GILROY
– A longtime Gilroy resident has come back to town to manage the
school district’s money. Steve Brinkman joined Gilroy Unified
School District as assistant superintendent of administrative
services Monday.
By Lori Stuenkel
GILROY – A longtime Gilroy resident has come back to town to manage the school district’s money. Steve Brinkman joined Gilroy Unified School District as assistant superintendent of administrative services Monday.
With several decades of financial exper-ience under his belt and a strong work ethic, Brinkman stood out from other applicants.
“He’s extremely competent, he’s well-organized, he has good interpersonal skills and he’s highly ethical and trustworthy,” Superintendent Edwin Diaz said.
Diaz was also impressed by Brinkman’s references, which were all extremely strong and referred to Brinkman as one of the brightest people they know.
“(He) has a high level of integrity … works extremely hard and will contribute not only in his area of school finance but will be able to contribute in managing all the other areas that that position is responsible for,” Diaz said.
Brinkman’s responsibilities will not only include managing the district’s $68 million budget, but overseeing the facilities and maintenance, transportation, food service and technology departments as well. He said he is ready for the broad responsibilities of his new job.
“Most of that I’ve been involved with in my career over time,” Brinkman said.
Brinkman, who was chief financial officer and executive vice president of Monterey Pasta Company for more than six years, lived and worked in Gilroy for more than 17 years before that, as the vice president of finance and administration for Gilroy Foods. He replaces Lee White, who held the GUSD position for one year and retired in the beginning of October.
“I’m going to enjoy the challenge of being able to get work done and accomplish objectives, in spite of the fact that there’s not much money available,” Brinkman said.
The move to education is a natural one for Brinkman, who hails from three generations of educators and has five siblings working in education.
“This isn’t really a great surprise in the sense that I thought eventually, I’d get into it,” he said.
