PBT, Episode 23, The First Zoom Episode, ft. Jennifer Pham

An epsiode recorded back in early 2024 that was deleted and reloaded for the transition from podbean to Spotify.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
You ever wonder what is the truth?
There goes those two guys again.Why do they care so much about
the truth? I honestly think their questions
for the truth are problematic. Don't we all all right?

(00:23):
So here we are, guys, a little bit different.
We're on a Zoom call. You know, hopefully this all
works out and we can do more video stuff like this.
But we're here with the one and only Jennifer Maharis.
Fam, how are you? Jennifer, thank you for joining
us tonight. I am well.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to come on your
show. Yeah, No, we're excited to have

(00:45):
you. You know, there's, I know
there's a lot of questions. There's a lot going on,
especially in your specific raceyou're running for the Riverside
County Board of Education. And yeah, well, why don't we
start off with this, Tell us a little bit about yourself and
your story, everything that brought you to this point where
we're at today. Well.
I'm going to actually start before we go to who I am, what

(01:08):
this job actually does because Ifeel like that's actually one of
the biggest issues right now is no one really understands who
the Riverside County Board of Education is.
So the Riverside County Board ofEducation is actually a 7 member
board that sits up at the countylevel and they only have three

(01:28):
responsibilities. Responsibility number one is to
take care of the county schools,right?
So these are the schools where the kids get expelled and they
have to go to the County School.You remember that we talked
about this in high school and the kids had to go to the
special county. That's what we're talking about.
So there's the school at the jail, there is the Military

(01:48):
Academy, and in these days, schools.
The second responsibility that they have is that they're in
charge of being an authorizer for charter schools.
And what that means is it's their job to actually hold
charter schools accountable. So not only do they approve
them, which is, I mean, I'm talking thousands of pages of

(02:09):
documents that the board membershave to go through and see data
and evidence that these are qualified schools.
And then they actually hold their feet to the fire by making
sure that they're actually doingall the things they need to do.
So every year we actually have to turn data into them that says
we're doing what we said we weredoing, here are numbers, this is
what our kids look like and so forth.

(02:32):
And then the third thing that they're in charge of is actually
the county appeals. So the two appeals that take
place is typically one, if a student gets expelled and they
need to appeal that expulsion, they go to county because after
the district, it goes up that way, OK.
And the other is going to be if a kid wants to do a transfer.

(02:52):
So let's say you have a kid at Paris Unified and they're trying
to transfer to Murrieta Unified.And the districts have said, no,
we don't want to take you or no,we're not releasing you.
You can then appeal that decision to county.
So that's really their responsibility.
The money from the state actually comes down goes to
county and then county's in charge of distributing that.

(03:14):
And then there's things where there's a special relationship.
So they might, you know, work together as a unit with a 23
school districts that are local to us in regards to like college
and career counseling or specialEd because it's easier to get
resources as all of us then as individual districts.
However, the biggest rumor out there right now is that

(03:36):
Riverside County is going to be able to control the local
boards. There's actually no authority at
all whatsoever between the county board and the local
boards. There's only a relationship
between the county and the school districts, and even then
only in certain departments. So hopefully that like, it's

(03:59):
kind of like, oh, I didn't know what they do.
Because the truth is, before this race, I don't feel like
most people even knew what the county board did or that it
existed. So that's the big thing.
But who am I and why do I care about this?
It's because I've worked in thispopulation my entire career.
So I've always had an eye on this and I've always worked with

(04:20):
the boards all these years. So a little bit about me.
I am from here, like truly a Murrieta girl.
Moved here in the late 80s, wentto kindergarten all the way
through high school in Murrieta,and then I went off to college
at UC San Diego. Believe it or not, I'm actually
a biochemist by trade. So kind of funny.

(04:43):
And then I came back and now I own a company where I do test
prep, tutoring and college admissions counseling.
So that's kind of how it happened.
And then I we moved home, started our family.
I actually married my high school sweetheart, so he also
graduated from MV. All five of my siblings
graduated from Maria and Temecula schools.

(05:04):
And now we're back raising our kids here, all of our nieces and
nephews, all of our siblings. So truly it's in our DNA to be
here. And so let's see, I'm the mother
of three. I have a four year old, a six
year old and a 10 year old. So I think some of you've seen
some of my videos, which is I'm the crazy mom 3 elementary

(05:26):
school kids that drives to threedifferent elementary schools,
but my kids all needed somethingdifferent.
I'm also a special needs mom, right?
So each of my kids needed teachers and support staff and
resources. That one cookie cutter school
couldn't serve all of my children.

(05:46):
And so that's why I keep fighting for something called
parent choice. And what that means is it's our
choice as a parent to figure outwhat's best for our kid.
But if we start eliminating choices, then we're not going to
have as many options. So that's part of my big why
selfishly right is is for me, the freedom to make that

(06:09):
decision is very important. Yeah, I've heard you talk about
the that before and I I really like that aspect is where it
should be up to the parents where they want their kid to get
an education, whether it be public school or charter school
or home school or whatever the case may be.
Can you talk to us a little bit more about that?

(06:30):
Because I know when people hear like you're like she's for
parental rights and and school choice and things like that.
Like can you kind of you mean? Very trigger words because
that's, that's what basically sets off upon people's alarms.
I think it's really simple. I think we made these babies and
it's our job to raise them the way that we think is best.

(06:53):
And so and it's, I think even more than just the school, right
for me, each of my kids need an individual classroom or an
individual teacher. So I'm taking it even a step
further. You know, people are always
like, oh, but charter schools aren't public schools.
And that is completely and utterly false.

(07:16):
Charter schools are absolutely public schools.
They are publicly funded and they do not charge tuition, and
they're not allowed to teach religion.
That is like the actual law. There's a lot of accountability
there because I told you about the authorizing, right?
So that's actually one of the things that I believe in.
And I don't even know how to saythis, but a lot of my Republican

(07:39):
counterparts may not agree with me, but I'm actually not a fan
of vouchers, considering the fact that my child attends a
private school. Because what vouchers would do
is they would just give you a set amount of money, and you
could take that money anywhere. But we don't know if that school
is in someone's backyard, you know, we don't know.
And and so then there's no oversight to where this money is

(08:01):
being spent, how it's being spent.
Whereas the charter, they have to be accountable to somebody.
So, you know, I think in ideally, in a perfect world, the
voucher idea makes so much sense.
The problem is I have yet to seeit executed in a great way.
But then again, it's also the United States government.

(08:23):
So how many times did we come upwith a great idea?
And then when everything starts to actually unravel, we're like,
oh, actually I didn't think about that part or I didn't, you
know, And I think that's one of the things, if we could figure
out how to do it, fantastic. But right now, the way that it
currently stands, I think there still needs to be a better
process. Just out of curiosity, I was

(08:45):
curious to know, do you see a current attack on the current
process as far as charter schooloptions and things like that,
like? Oh, absolutely.
Yeah. Yeah.
Can you talk to us a little bit about that if Someone Like You
wasn't in this position or wasn't running for this
position? It could actually completely
change the landscape of Riverside County.

(09:06):
So Barbara Hale, who is the current incumbent, is retiring
and she has endorsed me. Barbara Hale is the ultimate
champion of charter schools. In fact, she runs Sycamore
Academy in Wildomar. The way that charters work is
that if the board does not vote,they can actually shut them

(09:29):
down. So like San Diego Unified County
does not have charter schools, Orange County does.
We do, San Bernardino has a few.But like LA County typically
does not do charter schools. And so that's what happens when
this pendulum swings. So if they get a board majority
in Riverside, theoretically, they could shut down all

(09:52):
charters, which is the scary part, right?
Because once again, that's eliminating our options, which
is then eating into our freedoms.
But so that's kind of how this all works.
So that's why it's scary. But what really has happened is
COVID happened and Gavin Newsom has happened during COVID when

(10:13):
everything was going crazy. He actually passed several state
laws that have actually handicapped a lot of our charter
schools. So they have kept enrollment.
They basically said, do you remember when COVID first
happened and all the kids were looking for a different option?
And so a lot of these charters have been doing homeschooling

(10:34):
and online schooling for decades, and they do it well.
So a lot of parents were like, well, you don't know what to do.
These local districts don't knowwhat they're doing.
So they were looking for charters.
All of those charter schools whotook those kids after March 18th
did not get paid for them for the rest of the year.
Why? Really.
Yeah. Why?
Because they passed a law that said we kept your enrollment

(10:55):
that day and that was it. Of course.
Oh, so he, he, so he wanted the kids to stay in the public
school system pretty much duringCOVID.
So he didn't want to lose the money, right.
Pretty. At the end of the day, if the
kids leave the school, they lose.
Their funding. But I mean, and that's what
everybody says, right? The big misnomer is that, oh,
charter schools steal local money.

(11:17):
Well, technically they're getting money directly from the
state. They're not taking our local
taxpayer dollars. So like when Murrieta had a bond
to build schools, charter schools did not take that money.
That went 100% to Murrieta. They're getting their money
direct. And in fact, they get less
dollars per student than your local district does.

(11:38):
So somehow these lean, mean, well oiled machines known as
charters are doing it a lot moreefficiently.
With less money. Correct per student if you ever
look up the actual amount. Don't quote me, but I'm pretty
sure it's like a difference of 7000 for a charter school and
9000 for a public local school district.

(11:59):
That's interesting. And and you know, it's
unfortunate is because this is really the attack on charter
schools that you're kind of describing is similar to like an
attack on free market enterprise.
You know it where hey, we we geta choice, the consumer gets to
choose. And it's unfortunate that our
state governor has taken the route of limiting other options

(12:23):
instead of turning to how can weimprove public school to make
parents say, I want to actually go here.
Correct. And I mean, I'm super powerful.
I'm with Springs Charter Schoolsand I'll tell you, we're good
neighbors. When COVID happened, one of the
things that two of the things that I was most proud of as part
of the organization is 1. We opened up all of our online

(12:45):
curriculum for free and we gave it to the world.
We had kids from China, Russia, Asia, South America using our
curriculum because we just shared all the resources we
already had, you know, because we've been homeschooling and
online schooling for decades. So we knew how.
And we were like, here you go, teachers, we're going to help
you because we already have created all this content.

(13:06):
And the other thing that we did is we fed all children in
Temecula and Marietta and all the cities that we're in, which
I thought was like a huge thing because here we are, this tiny
little baby school in comparisonto the big major districts.
And we literally opened our lines for every person who was
coming through that was hungry. Wow.

(13:26):
That's interesting. And I'm curious to kind of hear
a little bit about some of the obstacles you faced along your
campaign trail so far. Politics is rough.
I mean, a special needs mom, I'ma NICU mom, I'm a widow, I'm a
military spouse. And politics has been harder

(13:49):
than those four things. If that tells you it's just
ugly. And I also think that a lot of
this has to do with a greater entity because this race is
really the only race that's going to be called on this
ballot for all of Riverside County, right?
So two really invested mega parties, the Republicans and the

(14:12):
Democrats are very interested inthe outcome of this race.
I think it's going to set the tone.
I think it's going to set the precedence and cadence for
what's going to happen in November.
So here you have two qualified candidates who are duking it
out, but the parties are really involved.
Yeah, the the political parties,the the whole left versus right

(14:38):
thing. And I think that's a frustrating
thing. I know that, you know, you have
been very vocal about, you know,you're a moderate, you know,
and, and I completely resonate with that and understand that,
you know, but I also hear that you get attacked a lot.
What do you think that's about? Where does that even come from?

(15:03):
And you have nothing else to pick on me for.
You're just going to start making up stuff, right?
Or start finding things. I mean, I have lived a life of
pure service. I don't got skeletons in my
closet. Oh, you know, I am literally a
politician's worst nightmare because a, I'm a moderate.

(15:27):
So for those of you who haven't followed me, my signs are purple
all over town because I keep telling everybody I'm red plus
blue, which makes purple. That's the educator in me,
right? And so it makes people nervous
because they're like, hey, you can't run a race as a moderate.
And I'm like, why not? Because I'm pretty sure 70% of

(15:48):
my friends are actually right here with me because I really
think it's just the extremes. They're incredibly loud, but
most normal people sit right here because all we care about
the end of the day is that our kids are happy, healthy, safe,
and well educated. That's all we care about, right?
And so that's where I stand as aparent, as a educator, as a the

(16:11):
noise needs to stop. The adults need to stop because
right now, who's getting hurt are these children that are
being used in the middle as ponds and they're being dragged
back and forth. All these decisions, all it's
affecting our babies. And so for me, you know, and
that's the other big thing is asa purple, I think it makes

(16:32):
people nervous because they're like, how is she going to vote?
She's not predictable. Yeah, I actually am very
predictable, you guys. All you have to figure out is
where the child is most going tobenefit.
And I guarantee you I'm going tovote that way, you know, which
is really scary to the average political strategist because,

(16:55):
you know, right now everybody's like, oh, she took $100,000 from
the charter school people. And guess what?
The charter school people know that they cannot count on my
vote 100% of the time. And they still chose to back me
because at the end of the day, my heart was in the right place.
I'm still going to vote on what's best for children as a
whole. And so, you know, they, they

(17:16):
know I've totally been a part ofthe teams that shut down bad
charter schools. And they know it because for me,
accountability is more important.
I do not have ties like that. I do not have alliances like
that. If you're doing a bad job, I'll
call you out on it. If you're doing a great job,
I'll support you on it. And that has to do with

(17:37):
everything, whether that's a school, whether that's a
teacher, whether that's a textbook.
I mean, if you are buying bad food, would you eat it?
No. You're gonna buy something else
next time, right? It's the same thing.
We have to use our brains in this and we have to not be so
loyal that it makes us blind. Yeah, No, I, I agree with that

(17:59):
100%. And I think that, and that's
kind of, I kind of wanted to talk about a little bit recently
what happened with your opponentabout how she ended up on the
mailers, on Republican Party mailers.
And I thought that that was so like almost like a slap in the

(18:19):
face to Republicans in our county.
It's like, I feel like she thinks that Republicans are just
stupid and they'll vote with their party and won't do the
research and see, you know, where she actually stands.
You know, like, it's, it's, it'sone thing like where you're
saying, hey, I'm a moderate, I'mnot a Republican, I'm not a

(18:39):
Democrat. I I.
Am I'm a registered Republican? You're registered, OK, you're a
registered Republican, but just.But in your mind and where you
stand politically, you normally find yourself right in the
middle. And then you look at your
opponent's position on things and she's pretty far left, you
know, and she can say what she wants.
But for her to get on a Republican Mailer, that is

(19:00):
almost complete deception. And I think that is actually
going to do her more harm than good.
I don't know if you want to talkto that at all or what your
position. Is that until 4 weeks ago when I
knew what a slate Mailer was, I was one of those guilty people
that used to use that as a CHEATSHEET in the ballot box.

(19:25):
You know, it literally says the Taxpayer Association or the
whatever, the, the safety group or the police group or whatever,
the fire group. And so I would actually take it
because especially on a long ballot, right where it's like
pages upon pages, I'm like, OK, some of these people in the
middle, I really don't know who they are, but I'm going to bring
this as my CHEAT SHEET. And then I found out what a

(19:47):
slate Mailer was. So a slate Mailer is a for
profit company that sells spots on the piece of paper and
everybody on the piece of paper splits the cost of it.
May the best man and fastest bidder win.
So when I found out what a slateMailer was and then I come to
find out she had bought out all.The Republican independent

(20:11):
mailers, at first I thought it was going to be honest.
I really did like, in my heart of hearts, I'm like, maybe she's
just playing a block right whereshe's going to block me from
putting my name on there becauseit's actually the most cost
effective way to get your name out.
And then she put her name on them.
Wow. Yeah.

(20:31):
So what I'm hoping to share withpeople now is I'm like, guess
what, guys? We don't go after Malia, we go
after the sleep mailers cause. Shame on these people for trying
to trick all of us. That's true because they're
also, you know, for the right coin, they don't mind deceiving
the people that they're pretending to be on the side of.

(20:51):
Well, yeah, now I know. And I'm telling all my friends
I'm like, listen, when those come in, you just RIP them up
because now we know what it looks like.
The, the word that you're looking for is at the bottom,
it'll say paid for by the candidate.
Those are the ones you want to throw away.
There are ones that come out that are slate mailers that are

(21:12):
paid for by that organization. Those are legit because like I
can't even tell you, I have one that I did for the sheriff's.
So I'm endorsed by the sheriff'sassociation, which I'm super
duper proud of because I'm beinghonored by the actual officers
themselves. So it's actually not Chad
Bianca's office. It's the actual thousands of
officers in our county that haveendorsed me.

(21:33):
OK. So these are the friends, right?
Our dad friends are, you know all the everybody.
And I know Joe turned in an 8 page application to them how to
write essay upon essay and then I went in for almost an hour
long interview. Like legit I had to earn that.
Yeah. Which is good.
Came out for them that OK. You know what?

(21:55):
Yeah, they really do stand behind me, 'cause I earned that
spot. Right, right, right.
Well what would you say like so with Malia doing that with
everything, like what are the differences between you and her?
Like what? What is her campaign saying?
Like how is she running? How is she trying to get the
votes? So how are you guys different?
You know what I mean? Like what do you guys do?

(22:15):
You guys have like 2 completely different viewpoints on.
Policies. Or Yeah, what?
What makes you the better candidate?
How about that? Because my end goal is not
politics. I really, really want this job,
You guys. I actually am hating the process
of getting to this place. But the job itself, I could not

(22:37):
be more excited about being ableto represent these children,
being able to help all of our kids, and being that voice and
being able to share the knowledge that I've spent all
this time building, right? I mean, what's in my brain
cannot be Googled because I've spent 30 years putting it in
there. You know, my learning curve if I
get this seat will be quick because I already speak

(23:00):
institutional language. I already know, actually, I know
every person on the board right now.
Like I just, that's kind of my advantage.
You know, reading charter schoolapprovals that are literally
this big. I helped write some of these.
I know exactly what I'm looking for to see if these are legit or
not. So why do I want the job?
It's because I'm good at the actual job and then I'm here.

(23:24):
I'm not going anywhere. My husband's buried in town.
We are going to raise these babies here till for end of
time. You know, I am Marietta, true
and true. So, you know, there's something
to be said about this loyalty because this community matters
to me. The success of this community

(23:44):
matters to me. So it's it's not a political
thing for me. Does that make sense?
And that's why, like, I can't explain.
And that's why it hasn't come out on mailers.
It hasn't come out on social media or an e-mail because I
don't know how to put my feelings into words and explain
where my heart lays on all of this.

(24:06):
You know, it's going to take me literally probably an hour with
you guys today to really get youto understand like my logical
reasoning on this and my purposeon this, because I can't put
that in 180 characters. Yeah, no.
And and I totally get that. And, and you know, what I, what
I really see with you specifically is just the, the

(24:27):
experience you have already in the educational industry.
And I, and I don't think that the fact that you've been, you
know, at charter schools and stuff, I don't see that
necessarily as a bad thing because it's not like you're
going to vote in favor of only charter schools.
But you, I think you are a valuable asset to have there to

(24:50):
make sure that charter schools aren't being treated differently
or unfairly. Or just disrespected without
ever reading their file. You know, that happens all the
time. I can't even tell you how many
times my charter school, like the one that I help with, has
shown up to places where we literally spend months working
on in it. And when I one of these days, I

(25:12):
will show you what this binder looks like.
OK? They don't even read it and they
deny us before they even read it.
We're like, well then why did wespend once putting all this
together? Purely because they're voting
politically and didn't even giveus a chance.
And so that's what I can promise.
I can promise that I will read every stinking thing that comes
across my desk if sitting in this position.

(25:34):
The other thing I can say is because I'm not coming in with
an agenda, I will actually give everything a fair chance because
I'm a researcher, right? My brain is very cognitive and
I'm detail oriented. So I want to sit down and I'm
going to get the opinion of all the parents.
I'm going to get the opinion of all the kids.
I'm going to get the opinion of all the teachers.
And then I'm going to do my own research and I'm going to

(25:56):
consult with legal counsel everysingle time I make a decision.
That is the only thing I can probably promise you coming out
of this broadcast because that'smy track record.
I do that everywhere. I serve on a tax committee, did
that there. I serve on the cemetery
committee. Ironically enough, I do that
there as well. And I've served on this charter

(26:17):
school board for 13 years, did that there as well.
You know, because for me, this is kind of my volunteer thing.
This is what I do in my time. And my way of giving back is to
bring this fairness and to this knowledge to whatever area I'm
coming into. Yeah, I like it.

(26:37):
You know, I know a lot of people, especially our listeners
are interested into to hearing what exactly happened with the
whole one Temecula pack thing. Because, you know, they came out
and they gave a letter and they basically said, hey, we're going
to be neutral on this whole thing.
And there was all sorts of liberal outrage in their.

(27:01):
Facebook, well if you read the letter it states that I know my
stuff. I walked into an interview very
similar to this you guys, but once again I had to write 6
pages worth of essays that they asked me all these questions.
I went to a committee and it wassupposed to be 7 questions like
10-15 minutes long. I was there 40 minutes and

(27:22):
answered 19 questions. And when you ask me technical
questions, that's where I shine because it's knowledge that when
somebody walks into an interview, normally you can't
Google those in front of people,right?
I know the answers because I hadthe experience to know the
answers. And so as much as one to Michael

(27:44):
Lepak wanted to not like me, I inundated them with data that
was accurate. So they have no choice but to
stay fair and equal. I am more than happy to answer
people's questions. But like if only you guys could
see the types of questions that I get.
They are hostile before I even get to sentence 2.

(28:06):
So I can't answer questions if you're attacking me before you
give me a chance to even explain.
And and because I sit in this purple zone, I'm getting it from
both sides. I mean, if I took the names off
of the text messages that I get,you would not be able to tell
who was red, who was blue. In fact, part of me I was joking

(28:28):
with my friend. I was like maybe they should be
friends because they actually asked the same exact question
almost verbatim. Well, what, what kind of
questions are they? What kind of questions are they
drilling you on that they're already trying to get?
Are they trying to get you in like I got you question like
what? What are their?
What are their main questions? All I got you questions.
You know, there was something, well like there was a text

(28:52):
message that was floating aroundthat asked me, do you will you
disagree with policies that discriminate children?
Duh, of course I will. Right.
Yeah. Because that's how it was
phrased. Right.

(29:12):
But they were insinuating the parental notification policy.
Oh yeah. Yeah.
Of course any human is going to protect a child.
Yeah. Right.
So then what happens? It gets screenshotted.
It's literally this big. Can't even read the entire text.
Can't even read the entire context like.

(29:35):
That's, that's, that's interesting.
But you know, I, I just thought,you know, with everything going
on, I, I thought for sure that they were going to come out
endorsing your opponent. You know, I was definitely taken
back by, by the decision they made.
But I think that does speak to your ability to be honest and

(29:58):
transparent and and stand on thepositions that you hold on the
on the job and and what you wantto do.
When it said that, it said Jennifer Maher's fan was highly
qualified and very competent in this material and knows her.
It flat out says that in the plus release.
Yeah, and they still got upset about it.
I mean, the comments were wild. I mean, the comments were, well,

(30:20):
the comments seem to be like their own people attacking the
one Temecula pack. Yeah.
You know, there was one comment in there that I kind of wanted
to ask you about. They were talking about a
relationship that somebody they,they were like in the comment,
it said something like, is this because of your relationship
with Jennifer Pham? I hope that's not what it is.
What were they, what were they talking about there?

(30:41):
Do you know? Have you ever googled me?
I'm just asking. No, no.
OK you guys, I've lived here since 1987, before the city was
a city. If you go through and look at my
personal Facebook friends, I gotfriends on both sides of the
fence all the way down the line.Probably equal a number.
Right. So do I have a personal

(31:03):
relationship with a lot of yes, Yes, I do, which is why it makes
me even more qualified for this position because I grew up with
everybody. I've eaten dinner in most of
these people's homes because their children are my age and we
all grew up going to each other's houses.
Which is funny because all of ushave only until the last three
years, like you said, only COVIDkind of COVID popped off

(31:24):
everything where it, it separated everybody.
But before that, my old roommatewas my friend and I found out
when COVID stuff happened, all of a sudden he was, you know, we
had like a disagreement. We didn't hate each other.
I didn't lose any friends, but Ihave friends that are somewhat
liberal or moderate. And but yeah, it was like, yeah,

(31:45):
of course, we all had a bunch ofdifferent friends before it all
kind of went so polarizing, like, oh, my gosh.
You know, with actually, I thinkit started with Trump.
So we. Made it very visible, right?
Because everybody was wearing a mask, so you could tell who
wasn't and wasn't. And then everybody had to have a
card so you could tell who was and who wasn't.

(32:06):
So it became very, very visible,right?
You're not supposed to even do that in a classroom because if
you're trying to make these kidsevil, you can't identify them so
that they have some sort of special marking children with a
red tag or this children. But they essentially did that to
us. Well, what is your viewpoint on
that, if you don't mind? I mean, you know, what do you

(32:27):
think about the parental notification bill?
What do you think about the lockdowns and the masks?
I'm sure you've heard about likethe possibility of disease X
coming back and you know, So what are your views on that?
And even even when it was happening and then retrospect,
you know, maybe do you think it was, would you have changed your

(32:48):
view? I don't know what your views
are. You want to.
Know Derek? You want to know my conspiracy
theories on this? OK, there's so much to this.
First, as a hard scientist, I can read a bias question from a
mile away because I'm trained not to write a bias question.
Because if you write a bias hypothesis, your scientific

(33:11):
journal becomes null and voided.Flawed, flawed.
Correct. You can't do so to look for.
Specific. You have to do science to find
it. To find it.
So if you built in inherent biases and I'm telling you, I
have yet to read one of these long applications that I've done
for endorsements and not read a bias question on there.

(33:31):
So I'm like, obviously a hard scientist did not write these
questions. But going back to parental
notification, I'm not going to lie, three months ago before I
decided to run for office, I firmly in my heart believed that
it was an outing policy. Everything that I had read,

(33:51):
everything in the media, everything my teacher friends
were telling me, everything thatI had, you know, seen, heard, I
truly believed it was an outing policy.
And it was not until about 2-3 weeks ago that one of the board
members actually sat down with me and we went line by line word
for word and read the policies. What I know is that, believe it

(34:15):
or not, the Temecula policy reads differently than
Murrieta's policy, which reads different than Chino Hills,
which reads different than the original one that tried to go
through at Riverside County. Very interesting, like just the
subtle, subtle differences. So with that being said, what I
understand about the Murrieta policy is that when a child ask

(34:41):
for an accommodation, the parentmust be notified in 72 hours.
As a special needs mom, that's the law for my kid.
If my kid needs a dyslexic reading test, they have to tell
me within 72 hours. If my kids getting pulled for a
special speech class, I have to be notified within 72 hours

(35:05):
because once again, I'm the parent.
But. To me, I'm like, well, if you
don't ask for an accommodation, then no one gets notified.
I mean, it's a really awful way to say it.
So if I could actually redo the world, I would actually write
all of these policies different,because I think all of these
policies are actually flawed by the way that they're written and

(35:27):
I think there's sneaky language in them.
But if I could have the perfect situation, I would have said,
actually any accommodation of any form, we notify parents, you
want to wear sweatpants instead of your cheer uniform for this
Friday's game, Parental notification, 72 hours, because
that's an accommodation you wantto go to, you know, Six Flags

(35:51):
instead of the Disneyland trip. Parent notification, 72 hours
because it's an accommodation, right?
Like that's how I would have written the policy.
Yeah. So after you went after you went
line through, after you went line through line, did it make?
Yeah. Because I think a lot of people
thought like it was a outing. It was a outing.
Well, because that's how it's spun.
If you watch any news or as you read any article, Google it.

(36:13):
Read the first three art. That's how they spin it.
Who's benefiting from this? Politicians.
So I'm curious to know and I gota couple interesting questions
and I don't know your position on it, but I wanted to know
about your to your position on the recall, I guess specifically
Temecula. Well, you know what is your?

(36:35):
Full transparent if I was a partof one Temecula pack before it
became a recall group. OK, OK.
So truly, Jeff Pack's vision anda bunch of educators who came
together and community leaders, we were truly trying to create
this moderate group of people who cared and who were going to
start paying attention. Like that was the original

(36:55):
intent before all of this happened.
So I was a part of this, right? And then when the recall action
happened, I mean, I'm not going to lie, I've had this
conversation with Jen Weirsma and I was like, girl, the
beginning of this, you really were not doing a good job
governing. We have to actually trust the
people who we hired to do the job we hired them to do because

(37:16):
they're the experts, right? And so I had this conversation
with Jen. I said, look, what were you
trying to do? You cannot be a subject matter
expert on this. And that's literally because
I've real called the quotes fromone to Michael.
That's exactly what I called them out on.
It's because yes, you have knowledge like me.

(37:37):
I'm a college and career certified admissions counselor.
I have no business telling our college and career department
what to do if I get elected to this board.
It's not my job. That's not my role.
That's not what everybody's voting me to do.
Yes, I have that knowledge, but I shouldn't be the one doing it.
Just like if you're a real estate on Youjin, you have no
business negotiating the real estate contractor, the school.

(38:00):
That's not your job. You may do that during the
daytime. You may be able to add expertise
to the board because you speak that language and you could read
the contracts better than the rest of us, but you have no
business being in that negotiation room.
That's that. That's the difference between
governance and management. So when it first came out, I was
absolutely like, what are you guys doing?

(38:20):
And I called him out on it. So that's, you know, that's
where I'm at, like. From OK, as a professional from
your position, do you see an adjustment at all from them?
Something like. I feel like Jen has learned and
grown in her role. I definitely give her that
because I feel like she went andgot trained, she went and got

(38:43):
certified, she learned how to bean effective governance person.
She understands Roberts Rules now, she understands the
nuances. And once again, that's back to
what my experience is, right? I'm going to be able to jump on
this board, you guys, and I can probably run a meeting the first
day because I do this all day every day.
I understand the nuances of what's allowed to be in closed
session, what's not allowed to be in closed session.

(39:05):
You know, I understand how to make a second motion.
I understand what passes and what doesn't pass and I
understand what can be tabled and doesn't table.
So that's where the advantage comes in.
And so I think I definitely can see that she's tried and I
definitely can see that she's grown.
I see. But then and I are actually good
because we've had this actual conversation because, you know,

(39:25):
we got called out because she goes, everybody goes.
Why is Jen Wurzma supporting youwhen you were trying to get her
recalled? Because you guys are supposed to
be arch nemesis forever. Correct.
Because I'm bigger than that. Because I see growth, you know,
And like, if she was where she was today, nine months ago or 10

(39:49):
months ago, I would still be calling her out on this.
Yeah. But she's grown.
And I think, I think a lot of people had to give them a
chance, right? Because we think back, they got
voted in because of COVID, but there are just regular people
that kind of got voted in to go kind of flip, flip over the
board. We know a lot of the city didn't
like what was going on with the old school board and the old

(40:11):
Superintendent. We didn't like how they handled
COVID. We didn't like how they masked
up the kids for longer than necessary and how they didn't
have their online stuff ready and how the kids were falling
behind and socially and, you know, academically, it was like
riding on the wall. It doesn't take a rocket
scientist to know. You can't put a, a second,
third, 4th grade, you can't havehim wear a mask for three years

(40:34):
straight and then expect him to be able to read and read social
cues and emotionally develop. And you can't keep them blocked
in the house and playing video games and on the computer.
It's like we all knew that. And you know, even with COVID,
the evidence was out there that,you know, kids were not being
affected. It was mostly affecting older,
older adults. And you know everything we said

(40:56):
I'm. Gonna play double advocate for a
second. OK, sure.
Because I was sitting on both sides of this during all of
COVID, I was sitting on it, the board as chair when the non
masked people showed up at our meeting and we had to get police

(41:17):
escorted to the car. I was in that meeting.
I was calling that meeting. In fact, what people didn't know
is what we were having behind uswith legal counsel.
We weren't allowed to speak. First of all, that's really
annoying. That kills me because if you
tell her already after the meeting, I talk a lot and to
have to keep my mouth shut. Every one of those public

(41:40):
comments was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.
Because I'm a Mama. I didn't want that on my kid
either, right? And then as an educator, I was
watching minute by minute, hour by hour days taken from my
students and their developmentalprogress and their academic
progress. I watched all of it.

(42:01):
But because I was at the charterschool, the laws are different.
If you're at the local elementary school, they can't
shut down a school because it's always going to be there.
It doesn't go anywhere. But the way that charter schools
are credited and run as businesses, as everything, we
fell into a different category. So they told us from legal

(42:23):
counsel, if we decided to allow students to come on our canvas
without masks, they were going to come in with the health
department and shut down the entire school.
And if that had happened, the next day, we would lose our
license to operate as a school. So even at a school where all of
us were like, yeah, we had our hands tied because I had to make

(42:47):
a decision to protect 10,000 children.
When what are we going to do? If we got shut down, where would
all those kids go? Right back to the local district
where all this was happening anyways?
Do you know what I mean? Like, so I was in a situation
where my hands were tied, my mouth was was covered.

(43:09):
And you know, I see the consequences right now.
I'm seeing it with my biologicalchildren and I'm seeing it with
my students on a daily basis. Yeah, and it's unfortunate.
And I think that's something that we've learned as well.
You know, like when we first started doing the podcast to
now, you know, like we've had Jen, Danny Joseph, we had, we've

(43:31):
had politicians. And the one thing that we learn
is that there's backroom conversations that cannot be
publicized. There is background stuff going
on that people aren't, the public isn't really Privy to or
really understands, you know? Let me ask you this, how often
do you yell at the TV during a professional sports?

(43:56):
Game. Oh yeah, because I'm losing my
bet. Come on, coach, pull them out.
What kind of coaching call is that right?
Right. How I mean?
I know I I with the school boardstuff, I always thought that was
the most annoying thing of coming up and speaking for three
minutes, but then the school board couldn't respond and I was
like thinking like. You understood.

(44:16):
That it is simple, you know, andit's so funny, like, and we're
going by these rules. I don't know who makes these
rules, but the rules don't make sense.
I want to say we're all adults. So if I'm saying something, I
want the school board to be ableto like, respond to me for a
minute and like, we should be. We can't talk then because a lot
of people got upset during COVID.

(44:36):
We'd all speak. We don't hear any of the school
board in a response, so we don'tknow.
Like they're just staring at us with the mask on.
So we don't know if they agree with us just laughing.
Or. If they're laughing, well, what
we found out when we left, you know, and then they and then
like, say, like Jodi, I think Jodi was the Superintendent.
And after like a bunch of parents came and spoke one time

(44:57):
and about like the book, you know, the real Anthony Fauci,
like our, the people in Temeculaare respectful.
It was like going up there and speaking about the concerns
about the kids wearing the mask and like the kids were falling
behind. And, you know, the studies are
showing that's not really beneficial.
It's actually harming them. And yeah, Jody was just like, I
remember, I remember watching her.

(45:18):
I'm like, is she agreeing with us or not?
I can't tell. Like, I have no idea.
I'm just looking at her eyes. But one time after she just said
like, oh, very dismissively, like I just heard a bunch of
misinformation and you know, the, the typical like political
trigger words. Oh, there's a bunch of
disinformation and misinformation from these
parents. So we're just going to get like,
and like, I just thought like, what a waste of time to go there

(45:40):
and speak. It's just it's.
Not a waste of time and here's why you guys look at where we
are today versus where we were three years ago.
True like. Look at how empowered you 2 are.
Look at how much more understanding you 2 are and how
much the community as a whole understands this process.
We were asleep before all this happened.

(46:02):
That's. True, it was not fun, it was not
a good happy Dappy process, but as a whole, I feel like we are
so much more informed, we are somuch more empowered, and we know
our rights better today than we did then.
Yeah. Yeah, that was true.
And 100% and I and I think that that's that's part of what

(46:22):
happened. Like what Derek said, I think
that COVID, I think a lot of parents, and specifically, I
guess in Temecula, right, is thepeople that I speak with what it
seems like his parents felt dismissed.
They felt like we don't really care what you have to say.
And then you had parents like Joseph Komaroski, Danny
Gonzalez, Jen Weirsma, who were willing to step up to the plate

(46:45):
and try to take these seats. And, and and it's no secret
they've said it on our platform.They came in hot.
They came in Danny Gonzalez described it as flipping tables,
you know, so but again, I think that we need to understand that
even though there was a recall effort being ran against them

(47:05):
from the beginning, these were just normal parents that didn't
really understand everything that goes on and and it is
something that I think they've had to evolve into and it and it
made it even more difficult for them to do it effectively, you
know, with all the defense they.I'm going to take it a step
further. But.
Don't you think that like it's like a, oh, the secret vault,

(47:26):
we're back there talking for three hours before we come out
and just vote yes, yes, no, that's not happening.
You know, we are getting hundreds of pages to read.
And like I was telling you, whenI set up my personal way of
reading, I set up all the different information and then I
read through all of it. And then I come in and have that

(47:48):
discussion and have that conversation and have that vote.
So all of that legal advice was on paper for me to read, which
if everybody had actually gone through and read back then
because they didn't know their powers back then, you could have
requested all of that and read all of it.
It would have been different because that information would
have been right there that says,hey, you shut down.

(48:08):
This could happen, you know? And so it's all there now and
everybody's really savvy now. And that kind of makes me
excited to see the fact that everybody is savvy now.
So they know to go on 72 hours before and download the packet.
They know to read all this stuffnobody did back then.
You guys, this has turned into such an ugly, ugly political

(48:31):
thing because everybody's getting everybody's emotions and
all the triggers and all the things like, I'm Asian, OK?
I'm just going to call out my mother right now in our house.
A stands for, all right, B stands for bed.
C stands for see ya later. Don't come home.
You don't get AC in an Asian household, right?

(48:51):
Hey, I would be petrified out ofmy mind if I ever brought home
an F to my mother. Absolutely petrified.
That child's in danger too, guys.
Yeah. But that's the same thing if
like if the kid said, if the kidwent to the, the teacher was
like, don't tell my parent I gotthe F and the and the teacher
probably go, well, I have to notify your parent.

(49:13):
But that they would try to labelthat as well.
You just put that child in danger now, because that child
said that their parents going toget very upset that they got the
and they're going to get B when they get home.
It's like you can't take the exception and you, you never
take like a kid. It's like you don't listen to a
10 year old about what the parents going to do or what's
wrong or right. So that's why the whole thing
became like pencil notification.I know it got labeled as like an

(49:38):
outing thing, but it never was an outing thing.
I mean, obviously in our in our,in our society right now, the
whole LGBTQ thing is like the hot topic.
It's all over the place. It it's, it's on the news.
Culturally impacting our society, you know, and it's not
just in Temecula or in California.
This whole thing is you know, wethe, the discussion of like age

(50:00):
appropriateness, you know, like now we're at the point where
parents we need to agree on like, hey, at what age is it
appropriate to keep the parent involved?
You know, like when I talk to parents who disagree with my
perspective, like I, I always highlight like, hey, understand
you have a kid in high school and you're talking from that

(50:23):
perspective. I have two kids in first grade.
I'm talking from this perspective.
We need to come to like, I understand if my, if my 16 year
old feels a certain way about her or his gender and they
don't, they're uncomfortable with telling me about it because
the teenage mind and you know, parents don't parents and

(50:43):
teenagers never get along. That's not a secret.
We all understand that And, and I understand that, but when
we're talking about like a fifthgrader or a fourth grader and a
teacher thinks that they can keep that stuff from the
parents, I, I think I see a serious conflict of interest
with that, you know, like the, Ithink the parents.
You know why? Because you just took that

(51:06):
moment from me as the Mama of that baby.
That's why. And it could be anything.
It could be their first crush. It could have been their first
C, you know, it could have been the fact that they've learned
how to do something awesome. Don't take that moment from me,
you know? And so I don't know, guys, I

(51:27):
really don't think there's trulyever going to be a solution or a
time when everybody gets along on this.
Because if it's not this issue, it's going to be something else.
And there's always going to be somebody who's trying to pick a
fight to get their name known tobe on TV, you know?
But once again, back to the topic, how does this affect the

(51:51):
child? And as long as we remember that,
we're going to be OK. But right, we're not remembering
to do that. We're too busy fighting with
each other. Because my way is better than
your way. I parent this way.
I you parent however the heck you want in your own home.
Do you think, do you think with like the people that you know
and the environment, do you think if they try to do like a

(52:12):
Disease X or some type of lockdown again, do you think
they would, do you think there'dbe pushback from a lot more
people this time if they try to do the same exact tactics as
last time? How about?
How about this? What do you think?
What do you think the appropriate response is to
another new COVID situation where everything we need to lock

(52:33):
down, you know what, what would you say the appropriate response
should be from administrators, school boards at the National?
You guys are going to be a really hard hypothetical.
I know, I know. I'm like, it was a really hard
hypothetical because I'm like, Ican't even imagine a world where
that would happen again. I couldn't imagine a world when

(52:56):
it happened the first time. So I'm like, what the heck would
it take this time to shut the world down?
Because I mean, the, the, I'll tell you, there's pros though to
what happened. You want to hear some happy
news? From all that.
The happy news is we now have a modality for the kids who are
stuck on snow days or fire days because we don't lose a day of

(53:19):
learning. Everybody knows how to do it
now, right? I'm having a meeting with you
from a different state because of the technology that did not
exist three years ago, right? We for us in the college and
higher Ed side, we have numerousonline classes now.

(53:39):
I have students who live in Temecula and take an online
classes in Sacramento. That couldn't have happened
three years ago. So there were pluses because we
had this huge technological heapthat all of us were trying to
climb together. But like, I can't even imagine a
world where that would happen again.
I mean, Armageddon, but at that point, shoot, take me.

(54:03):
But I. Think parents, at the end of the
day, I think parents want to putus put these people who are
running for positions in these hypothetical situations to hear
their response. And I know, I know it's a tough
thing to consider, OK. So here's here's my answer
ready. Yeah.
I will do whatever I have that'sbest for these children as a

(54:23):
whole, with whatever data I havein front of me.
That's the only guarantee I can make.
Yeah, yeah. No, I think that's fair.
I think that's fair. I, I think, you know, for you to
sit here and say that this is what I'm going to do and we
won't close anything down, it's,you know, you can only control
what you can control, but you have the.

(54:44):
Resources that I have at that moment or whatever technology I
have at that moment or the information I had at that
moment, You know, when I made that vote on Springs Charters
board, that was the information I had.
If you decide to do this, these are the consequences.
Yeah, that's all I have. I have nothing more, nothing but
like. And it's not even and you
couldn't even put everybody at the meeting at ease about that

(55:05):
because so. I couldn't say anything.
Couldn't talk about it. Yeah.
Isn't that interesting? Why do you think that is?
Why do they make it like that? Why is it that you can't be
transparent with the with the parents of the?
Community. That's what's interesting.
The original intention of Robert's Rules and Brown Act was
to increase transparency. I think we're using transparency

(55:31):
almost in a different definitionthese days.
The original intention of these things, if you actually go back
and read the history of all these things, which I have
because they're books that I hadto read, the goal was so that
everybody had a chance to speak and that everybody's opinions
would be heard in a very effective and meaningful way.
If there was no time limit, someone's going to talk for four
hours, you know, and then no oneelse behind them would have a

(55:54):
chance or and there would be, you know, if you didn't have
time limits, if you didn't have the way the people vote like.
So the original intention was toincrease transparency by doing
the Brown Act, by doing Robert'sRules, because that means that
we all know what that meeting isgoing to be about 72 hours in
advance, you know, so that they,and then the other thing is

(56:15):
where they meet, because of these laws, we can't just decide
to have a meeting in your garagethat's against the law.
It has to be in a public place that's accessible with their
notice so that everybody can gettheir chance to get there.
You know, that's all written into that policy and it's that
rule. That's interesting.

(56:36):
You know, and I know we, we talked about parental rights a
little bit already, but I just briefly, I don't want to, you
know, harp on this too much, butI was curious to know about your
position on the new Protect the Kids Act that's going around.
I know that's really popular right now and it's a, it's a hot
topic and I wasn't sure if that was something that you wanted to

(56:57):
talk about to let listeners kindof know where you stand on that.
I agree with like 90% of it, butlike I would not have written it
that way. The things that I can tell you
for sure is I don't believe thatboys belong in girls sports.
I will also tell you as a college expert who has actually
presented on this topic with NCAA and Title 9 experts that

(57:19):
the universities don't believe in it either.
So you know, it's it's being done on a case by case, school
by school basis. Right now.
There is no uniform policy that currently exists and C AA is
scrambling to come up with a rule that's fair.
And so even for our professionaldevelopment all the way, I mean,
I'm getting trained on this likeevery three months right now

(57:40):
because it changes literally that frequently.
But from a scientist perspective, because remember
back in the day, human biologistover here, the muscles are
different, the heart is different.
Your heart is physically bigger than mine.
And it'll always be that way. You know, you have surgery, you

(58:00):
could do all these things, but your heart is always going to be
bigger than mine, which means that you're going to be able to
pump blood more effectively thanI will ever be able to.
You know, the other thing we're getting, we're getting close to
that time. You know, we talked about the
Temecula board and and Jen specifically, but it's Joseph
who's being recalled right now. And I was curious are did we did

(58:21):
we avoid talking about him because you're not a fan of him
or I don't know if these are, you know, I don't know him.
I don't know him. Yeah.
Jen reached out to me and we hada really good conversation.
So that's. Why?
That's cool. I really like it because it was
like she set that tone right. Yeah, that's why I can answer
that with like full conviction because I've had this actual

(58:44):
conversation with Jen. Yeah, yeah, I see, I see.
And OK, so here's some things that I I want to know about you
specifically in the position that we're running for before we
close out. I'd like to hear from you about
one thing on the Riverside County Board of Education that

(59:05):
you want to make sure stays in place and one thing that you see
that you can come and have an impact on and change that would
benefit the county. It's on my mailers that I'm
being accused of sending too many of.
They're bright purple guys. The thing that I would

(59:27):
absolutely do is make sure that we continue to have many
choices, right? But quality choices, that's
really important to me that it'snot just there and it's like
useless and takes up air. Like it needs to be a good
choice because nobody wants to like eat the ugly leftover, you
know, canned fruit at the end ofthe buffet when you have options
to have a steak, right? Like no one's going to do that.

(59:48):
So I want to make sure it's quality and that it's like has
potential, right? And then because of my
background, I want to make sure that college and career tech
gets increased. Remember, the population of
these students that I will be responsible for are kids that
are not in traditional high schools.

(01:00:10):
They're at the county day schoolbecause they got in trouble at
regular school, right? I want to make sure that they're
going to have an opportunity to go and get a job and be
productive citizens. It's one thing to just educate
them and get them through with apiece of paper.
It's another thing to make sure that they have the tools to
actually contribute. You know, realistically, there

(01:00:33):
might be an exception to this rule.
There might be one or two kids in the country that get into
Harvard after going to a continuation school, right?
But realistically, they need skills, they need tools.
And so I really want to make sure that we continue to grow
these programs in our area that allow them to have
apprenticeships, that allow themto have trades that allow them

(01:00:53):
to do that. And let's be real, my plumber
makes way more money than my doctor does.
But to say we need, we need handyman.
Yeah, handyman and all of those all.
Of those trades, it's it's a very annex, yeah, it's.
It's actually my. Actual it's undervalued.
It's they're undervalued careersfor sure.
And it shows you really care about the kids because you

(01:01:15):
you're actually thinking about, not like you said, not every kid
is going to want to go to college and go be like a
academic. Actually, most kids probably
want to work with their hands, especially like you said, if
they're in trouble. So that that shows that, yeah,
that shows that you're actually thinking outside the box, not
just the cookie cutter of like, well, just, I just want to, I

(01:01:36):
just want to get them through the high school and get them
into college and like be. Real like, yeah.
Yeah, be realistic. As the college counselor who
specializes getting kids into these high end schools, I'm
saying we should not be sending all of our kids to high end
schools. We should be doing what makes
sense for each and every child. And that's why personal
education is so important to me,customizing every single kid.

(01:01:57):
I mean, there should be no blanket policies because
everything should be about each and every child and each and
every situation. And we need to look at all those
things so clearly and so carefully because if we tell
every child that they have to goto a college, A, we just spent a
lot of money that's going to getwasted, and B, you're going to

(01:02:17):
have some miserable kids. Well, especially in today's
culture too, is every like I said, everything's changed.
A lot of people don't want to goto college.
It's super it's really expensive.
Take out a loan and there might not be a job for you to have
like the. Job, but also a lot of a lot of
companies also are getting rid of their college requirement.
Yeah, times are changing. You got to adapt to the time,

(01:02:40):
so. Well, you know, Jen, I I really,
really appreciate you coming on and talking with us and fielding
questions. I know that we threw you a lot
of questions that you. Yeah, yeah.
Like off topic things. Yeah, yeah.
No, no, no, for sure. But I appreciate you taking the

(01:03:01):
time to talk to us. You know, I'm you're definitely
getting my vote. You already know that.
And it's not it's not because this thing, because I think a
lot of people are like, well, it's one option or the other.
I really do think that you're the best person for the
position. I think that you're the most
qualified, you have a lot of experience and you're not coming

(01:03:22):
in looking to focus your energy and effort on one demographic of
child. You're thinking about the
overall educational process for all children.
And I think that that is the common sense approach that most
people want to hear. Right.
I think it's it's the voice of reason right now, which is what

(01:03:42):
I think politics is missing, that Jiminy Cricket that should
be sitting on our shoulders has been lost.
Yeah, no, that's for sure. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I appreciate it. Yeah, right.
I really believe that you reallyare truly about what's best for
the kids. And even if we have like, yeah,
we don't have, obviously everybody shouldn't agree on

(01:04:05):
every single thing, you know what I mean?
Like you shouldn't even be like that.
Everybody. I don't agree with the people on
my side on certain issues, you know what I mean?
So it's like it's always, but I think at the at the end of the
day, you could reach someone score and like their principles
that they'd really like your, itseems like your core principles.

(01:04:25):
Do you know, well, First off, you know how to do the job.
And 2nd off, you, you're transparent with your answers
and it seems like you're at least willing to, you know,
research things, at least talk to Jen, you know what I mean?
Like someone like I, I don't think Malia would ever sit down
and talk to Jen Weirsma or like try to.
Or even or even talk to us. Well, yeah, talk to us, yeah.

(01:04:46):
You know who's gonna do the one TV pack interview and then come
on and talk to us? Not, not many candidates, I feel
like. Well.
And you know, I'm, I'm being accused of not being transparent
enough, but it's because I don'tthink they like my answers, does
that. Yeah, yeah.
Because transparent. Like I said, I literally have no

(01:05:07):
agenda I. Saw that on the comments on that
one pack the like. I tried to reach out to her and
she didn't answer any of my questions.
On record, let me just say this before we even go on, Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, I. Have never blocked a single
person on any of my social mediaplatforms.
Yeah, they're saying that you. I saw one comment saying that.
Yeah, I. Hear that all the I don't.

(01:05:27):
Believe them, but. I may not answer your question
if you come at me attacking. Yeah, right.
Or with a biased question. But I I have not blocked a
single person on social media. I can that it's fact to the
dismay probably of my campaign manager.
But that's how I roll because I'm like, no, no, no, leave it

(01:05:48):
out there. How do they get a hold of me?
I read all those comments and then I try to make a video to
explain my comments because obviously I talk a lot, but you
have to understand the whole context in order to understand
my answer. So I can't give a one sentence
Twitter answer to a lot of thesequestions because it takes so

(01:06:10):
much more explanation because you have to understand the
context. Yeah, yeah.
And they try those tricky bias questions or like what they do
nowadays. Like, do you condemn blah, blah,
blah. It's like, yeah, I do, but
doesn't mean I agree with the whole scenario, you know?
Like I just told you like. There's context, there's history
to everything. There's always a bigger picture.

(01:06:30):
Yeah, we're working on that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But yeah, Derek will go. Derek will go if we.
Like, this is really my first time talking to you, Derek.
So it's been really interesting because like, I definitely am
like, Oh yeah, he's definitely got some questions because you
don't know who I am. But I really appreciated the
fact that you were willing to listen to where my brain comes

(01:06:50):
from and some of this stuff. Yeah.
And I yeah. I know that's what I find
interesting. And that's the biggest thing
and, and, and Derek and I alwaysagree on this.
And This is why we're so willingto even sit down with people we
disagree with on a large scale because it's, it's more about
perspective. I'd like I, I didn't want to
talk to you to find like an aha gotcha moment or anything like

(01:07:12):
that. I wanted to talk to you to kind
of bring up these like tougher topics and just get your
perspective and your view on it because I value your opinion.
And it's very likely that you'regoing to be sitting on this, the
Riverside County Board of Education.
And I want to know where your head at is on all these things
and. And you know, I'm and if it
doesn't work out, I've been praying Thy will be done.

(01:07:36):
That has been my prayer and my mantra this entire campaign.
And if God has a bigger plan forme, then so be it.
Right. And, and I think because it's
not, it's not about win or lose right now, you know, it's about
what's best for those children, what's best for our children,

(01:07:58):
what's you know, And so if it's not meant to be, and then it
wasn't meant to be because I have something else I'm supposed
to work on. For me, it's always been about
kids. And I don't know, Derek, if you
actually know my background, butwhen I say that my life has been
dedicated to children, like I opened my tutoring company at
11, my foster mom, I worked at aspecial needs terminally ill

(01:08:22):
camp for 11 years. I ran the college and career and
tutoring side of my business forover 10 years as a complete pro
bono nonprofit. Like everything I do is about
children. I sit on the Student of the
Month committee as the scholarship chair, where we
award thousands upon thousands of dollars for decades now.
You know, within our community, there's not a single thing on my

(01:08:46):
resume that does not revolve around children.
Wow. Well, well, no.
We appreciate you, Jen if. They want to get a hold of you,
like leave a message, whatever, and then I'll go through, watch
it and I'll answer questions. OK, cool.
So just on your social media, they can come on, leave a
comment or shoot you a message and then that's a good way to
get a hold of you. I'll make a video.
Perfect. Awesome.

(01:09:07):
Well, thank you, Jen. I appreciate you coming on.
And yeah, thanks to all the listeners.
We'll talk to you later. Bye bye.