During their first meeting of the new year – and the first meeting with Sheila Bauer as an elected official – the members of the Jordan School Board took some time to introduce themselves to their fellow members and to the public through the video camera.

Joe Benko asked for the introductions, and he started things off.

He is a retired educator who drives a school bus for the district, which offers him a fun chance to get to know the kids and to get to know the district better.

Jim Donna and his family moved to Sand Creek Township in 1978.

“Some people still think we’re newcomers,” Donna said.

He works as a real estate appraiser and has two sons who are both graduates of Jordan High School – and both of whom work in education.

Tammy Will moved to Jordan as a young girl and, like Benko, knows what the district is like from a bus. Her bus as a student picked up the students who lived furthest away from Jordan.

Will has two sons at Jordan High School, a freshman and a senior.

Dan Buresh has been a general contractor in Jordan for several years.

He and his wife are both Jordan graduates, and he moved into the district at age 5 in 1968.

Deb Pauly is the manager at the Schule Haus in Jordan.

She has four children, all of whom graduated from the Jordan district, and has worked in education for some way – through community education, St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, or early childhood family education – for years.

Sheila Bauer and her family moved to Jordan three years ago, and she has two children in the school district.

Bauer is a family educator who works with parents through Belle Plaine.