Gov. Gary Herbert has appointed new members to the Utah State Board of Education, the Utah Board of Regents and the Utah System of Technical Colleges.
Michael Hayes will represent District 11, which includes South Jordan, Riverton and Herriman. Hayes previously served on the Jordan Education Foundation Board. He is currently the owner of Source It, LLC, and the executive director of TrueNorth Wealth Retirement.
Herbert appointed Mark Marsh to represent District 12, which includes Summit, Uintah, Wasatch, Duchesne and Daggett counties, and a portion of Utah County. Marsh has served on the North Summit Board of Education in Coalville since 2004. He’s been the board president since 2011. One of the most pressing needs he sees in Utah’s public education system is improving pre-K through 3rd grade literacy.
“I’m a firm believer of, if you know how to read, you can pretty well teach yourself any subject,” Marsh said.
Marsh said he’s also concerned with the statewide teacher shortage that North Summit School District just recently began experiencing, he said. And as Utah continues to rank as the worst in the nation for per-pupil spending, Marsh said it couldn’t hurt to pump a little bit more into Utah’s education system to improve educational equity across all schools.
“We work with what we are given and do the best we can,” Marsh said.
Hayes and Marsh are replacing Lisa Cummins and Alisa Ellis who resigned from the Utah State Board of Education because they are moving out of the state. Hayes and Marsh’s terms will end December 31, 2020.
Herbert appointed Alan Hall and Lisa-Michele Church to serve on the Utah State Board of Regents. Church was former head of the state Department of Human Services.
Hall founded companies like Grow Utah Venture, MarketStar Corp. and is the chairman of the Utah Technology Council.
University of Utah student Sheva Mozafari will serve a one-year term as the board’s student regent. The previous student regent, Ja’Kell Larson, was also a University of Utah student.
Herbert also appointed three new members of the Utah System of Technical College’s Board of Trustees. They include: Brett Barton, the new life science sector representative, Jera Bailey, the new health care sector representative, and Stacey K. Bettridge, the new transportation sector representative.
“I look forward to continued collaboration with our Board of Education, Board of Trustees and Board of Regents as we work to provide Utah’s students the best education possible,” Herbert said in a statement.
The appointments need to be confirmed by the Utah Senate to be finalized.