April 17th - Board of Education

In Memorium

It is with a heavy heart that we bring you this Friday’s blog. On March 26th we lost an incredible asset to our community and district, Jennifer O'Donnell. While Jenny's tenure on the school board was brief, it carried tremendous impact. Jenny was an inspiration in her search for knowledge, open mindedness, and desire to understand a situation before acting upon it. The Board , the district, and our community have been well served by her dedication and we are honored to have been given the opportunity to learn from her example.

Cindy Long, Jenny's sister, shares more detail of the wonderful person our district was just beginning to know:

On March 26, 2020, the Hinckley-Big Rock community lost School Board member Jennifer O’Donnell. As a tribute to her and her family, we would like to highlight some aspects of her life with the hopes of inspiring others to get involved and invest in this outstanding community.

Jenny and her family

Jenny was always a strong student herself growing up. A large part of her success in school and later in life in general was tied to her insatiable curiosity. Jenny loved to learn about new things, places, people and ideas. She has traveled to many different places around the world and was always adding another place she would like to discover to her wish list of travel. Jenny loved to ask questions and to seek differing points of view.

Jenny was also an avid reader. Jenny would encourage every person young and old to pick up a book. Like many, she was convinced that if you didn’t consider yourself a reader, you just hadn’t found the right book. Jenny loved to read fiction from a very young age and often talked of teachers that led her to a special book, and then to another and another. She also enjoyed recommending books to others and found great joy in being able to convince someone else that they too were a reader.

Jenny was an avid member of her community. When Jenny and Matt O’Donnell moved to Big Rock, she jumped right in, getting to know neighbors and getting involved. She became a true part of this community. She involved her children in activities and played her parental role well of getting involved alongside her kids. When she was asked to join the School Board, she also invested fully and took that job very seriously. She loved to see both sides of an issue, to be fair, and to impact the biggest number of student lives that she could. She often talked of issues that the school system faced and loved to weigh out differing opinions. She was a truly diplomatic human. 

Jennifer O'Donnell

A pillar of the Hinckley-Big Rock community has been lost with the passing of Jenny O’Donnell. Her family, friends, and community will miss her greatly. She would have been honored to know that she made a difference in the lives of the students she served as a School Board member. She will be missed.