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'I'm running because it's the right thing to
do' Brinkman says
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| April 17, 2011 |
 David
Brinkman, 36, knows but two speeds. Stop and go.
He doesn't do much of the former, and when he
goes, it's at one speed only, all out.
His kids, Liliana and Logan, he said, are his
life, and they're the best reasons in the world
that he's thrown his hat into the ring to seek a
position as a Boundary County School District
101 trustee in the May 17 election.
But he's also unlike most other candidates
seeking an elective office, even if this happens
to be one in which the rewards are few and the
pay is zero. He doesn't dislike his opponent,
incumbent Sulet Hiatt, and he refuses to say
anything but good things about her.
"She's good people willing to help a good
cause," he said. "At the end of the day, she's
just trying to benefit the community, just as I
am. If my ideas win, great, if not, I win
anyway, because by running and presenting my
ideas, sitting board members might have
faced a challenge and might see that different
ideas are needed."
Brinkman, along with his wife, Melinda, now
run a transitional house for young men, but
their background is widely varied. David has
worked for major retailers, including Macy's,
he's been a manager at Boundary Trading Company.
They home taught their children, he said, but
came to recognize what an amazing job our public
school system does, and enrolled their kids in
school.
"David and I are both so thankful for the work
that Mrs. Katz and Mrs. Stagliano (kindergarten
teacher from last year) have done with our
daughter," Melinda said. "Both are amazing
teachers who come with so much experience and
passion for their work. Our daughter has a
passion, some could say obsession, with
dinosaurs that goes beyond most kids' interest,
and while a lot of people might a bit
overwhelmed with this passion, these two women
embraced her desires and used them, to the best
of their ability, to help educate our daughter.
We are just very grateful to these women."
"It reminded me," David said, "of when I was
going through school. I grew up in a troubled
family, my dad abandoned us when I was 10 and I
was raised in a single parent home. I could have
slipped into the cracks, but my teachers
wouldn't let me. When I started veering
sideways, I had teachers who knew who I was and
what my background was, who somehow slipped
their hand under my arm and said, 'no, why don't
you try going this way?'"
An outstanding athlete, he recalled the joy he
felt, having been hurt, of being able to finally
lay aside his responsibility to the team.
"I was ready to be gone," he said. "No more
drills, no more practices. I couldn't play, so I
was done. Then my coach pulled me aside and
said, 'guess what? You're team manager now!'"
Brinkman, in working with the Head Start
program, starting locally and moved up to serve on
the board at the state level, and in working with
the local school district with the boys at the
Brinkman House, some of whom participate in
sports as members of the Badger teams, saw in
our local educators what he saw in the educators
he once knew; teachers and coaches who view what
they do as more than education. They're mentors
and life-long friends.
"We have amazing teachers," he said. "They
aren't just teachers looking to get through the
day. They're looking out for our kids, and
they're doing an amazing job."
Teachers, he said, don't get paid much and they
often don't get credit for the good work they
do.
"Travis Hinthorn spends his days in the
classroom, and works evenings and weekends
coaching his team," he said. "People don't see
that he has a wife and three kids, and still
coaches and gives of his time. Clint Arthur,
same thing. Ed DePriest, Janis Tucker. You
always hear bad things about them when the
Badgers lose a game, but do you ever hear about
all the things they do right? They don't get
much credit for the kids they send to college,
the Adam Hiatts and the Adam Halls who have been
in the papers recently, and who learned what
they know from our neighbors, their teachers."
He's running, he said, so that his two kids will
have the same opportunity to shine.
Maybe, though, it's time for a new face on the
school board. Time for new ideas.
He blasts Idaho Education Secretary Tom Luna,
who, he said, is implementing measures that give
local boards heightened jurisdicion, but that
don't
provide for funding, placing the burden on the
backs of the property tax payer. Able to cite
chapter and verse of Luna's education measures,
he decries Luna's focus on technology over
teachers, on using computers to replace people.
"A computer can't press a kid's nose to the
grindstone like a teacher does," he said. "And
what are computers teaching our kids? That it's
easy to find the answers without having to know
how figure out the answers out for themselves.
What do parents with a computer complain about
most? Kids who won't go outside any more because
they're too involved in whatever game they're
playing. They don't know how to write, or do
sums. They would be lost if the technology
suddenly went away. Technology is a good thing,
used properly, but if it deprives our kids of
learning how to think and figure for themselves,
it's no longer a good thing. We need good
teachers willing to work to teach our kids."
While he has high praise for our teachers,
Brinkman said that he knows, if elected, he
doesn't serve the teachers, but the constituents
who elect him.
"The bottom line I would have to think about,"
he said, "is what's best for students, what's
best for the community, what can I do to ensure
that this school district is doing all it can to
give our students the best possible education
with what's available?"
He also mentioned another amazing teacher, Jan
Studer, who told those gathered at a recent
school board meeting that all she needed to do
her job was a room of four walls and a class
full of kids.
Was that what, she asked, the parents of
those kids wanted for their children's future?
Brinkman, a parent himself, says no. As a
parent, he said, he recognizes all that this
school district is doing right, and he is
running, he said, to make sure that his kids
have the same opportunity as BFHS graduates in
the past have enjoyed.
New ideas may be needed, he said, especially in
this time when deeper cuts are inevitable.
"I'm running," he said, "because it's the right
thing to do." |
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