Newberg Board Chair Penner named adviser to State Board of Education
Thursday, November 19, 2020
Newberg School Board Chair Brandy Penner will lend her voice to the State Board of Education’s deliberations.
The state board chose Penner, an OSBA Board member, on Thursday as a new adviser to the State Board of Education.
The education board wanted a school board member adviser because it is focusing this year on actions to enhance equity, diversity and inclusion policies at the school board level. OSBA submitted three candidates.
Advisers attend all meetings, provide a report at the beginning of each meeting, and participate in debate but do not have a vote.
Penner highlighted her experience with the urban-rural divide and the need for equity and anti-racism efforts in schools in her letter of interest.
“State-wide equity work is imperative, and that includes a focus on supporting our rural districts in this often contentious and painful work,” she wrote.
Board advisers serve one-year terms from July 1 through June 30 and may be re-elected. The school board adviser is a late addition this year. The education board’s policies adopted Thursday call for five advisers, some already seated: a K-12 administrator, a K-12 teacher, a K-12 student, a K-12 elected school board member and an early learning adviser.
Monica Rosario Bergmann, a bilingual speech-language pathologist at High Desert Education Service District, was named the teacher adviser Thursday.
