Two new Tooele County School Board members took their seats on the board this week.
Lark Reynolds, Tooele County School District’s business administrator, conducted the oath of office for Camille Knudson and Melissa Rich during the school board’s meeting at the district office on Tuesday evening.
Knudson was elected to represent School Board District #5 and Rich to represent District #6 during last November’s election. Both live in Stansbury Park.
Knudson grew up in Sandy and Draper. She has lived in Tooele County for six years.
“I applied for the school board position when Matt Lawrence left, but I didn’t get it,” Knudson said. “I then applied for a job with the school district and worked for the last two and a half years as a career and technical education director assistant.”
Knudson said she resigned her position with the school district after winning the election in November.
“The school district is doing some great things for kids,” Knudson said. “I want to make sure the district remains positive and open and makes progress toward learning opportunities for all of our students.”
Knudson has three children in Tooele County School District schools: a freshman at Stansbury High School, a fourth-grade student in the German dual language immersion program at West Elementary, and a preschool student at Old Mill Elementary School.
Rich has lived in a variety of places since attending elementary school in Salt Lake City. Her places of residence have included Texas, back to Utah for college, Ohio, and Nevada, before returning to Utah where she and her husband settled down in Stansbury Park five and a half years ago.
Before deciding to stay at home to raise her family, Knudson taught at inner city schools in Salt Lake City and Houston.
“With my children at home I’m not at a place where I’m able to go back to teaching,” Rich said. “But with my experience as a teacher and having lived out of state, I thought I could contribute to education through the school board.”
Rich has six children in Tooele County School District schools: a high school junior and freshman, children in sixth, fourth, and third grades, and one in kindergarten.
“I love life and my passion is my family,” Rich said. “I’m in the thick of raising kids, and we’re all in this together and together we will get through this.”
Tooele County School Board District #5 includes Stansbury Park precincts 4, 5, and 7, which include the east end of Stansbury Park, the area around the lake, and the Old Mill area. Also included in District #5 are Grantsville precincts 1, 2 and 5 on the city’s north side, Ibapah, Wendover, and Lake Point.
District #6 includes the balance of Stansbury Park that is not included in School Board District #5 and east Erda.
