And welcome to school days with your host Daryl Cherney Nate dog engineering both of us actually credentialed teachers in California Nathan elementary and me in the secondary single subject English and our special guest featured on the front page top fold of the humbled independent Sylvan Paula I even mean how are you high how you don't seem to get it from many of you know cinnamon not just from being a Super Bowl and school fundraiser activist except for a but also she used to represent the Chamber of Commerce right there in the middle Garberville you know greeting all our wonderful tourists to come here and helping them navigate not just the redwoods by. Even the straight people that they had to go to stick around this is an interesting job for a couple years ago and you did a great job at it I always enjoyed coming in and talking to you Little did I know we'd be on the show on the radio regularly and little did I know we'd be coming down this rabbit hole but before we get into. Some of the stuff that happened to Cinnamon at the last school board meeting that put her in the top fold of the Humboldt independent formerly known as the Garberville independent. I want to emphasize that the show really focuses on solutions and so even if we have a few complaints or some things that. Happen that are negative let's remember that we don't need solutions and as we have problems you know they've got to go together like night and day and I often tell people you can't complain and less you're willing to be part of the solution that goes hand in hand that's right and you can't be part of the solution of this you have a complaint. All right so there you go. So I would like to maybe 1st. Talk a little bit about. Who cement Paul is and you know like a lot of people in southern Humboldt County. Cinnamon is a humble person and so you know I mean humble and Humboldt you know just kind of go hand in hand I learned that when I 1st got here in 1905. Coming from New York City which is sort of the ecosystem capital of the universe. But and I was still mastering this concept I am not an expert on the subject but. And we're all striving for it and I do know that we're all like little tiny beans in this great big planet this great big universe but that said I want to talk just a little bit about who Cinnamon is and what she's done over the last 16 years with the schools just to give an idea of. Who we are and I want to just say and I'm not going to read this today but that's. One of the I created about 25 things to school could do to improve the whole school district is Southern hobo unified school district can do. To improve the whole school system without costing it a nickel and one of the things and I've said this at many board meetings during the open comment period and I actually plan on submitting a formal written proposal in the very near future it's very high on my list is to stop. Stop putting up roadblocks to volunteerism Yes and I've actually identified I think 5 components of volunteers and which would include everything from construction building to fund raising to just speaking in individual classes to being a teacher's aide Yes And I think there's even one more that is there's also coaching and volunteering in snack shacks and all the other things that provide extra funding an extra money is needed to keep the schools going and to hear sort of an Ok they ate Yes And one of the things that run of the reasons I wish to divide those into 5 when I make my pathway to volunteerism proposal cinnamon and listening audience is that some of these require different types of hoops to jump through right and different types of personalities you know not everybody is cut out to be a volunteer in the classroom but maybe they'd love to come help with a renovation project or something you know help otherwise so if you want to be a regular volunteer let's say you want to be teacher's aide or by the way you can't as a volunteer you can't take a job that would normally be held by a union position you know yes something like that some people are sort of the words there's ways around that for volunteers to get projects done but it's kind of sticky and I've actually been told though in the past on some projects we've tried to do. I know for example that some construction projects have actually been covertly done. I've heard that you know in fact I was talking to Headstart quite a while ago a couple years ago a sort of sand box was needing sand over you know at the by the Red way and yeah and she says well we can't put a sand in it we can't afford it we have to pay people to put it in I said what if people snuck into the middle of night would. Be just like. Yeah but it is interesting how. With the short budget the really tidy budget that all the sky. Half of the state right that volunteerism is is discouraged but to a very large extent but we don't have to discourage it in all aspects and so what I want to ask you and I kind of the answer but I want to hear from you is if you want to be let's say you want to chaperone kids to have. A field trip or maybe even a multi-day field trip what hoops you need to jump through for that well the 1st you need to fill out the piece of paper that comes home from the teacher with your student that says hey would you like to volunteer in chaperone and given your information and be willing to dedicate that time usually ahead of time teachers need to plan they need to have so many chaperones on a field trip. And generally if you're going to be a driver on the field trip then you need to fill out one of their forms and provide your insurance information your driver's license number and things like that. Prove that you don't have any drunk driving Yeah yeah you have to have a clean record and stuff although actually I've never had to prove that my record was clean I've just offered them the information of my driver's license and that was it. But I feel should go that's all I've really ever had to do. I've gone on a couple overnight trips I went on a senior trip last year that was a 3 day 3 days in 2 nights maybe 4 days and 3 nights I can't remember but I did have to get a background check to go on that so I went and got fingerprinted when the Cubs were playing at the crabs field last year I walk next door to the arcade a police department got my fingerprints and my background check done and stuff so that's the only field trip I've ever had to do that for about I believe there is a cost to get your figure prints done is there not yeah I think it was like 30 bucks or 25 or something like that it you know yess So I think the point I'm making is that for some things like you just want to be a speaker in class come and maybe need to notify the principal or the front office Yeah but you have a guest come in but you don't need to be fingerprinted if you just want to come and talk for a. You know my understanding with the fingerprinting is it's been now explained to me is that if you are with a teacher who is supervising you and standing there the whole time then you don't need to be fingerprinted to be a guest speaker or a. Helper in the classroom a volunteer. Ok so let's talk a little bit about your history of what you've been doing that you've been involved in school. Support volunteers of for I think about 16 years something like that my oldest son started preschool about that time so what 16 years ago was 2003 Yeah yeah that would be about right. And so one of the things that I think you were involved in was working with Humboldt County Department of Public Works Yeah I used to drop my kid my oldest son off at the Redway Head Start building and it used to be that that road was configured a little bit differently and people would they still drive crazy down it or whatever but there wasn't as much parking available as there is now and it was really nerve wracking there were sidewalks and different things and there were speed limit signs there weren't the speed humps that are at the other end of the road down by Parkinson's and stuff and this is readily elementary This is read way elementary right in the school zone you know and it really bothered me so I started looking around and found out that public works is in charge of that not the school because I 1st complained to the school and they said that's not our job it's public work so talk to Madsen got to know me from that years ago and I complained enough to where. I was heard and then several years later there was money coming around in the school was doing their renovations and in part of those renovations was renovating their own parking lot and stuff and so Safe Routes to School came together with Humboldt County Public Works and the school district and they were able to reconfigure some things I actually had c.h.p. Come down and do a report on what they saw and what they thought needed to improve in the school zone and. You know it was worthy and were you working with any other parents in your efforts on that particular project Nope I didn't really know anybody else I just kind of screamed and yelled till someone heard me and then also you are dedicating your classroom volunteer. As well you know every week I used to volunteer and probably kindergarten through 4th grade in my kids' classes and what does being a volunteer in the in the classrooms entails generally most classes in my experience run in stations so like if they're doing language arts the classes broke into 4 or 5 groups and usually there isn't and there's some. Self motivated stations but if there's an adult for separate stations they'll put an adult there and so I would often lead a station for a group of kids. And then you also. Have been a parent teacher and student association that you just be the p.t.a. But now is the p.t.a. As a right that actually happened when I was p.t.a. President we wanted to include the students more and found that was an option and so we were looking for ways to get their ideas and stuff out there and you were the p.t.a. Parent teacher student association a president for 2 and a half 3 years something like that I was on the board for about 5 or 6 yes and you've been raising money and I know that some of the schools like we are also kept Castro and they raise big bucks to get high and they pay for teachers you know they fundraise for teacher salaries or half of a teacher salary that's he on top of everything else that they fundraise for a field trip supplies that kind of thing and so would you when you've been involved in raising hundreds of thousands of dollars what are some of the at you know certainly a lot of there's I know there's quite a few other state. You know from and I probably do a disservice by not naming the ball maybe you can help me out with that but one of the some of the projects with that that kind of major fund raising well for the last you know 15 years or basically since 20072008 when the school state just started to start really cutting budgets and cut back so drastically that the schools couldn't afford aids in the classrooms and the schools couldn't afford supplies and things like that the school community has stepped up and parents and they basically fundraise all the clathrate classroom supplies that I think come through every Southern humble Unified School District school they fundraise a lot of furniture chairs tables that kind of thing they fundraise books they fund raise money for any kind of field trip that the kids go on has been fundraised. Gosh sports sports are huge and I know you know at Southwark and Miranda junior high it costs about $105000.00 every year just to provide a sports program and that's just the funding part of it and different schools have different sports programs too so they go along with that it all adds up in my calculation I asked everybody how much money do you raise every year for the parent organizations those about a year or 2 ago but I came up with about $350000.00 annually is what the parent organizations of Southern humble unified raises and what are some of the parent organizations so we have the South Fork high school Miranda junior high boosters there is the we are boosters there is the read way P.T.'s say there is the friends of white thorn school the friends of Castro in school. I think that's all of it right because there isn't just a spray and stuff so yeah so those are the main parent groups that are dedicated to each school and like you said some of those groups fundraise teacher salaries you know anything that the kids want to have that's extra beyond a teacher in the classroom in the building around and it's basically fundraised in my eyes and so before we go out a little a few more fundraising and volunteer. Niches that are available to people listening I want to say that we are talking with sediment Paula and Simmons is quite well known in the community but this week in the humble independent she is the feature of a headline that a tough old headline No that's what something I always try for myself it says parent and the from last week's school board meeting and is this your civil Paula parent barely had sat down when she was approached by board member by board president in a sort of in a board member Michelle Bushnell and asked to step outside step outside and so basically she was bad for the school board meeting as well as giving a 14 day suspension from being at the school at all and we're going to get to that in a moment but I just want to start a little bit with the local color about. And you know there's just something to the story and we're going to get to it but I just want to say that this is who we're talking about and so we will get to that the moment I really feel like you your view does not just deserve your own show to you know maybe get some of the facts out on this but also the fact that you are still very active in schools and we want to promote on this show some of the projects that you are promoting and working on to make our schools a better place now you also were involved with but is this bus stop to nowhere Tell me about that you didn't read the bus stop to know where was an interesting project so we were given notice as parents that because of finding changes within. In the state of California they were cutting all the school bus funding for all the schools in California and the school board locally gave the parents notice that in $47.00 days buses would be canceled and everybody would have to drive their kids to school because of the funding and it was that it meeting in the gym it read way school and it was pretty packed house and it was funny because I went to that meeting and I thought Yeah this is really sucks but I mean I live 2 miles out of town it really at that time it really wasn't a huge deal for me to drive my kids to read to a school and and so but my husband was pretty upset about it more so than me and so we went to the meeting and I sat back and listened and just the the thing that resonated was that there was all this commotion and people were upset and trying to figure out how they were going to get their kids to school and there wasn't a plan about how to fix it so. I just you know me I'm like a visual public person like when you put information out in the public then everybody can talk about it and then you can find some solutions because I'm not always the one that has them but maybe someone else does off of my vision right oh yeah. You know organize you know your resources your people so I made this really funky. And I hung it up on our bus stop that we have at the top of our driveway and it said Sh us buses and in $47.00 days and I took a picture of it and I put it on Facebook and I challenged other parents to start counting down and every day I'd change it and I agree post it and started counting down and by the time I think we got to like 42 or 43 we started to like really talk about it to the point where we needed to start a Facebook page and so we started the bus stop to nowhere because I figured if the buses quit running it was just a random bus stop that went nowhere right. So and I also thought that maybe there were other schools across the street that state that were having this problem so I was trying to get other schools to join in on it too. Anyways so as it progressed what it turned out our community wanted to do was go to Sacramento and really protest this and we organized in a way that has really been seen in this community and it's something that really inspired and invigorated everybody we made signs we had about 200 people on buses we took our bus stop to Sacramento we parked right out front of the Capitol way that is you can bust up you know we put in the back of the truck and drive it to Sacramento I see that bus stop. It without houses Yeah it would be a nice out how. And anyways and I put signs all over it that said Follow us on Facebook so we had people take good pictures of us the whole way there and one of the really great things is that we had a reporter come talk to us she was for p.b.s. . P.b.s. N.p.r. Sorry she did the California The harder part yeah the California report and she did a report on us for. That which was really great and so that played on the air the morning that we went to Sacramento and so all the politicians heard it that morning and knew we were coming and we rallied and while we weren't necessarily the bones of that argument we were at the heart of it you know it happened to affect. L.a. Unified quite a bit and so they were kind of the bone structure of getting that passed but we were definitely the heart and we they took note of us and it missed definitely made our community feel really good about achieving something and we kept our funding for school buses and we have retained that funding so you know 1st of all congratulations to all the people who participated and that you know there's a express it was a huge group effort no doubt that you know 200 people go down as a group right there and you know there's expression in government it's called an unfunded mandate and unfunded mandate is when you are forced into your your company are forced to do something that you have to pay for so for example you are forced and I say this is a bad thing but you are required to send your kids to school yes and so with the bus with the bus routes to is to provide you the funding they provide you the resource to get your kids to school right but if you pour it over a car right you know or pay for the gas in the car or fix your car that's really broken some version of that or like living around here do you really want every parent on the road at the same time in the morning you know what I mean it's more it's more efficient to put a bunch of kids on a bus than to have that many individual cards on the road is my thought not to mention the fact if I may say that parents although we all care about our kids greatly sometimes if they're all late for school they drive a little crazy. That's a fact. All right so congratulations on that you also. Were involved in the Homecoming floats Oh yeah I love the homecoming floats they're a lot of fun I think it's a great opportunity for the kids to be creative at the high school and the junior high and to express themselves and sometimes kids. Work together on floats that don't necessarily interact in other ways at school and so it's just a great opportunity all around they get to learn skills and building skills and. And they all seem to enjoy it it's always a big success Well so 1st of all let me thank you for all the work you've done as they and as it's like to be said thank you for your service thank you now so with this light you were talking to them and Paula our guest here on school days I'm Carol Czerny your host and we also have Nate Dogg behind the dials we will open this up the phone calls soon but with this it light Let's take a note that you were banned for the school for 14