Mrs. June VanLangen

The 2000 recipient of the Friend of Education Award is Mrs. June VanLangen, school board member for fifteen years.  At the SHEA sponsored tea Laura Marcott, pictured on the left above, presented June with the award after describing her service to the community school. June introduced her family and spoke to the people present.  Previous Friend of Education award winners were also recognized.

June moved to Ellsworth from Webster City when she married Rich. Their children and grandchildren have always gone to school at South Hamilton. She served on the school board for fifteen years with Superintendents Dick Textor and Mike Rogers. She helped select two elementary principals and one superintendent. Attending board meetings took lots of time and lots of hours were spent attending as many school activities as possible to get a feel of everything which goes on at school.

June is not really sure why she decided to run for the board. She remembers hearing about upcoming board elections, and decided she would like to run. Because it was too late to file papers to be on the ballot that year, some of June's friends organized a write-in campaign. She was elected.

The accomplishments of which she is most proud are the construction of the new elementary building and watching the district develop over the years. It was important to June that the district's young people get the best education possible. Her greatest difficulty on the board was that she wanted to make everyone happy, but at times this wasn't possible. June is very concerned about the nation-wide lack of respect for the privilege of an education.

June VanLangen feels everyone should consider serving on the Board of Education. She wouldn't trade her fifteen years for anything!