In a split vote, the Tulsa School Board appointed Jania Wester to the board last week.

Wester formerly was a principal at Zarrow International School, is Hispanic and now represents District 2 in which 40 percent of the public school students are Hispanic. That district is in the north/central part of Tulsa.

Board member Jennettie Marshall voted against Wester because of a perceived conflict of interest and board member Gary Percefull abstained also due to concerns about conflicts of interest.

Wester is the director of Communities in Schools of Mid-America, a nonprofit that works with TPS to prevent dropouts. Her husband, Kirk Wester, is the director of Growing Together, another organization that does work with TPS.

Growing Together paid for trip to a conference to Atlanta for Percefull and Marshall. Growing Together reportedly gets no money from TPS or the Foundation for Tulsa Schools and neither does Communities in Schools of Mid-America.

A lawyer told TPS that Wester was qualified for the position under state law but that doesn’t apply to conflicts of interest. That spot came open when previous board member Amy Shelton quit.