Sean C. Morgan
After nearly two decades of teaching, Marybeth Angulo is ready for a new direction in her off time, and she’s looking forward to taking office as Sweet Home’s new city councilor at the beginning of the year.
Eric Markell’s last day as a councilor is Dec. 31. Angulo takes office on Jan. 1 and will be sworn in at the council’s regular meeting on Jan. 11.
Angulo received the fourth largest number of votes for councilor in November and will serve a two-year term. Markell did not run, choosing to step down at the end of his term.
Angulo grew up in Sweet Home. She was a 1985 graduate of South Salem High School. She graduated from Western Oregon State College (now Western Oregon University) in 1989 with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education.
She started out with an interest in psychology, but that program led her to education, she said. She worked as a substitute in the Salem-Keizer School District and for smaller districts around Marion County for a year.
After that, Angulo went to work at Hawthorne Elementary School for a year and then spent three years at Holley Elementary School. She moved to Oak Heights Elementary School, where she has been ever since. She has taught grades one through three.
While teaching, she continued her own education, graduating this year from Portland State University with a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction.
Angulo enjoys the small Sweet Home community, she said. “I like the atmosphere, and I like the people. You make friends, it’s kind of hard to leave.”
No longer busy working on her master’s degree, she thought about running for City Council.
“I like to stay busy,” she said. “I read about the opening.”
While at WOSC, she was involved in the student government, she said, and thought government might be a way for her to be a part of the community.
“It’s just something different,” Angulo said. She wanted to see what might happen. “When I got the phone call, I really was amazed.”
She believes she has qualities important to being a councilor.
“I’m good at listening to both sides and trying to make an educated decision or choice, just basically finding out what the issues are and make the best choices, hopefully, in the best interests of the town,” Angulo said.
She thinks the city has been headed in the right direction recently, she said. She supports the efforts to repair the city’s sewer system.
Keeping costs down is important, she said, “but not at the expense of doing it right.”
She praises the community and city’s efforts to improve the appearance of Sweet Home.
“They’ve done a beautiful job of making improvements, with the flowers and the banners,” Angulo said. “It makes it really welcoming.”
While everything can be improved, she approves of the city’s direction with economic development, she said.
Angulo doesn’t have a particular goal she said, but homelessness has been on her mind recently, and she would like to see the city get involved in addressing it.
It seems like a growing number of students are considered homeless in recent years, she said. “It just makes me sad.”
And she thinks something can be done, especially when the weather’s cold, Angulo said. The community is already headed the right way, with the Sweet Home Emergency Ministries Manna dinner three nights a week; but she thinks the community and the city may be able to do more, maybe developing a center or a shelter.
“It’s going to be interesting,” Angulo said. “I’m looking forward to it. I think it’ll be a good experience.”
Angulo, 43, is married to Pedro Angulo. She has three stepchildren, Mauro, 26; Pedro, 24; and Miguel, 22. She has two grandchildren, Selena, 5, and Uriah, 1.
She attends First Baptist Church.
She is part of her school’s Data Team, part of the new Professional Learning Communities program, and the Positive Behavior System.
She has served on the Oak Heights Site Council. When she moved to Sweet Home, she sang for a few years with the Singing Christmas Tree. She also served on the Sunshine Industries Board of Directors and has been involved in Vacation Bible School at the United Methodist Church and First Baptist Church. She served as dean of third and fourth grade at church camp.
She enjoys traveling, photography, scrap booking and cooking.