A Tuition-Free K-8 Public
Charter School
GOVERNING BOARD
Amber Edelman
Board Chair/Trustee
School Land Trust Council Member
Amber Edelman was born and raised a military child. After her father finally retired, they settled here in Utah. She attended Weber State University, where she received her bachelor's degree in respiratory therapy. Shortly after graduating she met her husband, Kurtis. He was active-duty Army. She decided to follow him around the United States and begin a family. Together they have 3 children, Kayla, Turner, and Allie, and have recently adopted a daughter named Milena from Colombia.
While her husband was stationed at Fort Wainwright, Alaska, Amber served in the Family Readiness Group. There she led other wives and united them to support the local troops. She was also a part of the Comfort Team where she assisted other wives when there was trauma in their homes. During this time, Amber supported her husband while he was deployed to Iraq for 18 months. Two weeks before his homecoming, he was hit by an IED (roadside bomb) and suffered a severe traumatic brain injury. Amber was told that her husband would not ever be able to perform basic functions, drive a car, or even hold a basic conversation. This began the intensive road to recovery for him. Amber was determined to learn all she could to assist him in his recovery. They relocated back to Utah where she found great passion helping her husband to learn how to do basic things again. After many years he has seen great success in his recovery and is even able to drive a car again. When meeting Kurtis today, many people are not even aware of his injury. His recovery has exceeded the expectations of all his health-care providers.
Amber was selected as the Utah Elizabeth Dole Fellow for the Elizabeth Dole Foundation, which is an organization that empowers, supports, and honors our nation’s military caregivers. She served on many boards during her three-year term as the Utah Dole Fellow. She assisted military families, wounded warriors, and primarily the caregivers of our nation’s wounded soldiers. She sat at round-table discussions with the U.S. Speaker of the House, the Secretary of the Department of Veteran Affairs, and many other prominent congressmen. Together they worked to identify the needs of caregivers and created the Caregiver Program within the Veteran Affairs system. Amber visited the White House and also rallied on Capitol Hill in DC many times in an effort to provide support and awareness for caregivers of all war eras. Amber has also worked here in the state of Utah with Congressman Rob Bishop and our governor to bring awareness to the silent heroes supporting our nation's wounded soldiers. She’s currently an alumni Dole Fellow.
As Amber’s children reached school age, she was adamant they get the best education possible. She began looking for a place which provided a vision of excellence in education and she found Promontory School of Expeditionary Learning. She quickly put her kids in the lottery, luckily all of them were accepted, and her children started the very first year Promontory opened its doors. Amber volunteered a lot in her children’s classrooms and was eventually offered a job at the school. She worked in many different capacities within the school, but eventually landed in the special education department. There she quickly became the autism behavior specialist. She found that a lot of the skills she had learned assisting her husband in his recovery were applicable within the special education world. After many colleagues commented on her gifted ability to work with children with special needs, she went back to school to become a board-certified behavior analyst. After many years working at Promontory, she left for the next step in her career. She currently writes behavior plans for children with behavior needs, and helps oversee their progress.
Although her children no longer attend Promontory, Amber’s love for Promontory remains strong. She loves the values and the mission and is excited to be back at Promontory as a member of the governing board. She looks forward to the opportunity to give back to the school and to provide a unique perspective.
Michael Engh
Board Treasurer/Trustee
School Land Trust Council Chair
Michael graduated from Utah State University with a bachelor’s degree in electrical and computer engineering. He then earned a master’s degree from Webster University in business administration. Michael currently works as a project director for a software development group at Hill Air Force Base.
Michael is the father of two children and has a first-grade student at Promontory School. He joined the governing board because he wants to learn how the school functions and because he wants to help Promontory reach its goals and vision for educating students. Michael appreciates Expeditionary Learning and has particularly enjoyed watching his shy daughter step outside of her comfort zone, embrace the concept of owning her learning, and participate in crew functions.
Ariel Tidwell
Officer
School Land Trust Council Member
Ariel grew up in Woods Cross as the youngest of six kids. Married for 8 years to her best friend, Jourdan. Ariel and her family just recently moved to Tremonton and have loved being in this beautiful part of the state surrounded by incredible people and agriculture. She is a mom of three young kids, two boys and one baby girl. Ariel is the owner of a small online women’s boutique and a group fitness instructor. She believes that being physically active and following your passions is important when trying to find
happiness and meaning in life. She loves music, reading, baking, and spending time with her family.
As a mom of boys, Ariel loves that Promontory School offers a hands-on education where her boys will be able to be up and moving as much as possible, just how boys are meant to learn.
Jourdan, Ariel’s husband, worked at a charter school in Salt Lake and both Jourdan and Ariel loved the small, family feel of the school and knew that is what they wanted for their kids. As the world has changed in recent years, they feel that being involved in their children’s education is a necessity as social and political issues become more nuanced and difficult to understand. They also believe that defending our American freedoms is of the utmost importance and that learning that, through formal and informal education, from a young age is a great way to instill a deep love of this great country.
Ariel believes the best way to learn is through example and is excited for this opportunity to serve as a Board Member. Her hope is that her kids will see that by showing up and working hard, they can help shape this world, and country, into something great for many years to come.
Zach Davis
Trustee
School Land Trust Council Member
Zach Davis was born and raised in Brigham City and currently lives in West Corinne. He is the oldest of seven kids and they all grew up on a small farm raising cows, wheat, and alfalfa. He
worked on a larger dairy farm in Corinne while going through high school. His favorite thing to do was cut hay because he loved the smell of the fresh-cut hay. Running tractors and working the ground was, and still is, another of his favorites. Zach, his father, and brother now farm about 150 acres. Zach loved to play sports and go hunting and camping with his family. He would play
baseball in the summer when time permitted, and then go hunting in the fall. He still likes to play some city league softball through the summer and fall.
When Zach graduated from high school he got a job working at Bear River Valley Co-op in the tire shop. He loved learning about mechanics and tires and would go out on the service truck to fix tractor tires for the farmers. He loved getting to know
everyone. He has worked at the co-op for almost 19 years now and has worked his way up and now manages the Country Store.
Zach loves to learn new things and loves helping others. He has
a beautiful wife and three awesome boys, two of which are now attending Promontory School and the other one will next year. He likes the way his kids get to learn at Promontory. He hasalways been a more hands-on learner and thinks it's a good experience for them also.
Zach also loves learning about our history and the way our country came to be. He loves our freedoms and will always stand up for
them. He joined the board because of the world we live in today. He wanted to know more about how the school system works and desired to be more involved in what our kids were being taught. Zach is excited to see what things he can learn from this position and hopes to do a good job for everyone.
Karen Braithwaite
Trustee
School Land Trust Council Member
Karen Braithwaite was raised in Mantua and has lived in Box Elder County most of her life. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in elementary education from BYU-Idaho in 2010. After a brief period of church service in Poland, she came back to start teaching. Karen taught one year in Granite School District in Salt Lake City during which time she married her sweetheart, Keaton. Then she taught one year in Ogden school district. After that she decided to take a break to be a stay at home Mom.
Karen and Keaton have 4 children: Charles (7), Dorothy (5), Eleanore (3), and Florence (born October 4th, of this year). Karen loves spending time with her family doing things like camping, hiking, swimming, playing board games, and reading stories. She also has a great love for music and has taught piano on and off for almost 20 years. Karen joined the Utah Music Teachers Association in 2019 to further her pedagogy education and expand her musical capabilities and contributions.
Karen is now happy to be a part of the Promontory community and is excited to serve on the board this year.
Amber Jenks
Officer/PoP! President
School Land Trust Council Member
Amber Jenks grew up in Layton and Ogden, UT. She attended multiple high schools as the result of family relocations, and the time she spent attending charter high schools was the most impactful on her love of learning. Amber worked in the Rides Department at Lagoon Amusement Park for 16 seasons, where she met her best friend and love of her life, Jarom. They married in 2007. Before deciding to become a stay-at-home mom in 2010, she worked as a Fraud Claims Specialist and part-time Administrative Assistant for Shell Canada and TCH, Inc.
In 2012, Amber’s family decided to make the move to Perry from Davis County. While she had previously said she would never live in a town so small (she clearly doesn’t know small towns), she now loves this area and never wants to leave. Aside from getting to live near family, one of the biggest draws for coming to Perry was the opportunity for their children to be able to attend school close to home at a wonderful K-8 charter school.
Amber’s own personal educational experience with a charter school education led her to desire a similar experience for her children. The hands-on approach of the Expeditionary Learning model was especially appealing when considering young minds, and children who thrive on exploring and being active. The additional focus on Great Thinkers was another high point. She believes that when we learn from examples in our history, and combine that with our own experiences today, we can build a better tomorrow.
Amber and Jarom have 5 children. While their oldest daughter went through the traditional school system, the next three children have each attended Promontory School for their entire educational careers so far, and they each enjoy it. Their oldest is in 8th grade and his last year is bittersweet. Their youngest is certain that it is already her school too, even though she won’t attend until next school year. Promontory encourages a love of learning in a variety of ways. It has something for everyone. Even those not quite old enough yet. :)
Amber loves Promontory School and is grateful for the opportunity she has been given to serve as the Parents of Promontory! (PoP!) President during the 2022-23 school year. She looks forward to working with teachers and staff, fellow board members, and most importantly -the parents- this year.
Jessica Wolf
Officer
School Land Trust Council Member
Jessica Wolf grew up in Perry, Utah. She is the oldest of 4 siblings, and learned young how to take on that role of a hard working, reliable, and supportive leader. She was blessed with an extremely tight knit, and amazingly supportive and involved family. Her parents raised her with strong morals, a deep value of family, and the belief that if you are willing to put in the time and work into something, you can create or succeed at just about anything. She married her neighbor, and high school sweetheart Teague, and they have been together for 14 incredible years. They spent their early married years traveling the world, supporting her husband through college, buying their home in Brigham City, starting her photography business, and later bringing a beautiful baby girl into the world.
Jessica is a proud owner of a commercial Photography business, and has been loving, and running it for over a decade. She enjoys the opportunity act on her creativity, as well as being her own boss. Her husband is working at an industrial engineering company in West Jordan. She has a deep passion for traveling, and packing as many activities and experiences as she can into hers and her family's life. Her family has been fortunate to have traveled all over the globe. She has a fierce love of immersing herself, and learning from different cultures. As well as visiting historically rich places, and natural wonders. She believes wholeheartedly that you can learn more from traveling, and experiencing time in foreign places, than you ever could from reading about it in a book. Her family is constantly out at fun events, traveling, hiking, spending time with their loved ones, and planning their next adventure.
Jessica founded, and ran a Box Elder Homeschool co-op of over 100 local families throughout the pandemic. She homeschooled her daughter from Kindergarten through 2nd grade. She highly values hands on, out of the box learning environments. As well as a surrounding themselves with a strong community, and a focus on learning real life skills through exposing kids to real jobs, travel, and adventures. She strongly feels education should be filled with both excitement, exposure, and family involvement. All of which, she feels are practiced and valued in the Promontory School learning environment. She was so excited when a spot opened up for her daughter at the school, so she could continue learning with those core values in place, along side her peers. As well as take advantage of the Flexible Fridays so they could continue family learning from home.
Her involvement in the school board comes from an absolute love of involvement in her daughter's education. She has taken her homeschool roots, and has traded them in for time and love to dedicate into her daughter's future at Promontory. She hopes her skills at coordinating large groups, building community, planning events, organization, business management and years of researching and implementing out of the box learning environments will be an asset to the board, and the other families at Promontory. She is so excited for the opportunity to be a member of the board, and hopes to uphold the values, and freedoms of learning together with their families here at Promontory School for years to come.
Michelle Flynn
Board Vice-Chair/Trustee
School Land Trust Council Member
Michelle Flynn lives in Willard, Utah with her husband and four children. She's a stay-at-home mom after working in retail management for over 10 years specializing in operations management and logistics. After moving from San Diego, CA she and her husband started a construction company which she manages from home.
Michelle has a background in theater and music and attended a performing arts school growing up. She was a member of a vocal jazz ensemble and show choir for many years and majored in music business management in college.
Michelle has coached her son's baseball teams for the Willard youth baseball league for the past five years as well as volunteered for various local events in the community like Peach Days, local farmers markets, and fruit stands. Michelle loves being immersed in all the community has to offer and believes there's nothing more important than the school our children attend and their futures, so she volunteers weekly at Promontory school.
Michelle is looking forward to her role on the governing board and is excited to be a part of the future of Promontory.
Dorothy Dobson
Accountability Officer/Trustee
School Land Trust Council Member
Dorothy Dobson was born and raised in Southern California, a frustrated country girl in the middle of the city. She moved to Utah to attend Utah State University. After graduation, she taught Special Ed on the Navajo Reservation for two years. Dorothy then taught in Salt Lake City for seven years. When she met her husband, Cody, she returned to Cache Valley and taught at Edith Bowen School on campus at Utah State University for twenty-two years. When she retired (the first time), she administered a First Amendment Schools grant at Edith Bowen for a year, then worked as a reading aide at Canyon Elementary School for a year before becoming a lecturer at Utah State, teaching undergraduate courses to elementary education majors. After six years at USU, the pull to work with kids again became too strong to ignore. When she heard about Promontory, she was TOTALLY on board with EL Education, and was thrilled to be hired as a fifth/sixth grade teacher. Promontory’s first five years were her last five years as a classroom teacher. When she retired for the second (or maybe third, if you count USU) time, she missed Promontory SOOO much! Still does!
Dorothy enjoys reading, music, photography, traveling (which she has done a lot of since retiring, since her husband, who was a principal in Cache County School District, retired at the same time), and gardening. She LOVES spending time with her grandkids; R.J. (9), Adeline (6), and Mina (19 months). Unfortunately, they live in Georgia, where their dad (who is married to Dorothy’s daughter, Hannah) is stationed at Fort Benning. Fortunately, being retired means she can visit more often! She is also slightly obsessed with “Hamilton, An American Musical”, and has traveled to Las Vegas, Puerto Rico, and Chicago where she has seen it and gotten to know other raging (and wonderful) Hamilfans. She has seen it six times SO FAR and has tickets for a Broadway performance in January. (Yeah, “slightly” may be an understatement!) Dorothy is working on a book teaching collaboration to upper elementary students using the admirable creative team of “Hamilton” as a role model.
As Dorothy said, “I miss Promontory daily (although not the drive from Paradise, where I live), so I am excited to be on the Board, and hope it brings me to the school often!”
Becca Ashby
Trustee
School Land Trust Council Member
Becca Ashby lives in Tremonton with her husband and three boys. Born in California and raised in the Salt Lake Valley, she enjoys the small-town life as long as she can visit the city often. She is a jack of many trades, and has experience in a variety of different fields. From childcare and early childhood education to health and fitness, being a small business owner or picking up and moving cross country, she isn’t afraid to take on a challenge.
She is happy to help where she can and always does her best to be patient and positive. She loves good food and traveling to new places but is happiest surrounded by her family.
Becca firmly believes that education is not one size fits all. After many years in the local school district, she started looking for something different that might cater better to her boys and their style of learning. Promontory always piqued her interest, but it wasn’t until after the COVID shut down in early spring 2020 that Becca and her family decided it was worth really looking into other options for the boys' education. For Becca’s family, and many families at the time, COVID was a chance to re-evaluate and re-arrange what daily life looked like. Promontory became a real option for her boys, and today all three of them thrive in the atmosphere that this school offers.
Becca now works in sales at Tarter Gate in Corrine, UT. After years of being able to help in the classroom, she missed being involved in the school community. The next best thing was to join the governing board. She is happy to serve and be a part such a diverse group who simply care about the kids and want them to succeed.
Josie Beth Archibald
Trustee/Policy Crew
School Land Trust Council Member
Josie Beth Baxter Archibald grew up in Elwood, Utah. Being number 7 of 8 children she learned from a young age the importance of hard work, cooperative effort, and creative living.
She went on to do her undergraduate work at Southern Utah University in Cedar City where she worked for the Utah Shakespeare Festival as a costume stitcher/dresser, marketing assistant, in the box office, and concessions. She was also very active in campus life serving on the Student Activity Board, eventually being elected to the Activities Vice President position. She graduated Magna Cup Laude with a degree in Public Relations, and was chosen as her graduating class commencement speaker.
Josie Beth currently lives in Brigham City with her husband and 4 kids. She is the General Manager of The Peak, a kid's activity center in town that offers many educational/training opportunities for local families. She began her school service 10 years ago, and has served on various Community Council Boards, and is a current & founding member of the Avery's Dream Foundation Board.
As a "stay with me" parent, Josie Beth has been able to have her children by her side for the last 15 years as a working parent which has given her an unique perspective of how educational foundations can either help or hinder family life. She hopes to be of value and benefit to Promontory while using her skills and talents to reinforce the vision of the school while still being able to problem solve to ever changing student needs.
Amy Rich
Officer
School Land Trust Council Member
Amy Rich is happily married and finds great joy in her five children. She graduated from the University of California at Irvine, majoring in nutrition. During that time she played on the university tennis team. She continues to teach tennis lessons in her spare time.
In addition to her collegiate education she has also studied and been licensed as a nutrition coach, personal trainer, barber, and massage therapist. Amy has also served as a doula.
Her diverse education and life experiences lead her to encourage others to study and pursue a wide range of interests while helping others along the way. Her current passions are her kids and husband and helping them progress.
Amy loves serving on the governing board at Promontory. It gives her great insight into the education and future of her children and those around her. She is grateful for the opportunity.
Stephanie Quintero
Trustee
School Land Trust Council Member
Stephanie Quintero lives in Perry with her husband, two boys, and two dogs. She grew up in Box Elder County with her parents and younger brother. Her father worked and retired from the Box Elder County Sheriff’s office and her mother owns her own business. From a young age she learned the value of hard work, perseverance, and being a part of something greater than herself. In her adolescence she was a part of the masonic youth organizations and traveled all over the state attending functions, fundraisers, and meetings. She worked her way to holding state officer positions for several years. She also was awarded Youth of the Month and Youth of the Year through Boys and Girls Club of Utah. After high school she attended the University of Utah for her general studies education. Later, she transferred to Weber State University where she graduated with her Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice and Minor in Legal Studies.
Stephanie met her husband during college, they were married in 2012 just before he left to be a part of the United States Army. For the last decade, Stephanie and her family have navigated military life. Even with its ups and downs, her husband's promotions, and deployments, she holds a special place in her heart for the love of her country and protection for her family and others. Since 2014, Stephanie has worked for the Box Elder County Attorney Office, where she is the Paralegal Supervisor and Software Administrator.
Stephanie and her husband value the importance of a great education, with emphasis on more than just academic scores. After looking into several schools and diligent research, they hoped to enroll their son in Promontory School of expeditionary learning. After putting their son on the lottery list, they were excited when they got the news that their son was selected for the start of his education. Stephanie’s passion for her family only continues to grow, from the stepping stones she learned in her youth.
Stephanie looks forward to being a part of Promontory school’s future and growth by honoring her role on the governing board for years to come.