Brookfield Trustee Ron Haun, left, and school Supt. Toby Gibson, center, listen to Trustee Gary Lees.

For the first time that any of the participants were aware of, the Brookfield Local School District superintendent and the township trustees sat down Aug. 28 to talk about ways they can work together.
“It’s too small of a community to not have a working relationship between the school district and the community administration,” said Superintendent Toby Gibson, who instigated the meeting. “There’s not a lot going on in a small town like this. The school becomes what’s going on.”
Trustees Gary Lees and Dan Suttles said there should not be a division between the township and the school system.
“We’re in for the same things, for the betterment of our community,” Suttles said.
Gibson, who took over as superintendent Aug. 1, said having a good relationship with township officials fits into his vision for the district.
“We’re gonna hang our hats on being innovative, pride in the district and service to the community,” he said. “Part of my road map to doing that is meeting with you guys and the police chief and the fire chief and establishing a working relationship, so we can have pride in district and service to the community. Pride in district should be pride in the community as well. It should extend that far.”
The parties worked out how a community service program involving Brookfield students and the township would work, and discussed things they could do for each other, such as promoting each other’s events and jointly applying for grants.
The trustees asked for an update on Gibson’s efforts to incorporate more science, technology, engineering and math into the classroom, and Trustee Ron Haun invited the school to use Brookfield Township Community Park as an environmental classroom.
Students could study the streams, the wildlife and the woods of the park, and play a role in maintaining the park, Haun said. Gibson said he had teachers in mind to talk about that, and floated the idea of an environmental competition at the park.
“Our kids compete,” Gibson said. “You make it a competition and our kids will do anything to win, in the classroom and out of the classroom.”
Suttles responded: “You know why? They’re Brookfielders. It’s always been that way.”
Gibson said he wants to try to meet with the trustees regularly.