Chino Hills has been named one of the 100 Best City's in the
United States to raise kids. I visit
schools every year to read to the various age groups....but that national award
motivated me to make it my mission to visit every school in Chino Hills during mayor year. My goal was to talk to as many kids as possible about city government, the history of Chino
Hills and to answer as many questions as possible. I thought it was also important to let the kids know
that a mayor or council member is really just a regular person here in town. In total, I visited 19 schools (Chino
Hills High twice) which included all the Chino Hills CVUSD schools...along with Oxford Prep, Boys Republic and private Christian schools Loving Savior and Height's Christian.
My visits varied from going from classroom to classroom to mass gatherings of classes in the schools multi-purpose room. Every school visit had it's highlights. Here are a couple of highlight questions from kids that immediately come to
mind. At Height's Christian School - 4th
grade - "Where does your limo driver wait when you are talking to us in
class" and "how big is your
mansion?" (Now you see why I wanted
to let the kids know Chino Hills elected's are regular people...just your
neighbors.) At Wickman Elementary- a 5th
grade young lady asked - "Do you ever meet famous people?" I said "yes"....thinking she was
talking about people such as President Obama or Governor's Schwarzenegger or Brown. But she said - "no, I am not talking
about them...I want to know if you have met Beyoncé?"
A few interesting facts about my visits-
* Earliest start: 0 period and 1st period Ayala Government
classes (6:30AM)
and I spoke for an hour to each class.
* Longest school visit: Eagle Canyon- 3 1/2 hours.
* Most kids attending one talk: not sure of the number, but it was all the 4-6 grade kids at Oxford Prep Academy.
* Most visits to one school:
I visited Chino Hills High two times to speak each time to their AP Government classes.
* My longest day of speaking at schools: March 1- Ayala High (two periods in the AM), and then on to Hidden Trails and
Oakridge....four hours total of speaking.
