New KASB Region 7 Vice President Brenden Wirth sees service on his local board and now KASB’s board as part of a long-time commitment to civic engagement and building stronger communities.

While raising seven children with his wife in Mankato, Brenden has served 12 years on the Rock Hills USD 107 school board. Brenden works for the Kansas Farm Bureau (KFB) as Director of Political Affairs. In this role, he oversees Engaged Kansas, a project launched by KFB to promote involvement in public service, including elective office. Engaged Kansas is a partnership of the Farm Bureau and other major statewide business and trade associations. These include KASB, other government groups, and civic groups like the Kansas Leadership Center.

Brenden grew up on a farm in Claflin, Kansas. He attended Kansas State University where he discovered a new passion in political science. He participated in two years of internships at the State Capitol learning the ropes of policy, legislation, coalition-building, and electoral politics. His family’s interest in agriculture led him to the Kansas Farm Bureau and 22 years as a KFB field staff manager. The position encourages farmers at the local level to get involved in advocacy, agricultural education, and community service including leadership development.

Moving to his wife’s hometown of Mankato, he decided to run for the school board when his children were entering school. “I wanted to be involved in their education,” he said. “And I always wanted to run for something elected. It’s one thing to lobby, but another thing to be in a position to actually make the decisions.”

While on the USD 107 board, Brenden has served multiple times on the teacher negotiating team, worked on the district’s capital outlay plan, and held both board president and vice president positions. Those experiences have led him to believe a school board should try to keep its focus on the big picture, setting the right overall direction for the district.

Brenden says it’s easy for school boards to get caught up in “checkbook issues.” The hard part is figuring out how to translate those issues into a better school system. “You want to create a culture that people want to work in and want to send their kids to. That'll make all the other decisions so much easier when they're a part of a bigger discussion,” he said.

Among the top issues he sees facing his and other districts are recruiting teachers and other staff, keeping buildings and technology safe and up to date, and balancing resources coming from taxpayers who are also struggling. But he also sees a challenge in the growing diversity of student economic needs.

“I don't know how to put it into words, other than the gap between students having the resources within their own family and those that don't is getting wider,” he said. “My wife and I are both scout leaders, and we work with a wide range of families, and you learn a lot about kids and their family dynamics really fast. I feel very fortunate for my own kids. But we have worked with kids who don’t know when they will get fed when they get home. They don't know where they're going to sleep that night. They wear the same clothes every day when we go camping and don't always feel safe at home, and it’s not getting better. For my kids to really be successful, we’re going to have to figure out how to float the whole boat so all kids are successful.”

Brenden’s school board experience and years of fieldwork for the Farm Bureau have convinced him that leadership can make a difference. “All over the state, you can see communities that are the same size, same tax base, maybe only a few miles apart, but one is thriving and one is dying. The real difference is in leadership and getting people to follow. People decide to take ownership. They commit to having a nice Main Street, keeping local stores open, and having good schools so young families are willing to move back. They’re willing to make the investments to make it possible.” 

A key part of Brenden’s work in Engaged Kansas is to develop and support people to move into leadership roles in local communities. Brenden became interested in joining the KASB board because he saw KASB doing many of the same things for school leaders. He thinks one of KASB’s most important functions as educating local board members about their responsibilities and providing information to help them operate more effectively. 

Brenden had an uncle who served on the school board of a Johnson County district with much larger student enrollment, staff, and budgets than his own small rural district. “But the job we were doing is really the same,” he said. “I think KASB can really help school leaders learn from each other.”

His final advice to school leaders is to realize how much a difference they can make. “What I would tell folks with interest in serving, or those currently serving, is, don't underestimate the impact you can have on your community.”