Candidate for
Governing Board Member; COLTON Unified School District; Trustee Area 2

Tobin Brinker has devoted most of his adult life to community and public service. As a 29-year resident in the Colton Joint Unified School District, hard work and volunteerism have been hallmarks of his career. Hopefully, his hard work will pay off with his election to the Colton School Board.

The Brinker family moved to Grand Terrace in 1976 when Tobin's dad, Major Jack Brinker as transferred to Norton Air Force Base. During Tobin's educational career he attended Grand Terrace elementary, Terrace View elementary, Terrace Hills Middle and Colton High School.

Tobin was blessed to have many great teachers and to attend Colton Schools when they were at a high point. Tobin Graduated from Colton High in 1986, the year it was named a California Distinguished School.

After High School Tobin left to spend a year in Australia as an American Field Service (AFS) exchange student. Tobin was introduced to AFS when his family hosted a Swiss girl (Bettina Wohlegahaben) in 1984. After returning from Australia his family decided to Host again and this time a boy (Marcelo Tosin) from Brazil stayed with the Brinker family in 1989.

Little did Tobin know what a BIG part of his life AFS was and would continue to be. Tobin attended college at California State University in San Bernardino and graduated in 1993 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science. While attending school Tobin met and fell in love with his beautiful wife Erin. She was also an AFS exchange student and had traveled to Austria in 1985. Married in October 1993, Tobin and Erin have volunteered together with AFS; acting as liaison's for numerous students; hosting Maria from Panama in 1997, Jimena from Colombia in 2000 and Jing Jing from China in 2001, and currently is hosting Jessica Torrico from Bolivia. They have also hosted many others on a temporary basis.

Today, Tobin is the Area Team Support Coordinator and is responsible for students arriving each year. He volunteers his time to ensure that students are in safe homes and doing well in school and that students have monthly contact with a local volunteer.

Tobin and Erin have a son and a daughter, Alex (10 yrs.) and Reagan (9 yrs.). When Alex was born in 1995 Tobin quit his job to stay home and take care of Alex. During this time Tobin went back to school to get a teaching credential and when Alex was 7 months old Tobin was hired as a special education teacher at Colton High School. It was a great honor to work at his alma mater but it also opened Tobin's eyes to the problems in the Colton Schools. Due to over crowding Tobin was a traveling teacher for two years (he changed class rooms every period because there were not enough rooms for each teacher).

Tobin transferred to teach at Colton Middle School in 1997-98. At CMS Tobin had his own classroom where he completed his internship program and cleared his credential. During this time Tobin worked exclusively with the Bilingual students as he was one of 3 teachers CLAD certified and had completed the Bilingual Teacher Preparation Project at Cal State San Bernardino. After two years at CMS Tobin was asked to be the Bilingual Coordinator and oversaw the implementation of Proposition 227.

In 1999 six schools in the Colton District were selected as under performing schools by the State. Colton Middle was one of those schools and Tobin volunteered to lead the site team through the reform process with the help of the outside evaluator the district had hired (Action Learning Systems). While going through the process and working with the district Tobin became very aware of district wide systemic problems. He began attending school board meetings in March of 2000 and decided to run for the school board. His son Alex is in the sixth grade, and his daughter Reagan is in 4th grade at Terrace View Elementary.