During the campaigning time over last summer, I was at the county fair and noticed Tim Kraayenbrink’s booth. I decided to stop and ask him where he stood on education-related issues. I introduced myself to Tim as a school counselor at Fort Dodge Senior High and let him know the amount of needs our students have. He informed me he too taught at one time, and that his wife is an administrator at a local private school. I let him know that I had good relationships with both of our legislators at the time and that I really appreciated the amount of support Daryl Beall and Helen Miller gave to school counselors and education in general. We exchanged business cards and Tim did follow up with me before election time to remind me that he did support education and I had quite a few other questions for him that we discussed via phone and email.
Tim did win the election so I sent him a congratulatory e-mail the following week. I also sent a thank you to Daryl Beall for everything he did to support mental health, school counselors, and education because he truly did a lot for us and will be missed. I continued to talk with Tim regarding my thoughts on college and career readiness and the state’s current IHAPI program in which he has been working with me to explore all options. We have invited Tim into our classrooms to talk to students and we also have had him attend one of our weekly school counseling meetings. There are issues I talk to Tim about that we are not necessarily on the same page about (such as the current allowable growth funding fiasco we have going on). Even though we may disagree on certain things there are things that I will always be able to work towards with both Helen Miller and Tim Kraayenbrink on in order to move education in Iowa forward. We have taken some of our students to Day on The Hill and Helen Miller has been so gracious to give us tours, listen, and ask us questions so she can better understand our needs. I am thankful for the amount of time these individuals put into the youth of Iowa. In order to help our students we, as educators, need to put parties aside and build relationships with our legislators so they know what we are seeing in our schools...better yet, invite them into your schools to see for themselves!
Trista Thompson, M.A.
Professional School Counselor
Fort Dodge Senior High School
819 North 25th Street
Fort Dodge, IA 50501
Office: (515)-574-5773
Fax: (515)-574-5771
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