Brumirski honored by State Board of Education

Mount Carmel faculty member, Mr. Dennis Brumirski was one of 64 finalists nominated for the Illinois Teacher of the Year Award.

Corbin Chube

Mount Carmel faculty member, Mr. Dennis Brumirski was one of 64 finalists nominated for the Illinois Teacher of the Year Award.

Mount Carmel High School is an institution often noted for its pride, tradition, and outstanding education.  One of the reasons for that reputation is the quality of instruction provided by its faculty.  One of those faculty members, Mr. Dennis Brumirski, recently was nominated for the ISBE (Illinois State Board of Education) Teacher/Educator of the Year Award.

Brumirski, in his third year at MC, works in the McDermott-Doyle Program teaching reading and language skills.  He also directs MC school plays and coaches the drama and speech team. Brumirski was nominated by the parents of one of the students participating in the McDermott-Doyle program.  Out of 232 the teachers nominated for this prestigious award in Illinois, Brumirski was amongst the state’s top 64 finalists.

Brumirski felt “flattered” to earn a place as one of the top 64 finalists for this award, but at the same time “uncomfortable because it was unexpected.”  He described his philosophy on teaching:  quite simply, it is an individual approach.  According to Brumirski, “You really need to focus on developing relationships between students and parents in order to truly get to know and understand each kid.”  To understand Brumirski’s approach to teaching, is to first understand where he comes from.

Brumirski graduated from Trinity Christian College located in Palos Heights, IL.  Shortly following college, Brumirski worked as a regional specialty foods coordinator.  Although the job seemed great for a while due to the high salary, Brumirski was not intellectually fulfilled.  Ultimately, he wanted to spend his days making society better by helping people grow. Not to mention, his travel schedule was grueling.

In 2009, when Brumirski’s eldest daughter was born, he knew he had to make a change in his career in order to be closer to his family.  He went back to Trinity Christian College and attended graduate school, eventually earning two masters degrees: one in education and the other in special education.  Upon graduating, Brumirski followed his passion and applied to become a teacher.

In his 20’s, Brumirski had considered working with high school extracurricular activities such as speech and drama.   After completing his degrees, Brumirski taught part-time in Community High School District 218 as an intervention teacher.  After working there for a while, Brumirski wanted to move on because there were no full-time teaching jobs available.  His principal in District 218 happened to be an MC graduate, who recommended him to Mount Carmel’s principal, Mr. John Stimler.

Asked if there was anything regarding his career that he would have handled differently, Brumirski carefully contemplated the question before responding “I have no regrets. I love my job, I love the parent-student interaction, I love the kids.  Most importantly, I love making a positive impact on the lives of my students.”

The rest as they say, is history!