Trying to add a payment method? You can do this on the 
Brian Hynd
Position 5
Age: 46
Brief biography: I’m a father, husband, and community member who has lived in the Bethel area for the last eight years. I am a wine salesperson and enjoy the local wine and food scene. I enjoy helping the local community, volunteering for my kid’s school, Active Bethel Community, and other local charities.
Current employment: I work for Handcrafted Wines of Oregon, a wine and beverage company based in Portland. I’ve been employed there for the last nine years.
Connection to the Bethel School District: I have two children, boys, ages 8 and 10, who attend Clear Lake Elementary School. I am an active parent in their education, volunteering where I can, and I am the current president of the school’s FSO (Family Staff Organization). I have also applied to be on the Bethel School Board’s Budget Committee, and have been a regular attendee at the regular board meetings for the past year plus.
Why are you running? I am running for the board to fill the seat of a longtime board member, Paul Jorgensen, who is retiring. I have seen far too many times in our country, state, and county, that a functioning school board is the key to a healthy community. When people are elected to this position who do not have the good of the children and community in mind, they can ruin opportunities for those kids for a generation, leaving an entire community languishing around them. A strong, effective, and responsible school board is the building block upon which our education system, and our children’s futures, are built off of. I am ready to take on that responsibility.
Priorities: We need to make a better effort at reaching kids where they are. We need to have teachers and staff who feel supported and appreciated. We need an administration that is responsive to the challenges that this represents. This to me all comes down to budget. We have struggled for years with declining enrollment due to demographic changes in Northwest Eugene. We need to make sure that budget priorities are being met, all the while making sure that teachers and staff have the resources they need to do their job, and feel appreciated by the administration. Responsible budgeting can and must meet all of those goals.
Other areas of interest:
- Career and technical education
- Early childhood literacy improvements
- Community outreach
- Free meals for all students
- Parent engagement
Budget cutbacks: One of my favorite things about the Bethel School District is its free meals for all students. I grew up in a relatively poor school district, and saw firsthand how kids who had “reduced price” or free lunches were treated differently because they were poor. This had a profound impact on how that kid was treated, both by students, and the staff and teachers.
We are also finally making strides in our early childhood literacy programs at Bethel, with new and improved techniques being fully implemented only recently, and specific reading instructors in each school. We cannot stop this program now.
Also, the new CTE building at Willamette High School is just the start of wonderful things to come in career technical education. Many, and I count myself among them, kids do not have aspirations of college or higher education. We need to give these kids a way to funnel their aspirations into careers that meet them where they are, and what they hope to achieve in their chosen path.
Local control: We have many rules and regulations on which we must run this school district. Many of those rules and regulations stem from the fact that there have been many underserved and ostracized people in the history of public education. I respect that there needs to be proper oversight by both state and federal agencies (if there is still one) to ensure compliance with these standards. However, I am a firm believer in local control over such things as curriculum and local strategies to engage and encourage students. Many school districts, like Bethel, have a diverse and underserved population. We need to have the flexibility and direct personal input to engage our students with what they need, how they need it, and what best way to make it happen. State and federal agencies are not set up to accommodate that need.
