Hilary Foster is the newest member of the Newton School Board

Hilary Foster was practically a school board member already before she began her campaign. She stayed awake through hour-long presentations, withstood information dump after information dump until just before midnight and remained engaged with the latest issues affecting the school district.

To her, it is important to stay informed.

“I felt invested after the fiscal realignment,” Foster said in a phone interview with Newton News on Election Night. “If you’re not involved, you shouldn’t complain.”

Election results show it is now official: Foster is the newest member of the Newton School Board. She and fellow school board candidates ran uncontested. Foster earned 996 votes. Robyn Friedman earned 1,012 votes, Travis Padget earned 1,009 votes and Ray Whipple earned 973 votes.

Foster will fill the seat currently occupied by Cody Muhs, who was appointed to the school board following the resignation of Liz Hammerly in April 2024. Unlike the Newton City Council or other school boards like Colfax-Mingo, the Newton School Board does not have wards for specific areas of the district.

As a citizen, Foster was frequently engaging with board members and asking the questions on the latest issues. Now that she will be serving on the school board, she hopes to continue asking the hard questions as an elected official and making sure people in the community feel heard.

“Taxpayers deserve answers and they deserve an informed board making data-driven decisions, so I look forward to that,” Foster said.