To celebrate School Board Recognition Month in January, we are highlighting our school board members. Meet Board Member Jill Pace: 

If you work outside the home, where do you work?
I am a real estate agent with Hearthstone Real Estate.

What is your connection to the Pendleton School District?
I am a proud district alum, Pendleton High School Class of 2000; both of my parents taught in the district for many years; two of my three children have graduated from PHS, the third is a current PHS sophomore; I taught sixth grade at Sunridge Middle School for two years.

Why do you serve on the School Board?
I serve to help promote communication between the school district and the Pendleton community. Often, all someone hears about what is happening in the schools is negative. I want to be able to share the many positive things that happen every day in the district. As a former teacher, I understand the challenges that teachers face every day. I want to be a support for the teachers to the School Board. 

What is one thing you love about Pendleton schools or the Pendleton community?
I love the commitment and dedication of the staff. From the administrators to the teachers, the paraprofessionals, the maintenance team – everyone is committed to helping the students who come through the doors feel seen, supported, and cared for. 

To celebrate School Board Recognition Month in January, we are highlighting our school board members. Meet Board Chair Beth Harrison:

If you work outside the home, where do you work?
My primary work is as a mother and community volunteer, but I also work at Harrison Family Medicine doing some billing and back-office work.

What is your connection to the Pendleton School District?
Since moving to Pendleton in 2009, I have had children enrolled in the Pendleton School District — generally at multiple schools. I have volunteered in many classrooms and chaperoned elementary field trips and high school trips for the jazz band and orchestra and attended sporting events.

Why do you serve on the School Board?
I began volunteering in classrooms to be informed about my own children’s experiences and to support their teachers, but after seeing their classmates and interacting with so many students and families throughout the district, I now serve on the school board to advocate for all those students and to support the wonderful teachers and leaders we have in our district. Quality schools that teach real skills to the youth in our community are vital to the success of Pendleton’s future.

What is one thing you love about Pendleton schools or the Pendleton community?
I love the dedicated teachers who show up to a really hard job every day because they love their students and are committed to connecting with them and teaching and preparing them for their future.

Teaching requires a broader and more creative set of skills than it did just 10 years ago. I love the teachers, counselors, and administrators who are willing to learn and adapt and figure out how to connect with the amazing, resilient, and often complex students we have in our schools today.