Sebastopol Rotary Education Foundation takes to Zoom to honor three west county teachers

Any other year, the streets of downtown Sebastopol would have been lined with well-wishers cheering for the West Sonoma County Teachers of the Year honorees during the annual Apple Blossom Festival Parade.

The April celebration, a springtime tradition dating to the 1940s, originally scheduled for last weekend, was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. No matter the circumstances, the Sebastopol Rotary Education Foundation didn’t halt its plans to honor three local educators as outstanding west county teachers.

Honorees Mary Jo Kinser, Joe Maloney and Sydnee Mardell couldn’t join the community in celebration along Main Street, and they couldn’t attend a Rotary Club of Sebastopol awards meeting typically planned to recognize the top teachers.

And instead of unexpected classroom visits by Rotarians with floral bouquets in hand, they were notified through separate online Zoom sessions. They had been expecting to discuss school concerns with their colleagues but were surprised to find Rotarians and other supporters also gathered for the announcements.

“We went into Plan B,” said Dan Rasmus, the foundation’s president and Rotary Club of Sebastopol’s incoming president. The Zoom meetings weren’t a bad alternative, he said. “We can’t storm a classroom with an army of people,” but Zoom sessions allow more participation.

“I was blindsided. I had no idea,” said Maloney, a teacher at Laguna High School, a Sebastopol alternative education campus of about 100 students. “There are so many teachers working so hard.”

Like fellow honorees, Maloney credits the Rotary Club of Sebastopol and its education foundation with longstanding support of students and educators, from funding programs and offering teacher grants to presenting scholarships and providing hands-on assistance at schools across the region.

The awards come at a challenging time for the educators, who are distance teaching and missing the day-to-day interactions with their students. It’s especially bittersweet for Kinser, who teaches fourth through sixth graders at Sebastopol’s Pleasant Hill Christian School, a private elementary school she co-founded in 1982 with close friend and fellow teacher, now retired, Janlyn Heath.

Rotary selected Kinser for its career service award, recognizing her leadership skills, dedication to students and high standards in education.

Kinser retires this year after 42 years as a teacher, the past 38 at Pleasant Hill. “For the most part, I’ve loved every minute of it,” she said, although she never imagined the final weeks of her career would be spent away from her 16 students.

As a teacher, “I play off the interactions with the kids,” she said. She enjoys working in small groups with students, overseeing projects and expanding learning through field trips and opportunities like the overnight environmental living program at Fort Ross State Historic Park and environmental education camps in Occidental, where students can “get out and have a different experience.”

Kinser was nominated for the Rotary award by numerous supporters. She’s always embraced a “work hard, play hard” teaching philosophy and strives “to take each student from where they are and move them forward, in every area, not just academics.”

She mentored a new teacher at Pleasant Hill this year, after going through a training program that reminded her of the far-reaching impacts teachers can make in students’ lives. “There are some wonderful, exceptional teachers out there,” Kinser said.

As she plans for retirement, she’s confident about the future of Pleasant Hill. The campus, which includes a turn-of-the-century schoolhouse, serves about 50 students in kindergarten through sixth grade. The school operates as an outreach ministry of the nondenominational Occidental Community Church and offers small student-teacher ratios.

Mardell, Rotary’s new teacher of the year, is three years into her teaching career. She’s completing her first year at Twin Hills Charter Middle School in Sebastopol, where she teaches sixth grade science and eighth grade drug education as part of the school’s health education curriculum. She also provides math support to eighth graders at the 260-student campus.

Mardell, 31, is at home working with adolescents. “I love them,” she said. “Middle school is my jam. I’m cheesy with kids. I relate a lot.”

She likes the challenge of making lessons relevant. Hands-on labs are terrific when school is in session, but while distance teaching, Mardell finds new ways to keep her students engaged. She recently assigned a science lesson that included students embarking on neighborhood searches for geospheres, a project that coincided with Earth Week.

She’s long held an interest in science. “I want to hook kids in. I like really turning them on to that passion,” she said. She would love to one day teach robotics and engineering and direct her students to events like the annual Sonoma County Robotics Challenge.

Mardell credits the staff at Twin Hills with being especially supportive and encouraging.

Hal Kwalwasser, vice president of the education foundation, said it’s important for new teachers to feel valued and appreciated. A former general counsel of the Los Angeles Unified School District, Kwalwasser said new teachers often struggle, with about half of them leaving the profession in their first five years.

The foundation established the teacher of the year awards in 2007, but revised the criteria this year. Now, in addition to honoring career excellence, it awards a new teacher with less than four years of experience, and recognizes a teacher who champions new ideas and innovative programming. Each honoree receives a $1,000 cash award.

“The past few years have been times of real ferment in K-12 education. There have been all sorts of changes brought about by technology and new demands on schools,” Kwalwasser said in an email. “We thought it important to recognize teachers whose insight and advocacy have helped schools step up to these challenges.”

Maloney, of Laguna High School, is the recipient of Rotary’s inaugural award for innovative teaching.

He coordinates the west county chapter of North Bay Construction Corps, a collaborative program of North Coast Builders Exchange and partners with the Career Technical Education Foundation, Sonoma County Office of Education and Santa Rosa Junior College. Maloney facilitated the opening of the new chapter last fall; the education foundation is providing funding for three years.

Twenty-eight high school seniors from the West Sonoma County Union High School District, including 10 from Laguna High, are developing hands-on skills in basic construction through the five-month after-school training program. The North Coast Builders Exchange expanded the program following the North Bay wildfires of 2017 to help with the shortage of construction workers and provide career opportunities for teens approaching high school graduation.

Maloney also teaches science and P.E. and oversees three campus gardens where students gain experience in everything from germinating seeds to grafting trees. He also was instrumental in having students access classes at Santa Rosa Junior College, where they can gain credits and explore subjects like astronomy, horticulture and vineyard practices.

Maloney said it’s especially beneficial working with a small, cohesive staff, directed by Principal Lindsey Apkarian, where everyone can work collaboratively toward students’ success.

He also taught woodshop and coached at Sebastopol’s Analy High School, and has worked as a general contractor. Additionally, he grows apples and grapes at his family’s 15-acre farm in Sebastopol.

Maloney said west county students are especially fortunate to live in an area with so many programs and resources available. “The resources are right next to us,” he said. “This is an incredible place to grow up.”

“We all have different learning styles. It’s nice to be able to find different avenues to find out what (students’) different skills and gifts are,” Maloney said. Students learning construction skills, for example, can translate math lessons into everyday applications.

For Rotarians like club president Keller McDonald (former superintendent of the WSCUHSD), Rasmus, Kwalwasser and Diana Rich, who chaired the teacher of the year program, the awards reinforce the many efforts made by the club and its education foundation on behalf of local schools.

Selecting the outstanding teachers for 2019/2020 “was very difficult,” Rasmus said. “You leave the selection process thinking we’re in really good hands.”