Pendleton School Board Member Profile – Beth Harrison, Chair

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.