Erin, Tobin, daughter Reagan, son Alex

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Tobin Brinker has devoted most of his adult life to community and public service. Hard work and volunteerism have been hallmarks of his career. Hopefully, his hard work will pay off with his election to the San Bernardino City Council.

The Brinker family moved to Grand Terrace in 1976 when Tobin's dad, Major Jack Brinker as transferred to Norton Air Force Base. During Tobin's educational career he attended Colton High School, San Bernardino Valley College (AA in Liberal Arts) and Cal State San Bernardino (BA and Teaching credential).

While attending Cal State San Bernardino Tobin met and fell in love with his beautiful wife Erin. They were married in October 1993. Tobin and Erin have a son and a daughter, Alex (11 yrs.) and Reagan (10 yrs.). When Alex was born in 1995 Tobin quit his job to stay home and take care of Alex. During this time Tobin went back to school to get a teaching credential and when Alex was 7 months old Tobin was hired as a special education teacher at Colton High School. It was a great honor to work at his alma mater but it also opened Tobin's eyes to the problems in the Colton Schools. Due to over crowding Tobin was a traveling teacher for two years (he changed class rooms every period because there were not enough rooms for each teacher).

In 1999 six schools in the Colton District were selected as under performing schools by the State. Colton Middle was one of those schools and Tobin volunteered to lead the site team through the reform process with the help of the outside evaluator the district had hired. While going through the process and working with the district Tobin became very aware of district wide systemic problems. He began attending school board meetings in March of 2000 and decided to run for the school board.

Tobin was elected to the Colton School Board in 2001 and served one term. In that time all six Colton Schools raised their test scores and exited the Underperforming Schools Program. Brinker sits on the district Bond over-sight committee and was recently elected PTA president at Terrace Hills Middle School. Tobin and his wife volunteer with American Field Service (AFS) Foreign Exchange program. Brinker is a member of the Lions Club. He also sits on the Legislative Action committee for the California League of Middle Schools (CLMS) region #10 advisory panel.

Brinker was the keynote speaker at Cal State San Bernardino’s “New” Teacher celebration in June 2006, where over 150 new teachers received their teaching certificates.

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