school board members voted to tweak the boundaries of the director districts in which each must reside. Redrawing of the five districts that compose the overall Battle Ground School District was required by law to make the districts nearly equal in population following the 2010 census. This change has no effect on where students go to school.
