OVERWHELMING SUPPORT: Letters Supportive Of Branden Durst Flood The Idaho Tribune’s Inbox — West Bonner County Has Hope For Their Kids’ Education Again
People NEED Hope.
Editor’s Note: Our inbox has been absolutely slammed all afternoon with letters of support for West Bonner County School District’s new Superintendent of Schools, Branden Durst, but also the Board of Trustees who had the strength of heart, and the Will of the People behind them.
Leadership in the face of adversity is not only a thing of beauty, it’s CONTAGIOUS. More will step up. Keep the Faith!
Board of Trustees: Thank You!
I want to publicly thank Keith Rutledge, Susan Brown, and Troy Reinbold for all that they have done for our WBCSD (school district) this year.
The road has been challenging. They have shown perseverance and real hearts of service to our community in making the tough decisions that truly represent the majority of school district residents.
Standing up to a well-organized special interest group that is used to having things their way can’t be easy, but the right thing to do never is.
We appreciate the sacrifices you have made on our behalf to protect the families of the district and our neighbors without children, who together entrust you with the administration of our public schools and the fiduciary responsibility of spending our hard-earned tax dollars wisely.
We look forward to engaging with you and Mr. Durst to improve our schools and make them a valuable asset to our community and a model for other areas of the state and country. God bless.
Kristen Stycket
Ponderay, ID
Welcome to North Idaho Mr. Durst
I write to congratulate Mr. Durst on his selection as our new School Superintendent.
I voted for you in the Republican primary last year for State Superintendent and I couldn’t be more thankful and impressed that you chose to apply for the job here in West Bonner County. It shows sincere dedication to the cause of brining solid conservative-minded reform to our educational system and deep caring about the residents of our county.
It is truly a just reward for our strong support of your campaign, and we wish to extend a warm welcome to you and your wife as you settle in to our little community.
Chris Anderson
Sagle, Idaho
Positive Change for West Bonner County Schools
Change is finally happening in the West Bonner County School District. While this reality may be a bit scary to some, it’s long overdue and we owe it to the children of the district.
For years now we’ve been seeing ever increasing taxes and decreasing performance. And then this May, the “old guard” pushed hard for a massive 57% increase in the school funding levy - almost 70% of which was allocated to increase the salaries of administration and staff, all while proper accounting practices were not being followed and serious questions remained about the bookkeeping. I fail to see how continuing that trend could have been good for the children, and apparently so do most of the voters in the district.
It's been high time for a change of the guard, and now that our community has elected school board members courageous and caring enough to stand up to the misinformation, bullying, and threats they had to face from a small minority who felt entitled to control, the children of West Bonner County are getting the change they so desperately need.
I invite the whole community to treat this new opportunity for positive change more honestly than we did the last one with previous superintendent, Jackie. The eyes of the county - and likely, the whole state - will be on us and any shenanigans will be laid bare for all to see. Let’s act on what the slogans suggest we care about and make this change work for the kids.
Faith Brenneman
Spirit Lake, ID
Durst - The Wise Choice for Rural North Idaho
It’s always been a fact of rural life that when something important to you is broken, you have to do your best to fix it and get it up and running again, even amidst pressure of those who choose to pretend the same old methods will fix it. And often those fixes require some creativity and rural ingenuity. We can’t afford to continue to just throw more and more money at broken systems like cities do, hoping that they’ll magically fix themselves with every increasing dollar we pour into them, at the expense of everyone’s tax dollars being used for continued failure.
That’s why Branden Durst is the right Superintendent for West Bonner County. His first reaction to our school district’s situation was to be frank and call it what it really is – in need of some repair. His second reaction was to level-set with a forensic audit in order to clear the air with all the district residents. And his third reaction was to listen to the community and start getting creative with solutions. Durst even demonstrated his fix-it attitude when asked how he would bridge a potential funding gap this upcoming year. There were at least two solid ideas in his on-the-spot answer.
I would encourage you to stop listening to the blatant lies of the media and those in, as well as outside of our community who have chosen to spread misinformation that has sought to damage the reputation of someone that cares deeply about children, their parents, and the future of Idaho. What I’ve noticed in the past few years is that those who are doing the greatest amount of good, in sharing Truth in a world full of charlatans with special interests, is that those truth-speakers are attacked the most. Please join me in standing in support of Branden Durst.
Jason Brenneman
Spirit Lake, ID
Don’t Be Fooled By Smear Campaigns
After the WBCSD Superintendent Forum on Wednesday, I questioned the texts, mailings and social media smear campaigns from Good Government Bulldogs, Idaho Moms, and other extra-district popup groups denigrating Branden Durst. After hearing Mr. Durst answer questions from the community, they now seem like the same cheap and dishonest tactics the leftists and collectivists have made a habit of using here in North Idaho in order to distract the community from the real issues and from the candidates who actually share our conservative values.
It’s always wise to follow the money and sure enough, Sunshine reports show significant donor connections between Good Government Bulldogs, Idaho Moms, Jim Woodward’s campaign, Steve Johnson’s campaign, Susan Shea’s campaign for East Bonner County Library Board, noted liberal Sandpoint Councilman Jason Welker, and North Idaho Voter Services (who encouraged Democrats to register as Republicans for the last Republican primary in an email dated 3/10/22). So now we factual evidence that the local Democratic cabal really didn’t want Mr. Durst to be our new school superintendent, and they used money from outside the district to mislead us about Mr. Durst’s values, intentions, and qualifications. Sadly, this is typical.
If you look at the decisions the Democrats have been making with indoctrinating children around the country and the state, thank goodness we voted in a majority conservative school board, and that those conservative school board members stood up for the real values of North Idaho and West Bonner County. Good on them.
Anita Aurit
Sandpoint, ID