Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of three Brookings School Board candidate profiles that will appear in The Brookings Register this week.
BROOKINGS – Deb DeBates has made education her life’s work, so she means it when she says she’ll do her homework if elected to the Brookings School Board.
DeBates is part of a three-way race for 2 three-year seats on the board that also includes Roger DeGroot and Randy Grimsley. The election is April 10.
DeBates is from the Moody County area and attended country school, where all eight grades shared the same single classroom.
“Many times older students were called upon to help younger students, and I really loved it,” DeBates recalled. “That led to my desire to become a teacher, and it’s never wavered. I always enjoyed teaching and enjoyed working with young people.”
She earned her degree in home economics education from South Dakota State University in 1974 and later furthered her education credentials with a master’s degree and Ph.D.
For 17 years, she taught in middle school and high school in Canton before moving to Brookings and working at SDSU in 1991. She’s had a variety of roles at the university – graduate teaching assistant, lecturer – “but my primary responsibility has been in teacher education, preparing future teachers.”
She retired in 2014, “but I still work part time with online courses when needed.”
And with retirement comes the time to dedicate herself to serving local education in other ways.
“I think the future of our community is very dependent upon a strong public school system,” DeBates said. “I think my background in education, my background in teaching and human development are all things I could bring to the table to help keep our district moving in a positive direction.”
The school district routinely receives high marks in the state, but leadership mustn’t be complacent.
Through her years of work on a number of boards and volunteer work, she’s developed the skills necessary for the job, such as communication and spurring collaboration.
DeBates has served on the national and state boards of directors for the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America, the SDSU Alumni Association board, the Intercollegiate Athletic board at SDSU and as house mother for the Farmhouse Fraternity.
“So, I have some board experience where we’ve had to deal with issues and provide strategic plans and direction,” DeBates said.
And good experience is needed to address the issues the district faces: providing adequate resources to staff and students, encouraging professional development for teachers, and ensuring a safe learning environment.
When she visits other schools for student teacher visits, she notices the different ways those schools go about securing their facilities.
“Usually there’s a camera where they ask who you are and why you’re there. You have to go into the school, sign in. Most times you’re then accompanied to that classroom by the teacher,” she said. “Those are all safety precautions that are easy to do and yet don’t disrupt the climate of the school. When I hear some of the things that are being proposed, it makes me a little nervous. But those are things we can do that are nonintrusive but provide for a safe environment for our kids.”
Teachers need to be able to have opportunities for professional development in order to keep up with the changes that come up in the education field and in the school district.
One way to get around scant resources for staff and students is collaboration, something she actively did recently. This past fall, she was one of the figures who started and held a cultural awareness day for local fifth-graders.
“It was an opportunity for students to learn about their own personal culture, how we all have our own personal culture and have similarities, things in common as well as things that make us unique,” she said. “Then we had conversation tables with international students that shared their own culture as well as a little bit about the culture of the country they came from.”
That event had the World Affairs Council, SDSU, the Children’s Museum of South Dakota and fifth-grade teachers working together to put on the event with minimal cost to the district.
Collaboration can go a long way in this town, especially with the kinds of local organizations available here, such as SDSU and the Children’s Museum.
It also helps that the district is able to attract quality teachers.
“Some schools really struggle to hire teachers, and Brookings, because of its location, because we have a university here, we really do get the cream of the crop in terms of the staff we’re able to hire. I think that really does make a difference,” she said.
Having worked for years as an educator, she takes pride in her work and promised to bring those same standards with her if elected to the school board.
“I will do my homework. I promise that I will research issues,” DeBates concluded. “I will listen to different views to make informed decisions that will be in the best interest of Brookings School District and the students.”
Contact Eric Sandbulte at esandbulte@brookingsregister.com.
