The Juneau school board swore in three members and honored two outgoing members at a meeting Tuesday.
In this fall’s municipal election, Steve Whitney was reelected to the board after being appointed to fill a seat vacated earlier this year. Jenny Thomas and Melissa Cullum were elected to the board for the first time.
The board honored outgoing members Emil Mackey and Deedie Sorensen. Mackey initially joined the board in 2015. In his outgoing remarks, he said he hopes to see an end to what he called an “attack on our public servants” nationwide.
Sorensen worked as a teacher for the district for more than 35 years and was elected to the board in 2019. She ran unsuccessfully as a write-in candidate this fall.
Both Sorensen and Mackey survived a failed recall effort last year following the district’s school consolidation last year. Mackey commended Sorensen for attending meetings while undergoing cancer treatment during that time.
“She could have died during that process, and she did not miss a single meeting,” he said. “She would have chemo in the morning, and she would be on the Zoom call later that night.”
Sorensen thanked the public and her colleagues before leaving and said she plans to enjoy some time off.
“I got my all clear from my oncologist last week, and so, you know, so for the knowable future, things are looking really good,” she said.
Once the new members were sworn, the board immediately got to work on district business, including formally accepting Superintendent Frank Hauser’s resignation and listening to more than an hour of public comment about union contracts.
