Argeris unanimous choice for District 1 superintendent

WORLAND – After having public forums for each of the three superintendent candidates, the

Washakie County School Board District No. 1 announced their unanimous decision on Friday, March 4, that Tawn Argeris out of Buckeye, Arizona, will replace outgoing Superintendent David Nicholas.

The school board held their meeting following up the public forums on Wednesday, March 2. Tawn Argeris’ brother Brett Argeris recused himself from any discussion and participation in the search once Tawn Argeris applied for the position, according to school board chairman David Tommerup.

When contacted about being hired as the new superintendent, Argeris said on Monday, “I’m excited to serve the students, teachers and community. Something I believe is very important is our children’s education.”

Argeris, who was born and raised in Worland and graduated from Worland High School, has signed his contract and “everything is a go” for him to start on July 1, according to Tommerup. He added that Argeris has a choice of spending time in June with Nicholas. He said Argeris likely plans to do this so he can familiarize himself with the district better.

According to Tommerup, they did not fly out to Arizona to speak with Argeris’ current school district due to him providing a number of references with his resume. Tommerup explained that because of this, they felt it unnecessary to go down to Arizona to investigate any further. As part of the overall process the board had planned to send two members to the candidate’s district to get more information.

Tommerup explained that some determining factors in choosing Argeris over the other two candidates were that he has, “lots of energy and lots of knowledge, and has people management skills.” He added, “He was also very up to speed with various problems that our school district is facing.”

According to Argeris’ resume, he is has been the principal of Liberty High School in Peoria, Arizona, since 2017. During his time as principal, he has increased the state label from a “B” to an “A” and maintained that label for five years.

Prior to his position at Liberty High School, Argeris was a principal at Buckeye Union High School from 2007 to 2017. He increased the state label from a “C” to an “A” in three years and maintained the “A” label for seven years. He also increased designation from “under-performing” to “highly-performing”, implemented the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program and increased students’ interest in the fine arts program. Previously, he has been an assistant principal, instructional coach and history teacher.

Argeris was also a 2015 semi-finalist for the Rodel Exemplary Principal for the State of Arizona.

When asked during the public forum why he was interested in the position, Argeris said, “because it opened. I wasn’t planning on it and it opened up. There is a lot of parts I don’t know about being a superintendent,” including the board-superintendent relationships. He added, “But after thinking about, I realized the story was going to be the same when I leave, we need to treat people with respect and dignity, we need to work hard and we need to take care of our kids and our teachers and our employees.”

Argeris said during the forum that his leadership style is a collaborative style noting that the best decisions are made when multiple people are involved in making it. “Sometimes I need to be the boss and other times I have to let someone else be the boss.”

During the forum, Argeris also added that people don’t remember the curriculum but they remember teachers and they remember the relationships they made in school. “We’re going to teach curriculum because that’s what we’re designed to do. We’re going to help our kids to be better readers, writers, speakers and thinkers.” He added, “We do that through our own curriculum. The real down to earth piece is we have to build relationships.”

He said a district can’t allow a weak curriculum that does not prepare students for the outside world.

“We’re really excited to have him on board,” Tommerup said. “He’s going to be a great fit for our district.”