BonnerSprings.com

Jeff Tinberg

Ray Cox

As the date for the first meeting of the USD 204 Board of Education in the 2009-2010 school year draws near, two new board members are looking forward to taking their seats alongside fellow board of education members.

“I’ve been trying to learn as much as I can and follow the issues and everything, but I’m really ready to get started,” said new member and Bonner Springs resident Jeff Tinberg, who was elected in April, along with Bonner resident Ray Cox, to fill one of two open positions on the board. “It’s kind of weird sitting in the board meetings and not being able to contribute, so I’m really ready to get started.”

Tinberg is a system support specialist at Comprehensive Professional Resources, a physician management and billing company in Kansas City, Kan., and has never served on a board of education before. He said his first order of business would be to learn all he could.

“I think, to begin with, I want to be able to learn how the board functions before I go in there and start trying to make a lot of changes,” Tinberg said. “I want to know how everything works.”

Without a doubt, Tinberg said, one of the biggest and most immediate issues the board will face in the next school year will be the budget. He does, however, have another particular goal in mind he would like to see happen in the coming year.

“I would like more parent and teacher involvement and communication with the board,” Tinberg said, noting that he himself plans to talk to the parents and teachers in the district as much as possible throughout the year, “just trying to get a feel for some of their concerns,” as he said.

Tinberg, who beat out candidates Troy Thompson, of Edwardsville, and Starla Newberry, of Bonner Springs, in the April 7 general election, said he had mixed feelings of excitement and relief when he found out about his election.

“I mean I was really excited,” Tinberg said. “I was confident that I did everything I could to present myself well and be elected, but I was excited, and somewhat relieved, that I was elected. And then, after that, I was ready to get started.”

Cox, who is a former teacher, also served on the Kansas House of Representatives for 14 years and was a member of the USD 204 Board of Education from 1979 to 1983. Despite his prior experience serving on the board, he said that, like Tinberg, the next year would be one of learning.

“Just like in the legislature, you gotta ask a lot of questions,” Cox said. “Ray Cox will be asking a lot of questions, I’m sure.”

Though he couldn’t say for sure what his goals would be as a new board member until he learned more about such things as the budgetary problems facing the board, he did say there was one issue he had always felt very strongly about.

“Preserving the classroom teacher as much as we can and their income. As an old teacher myself, that’s very near and dear to my heart,” Cox said.

Cox ended his time on the legislature three years ago and is looking forward to being a part of a group again.

“Ray Cox has got to be involved,” he said. “This I know.”

And being elected again, Cox said, is something he feels incredibly grateful for.

“I was very happy, very pleased, that people still had the confidence in me to put me back on. That’s a very nice thing the community to do that for you, it really is. And it means a lot to me,” Cox said, adding that both his children and grandchildren had and are currently going through the USD 204 education system. “I’ve got my life vested here, that’s all.”

The first USD 204 Board of Education meeting of the 2009-2010 school year will be at 7 p.m. Monday, July 20.

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