Newly elected Thurston County school board member resigns to join local police
The North Thurston Public Schools board of directors is in need of a new member to fill its District 2 seat.
That’s because candidate Tim Bullus, who won the seat in November, has decided to become a Chehalis police officer, he told The Olympian Tuesday night.
He alerted district officials about his decision late last year, but by then his name was already on the November ballot. One of those he alerted was Ray Nelson, president of the North Thurston Education Association — the union that represents teachers in the district — and Nelson shared what he learned on the association’s Facebook page on Oct. 9.
“A couple of weeks ago, NTPS School Board candidate for position 2 Tim Bullus, informed me that he has been accepted into the police academy in Chehalis,” said Nelson in his post. “This would mean he would likely miss many school board meetings from December through April. Tim cannot remove his name from the November ballot, and he told me that he “recommended putting all endorsements behind Jeremy (Ryan).”
Despite the recommendation, Bullus won the seat over Ryan with 59.6% of the vote, November general election results show.
After winning, Bullus told The Olympian he tried to make his schedule work, but finally decided it wouldn’t be fair to teachers, students and the board members. He currently is attending the state Police Academy in Burien.
Because of his decision, Bullus did not attend the Dec. 9 school board meeting and take the oath of office, he said.
He has submitted his letter of resignation to the district and now the board is expected to accept it at their next meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 13, school district spokeswoman Amy Blondin said Tuesday.
Blondin spelled out the likely timeline for filling the District 2 seat.
- 3 p.m. Feb. 27: Deadline for applications and nominations.
- March 3: Application and nomination screening.
- March 10: Interviews.
- March 24: Appointment and installation of new District 2 board member by vote of existing board members.
Bulllus and Ryan vied for the District 2 seat after incumbent Tiffany Sevruk chose not to run for re-election.
Letter of resignation
Tim Bullus’ resignation letter is attached to the school board materials for next week’s meeting. Here’s what it says:
“Please accept this letter as official notice of my inability to accept my nomination to the North Thurston school board after the 2025 election,” he writes.
“While I am honored and was hoping to make it work, the time required and the responsibilities of my new career in law enforcement, including the police Academy and my training schedule during my first year post Academy would make it almost impossible for me to consistently make meetings.
“I feel the role of director two is too important to not be able to commit the appropriate level of time to, and it would not be fair to the board, the superintendent nor the students.”
This story was originally published January 7, 2026 at 10:24 AM.
