Sean C. Morgan
The Sweet Home School Board has appointed Jenny Daniels to a vacancy left by Ben Emmert.
Emmert is moving to Nebraska where his wife, Amanda, is serving her residency as a psychiatrist. She just graduated from COMP-Northwest in Lebanon. He had worked for Cascade Timber Consulting.
Emmert succeeded Daniels representing the Liberty area after she declined to run for office again. He did not file but entered the race late as a write-in candidate, winning the office in May 2017. He took office July 1.
Daniels will serve until June 30, 2019. The district will hold an election in May to complete the final two years of the term. The winner of that election takes office on July 1, 2019.
When she left the board, “I wasn’t ready to step down, per se, but I wasn’t ready to commit for four years,” Daniels said. Working at CTC, where board Chairman Mike Reynolds also is employed, she was aware that Emmert was interested in running for the seat. She decided not to run.
At this point, she is looking at a one-year commitment, she said, adding that at this point, she doesn’t plan to file for election next year.
She said she enjoyed serving on the board, and she might have gone ahead and filed for office if it were for a two-year term.
“My plan is to get people in the Liberty area interested and find a good, solid replacement,” Daniels said. She noted that the area has a relatively small area to draw from, and it doesn’t have a large number of smaller children.
“Some go to the Charter School (located in the old Liberty School), but it does seem like new families are moving in,” Daniels said.
When she decided to leave the board, the district was not in the middle of anything controversial, Daniels said. Things were running smoothly, and she was comfortable that the district was in good hands.
She was involved in hiring Supt. Tom Yahraes, and she supported returning the district to a five-day school week. All of that decision-making was complete by the time she left office last year.
The four-day week was never intended to be permanent, Daniels said. The switch to that schedule was an economic decision, and she thinks the return to a five-day week is going to contribute to academic improvement in the district, she said.
“We can already see that attendance has been improving,” Daniels said. It’s hard to say if it’s correlated, “but it’s definitely a move in the right direction. I just want to continue to see improvements.
Last year looked like it’s moving the right direction. I’ll be excited to see what the test scores will be in the next couple of years.”
Daniels said she’s optimistic that improvements will happen..
Daniels ran for office and was elected in May 2009 after Police Chief Jeff Lynn chose not to run again. She served two terms.