Eileen Robinson dropped out of high school as a teen but eventually became a Chico Unified School District (CUSD) trustee as a single parent. After some 16 years on the CUSD Board of Education, she’s stepping down.
Robinson found her life path when she volunteered in her children’s classrooms in 1975. There, Robinson realized her passion for working with children alongside their teachers. She was later hired as an instructional aide at Chapman Elementary.
It was in the CUSD that she pursued her career, and eventually built political influence on behalf of the community.
Robinson, who will retire from her District 5 board seat at the end of the year, said she found great satisfaction through school employment and district representation. The longtime trustee has been an advocate for improving resources for local public schools. Elected four times, she is one of the longest-serving board members, alongside former Trustee Kathleen Kaiser.
In a phone conversation with ChicoSol, she recalled the “goosebumps” she first experienced when aiding educators and watching them teach. “It was the only and best job I ever had,” she said.
Robinson began her career when her two older children entered second grade and kindergarten. She began volunteering in their classrooms; became a PTA president; was hired as an instructional aide; and joined multiple committees.
“I couldn’t get enough volunteer time in,” she said.
In 1976, she was hired as the Pleasant Valley High School attendance clerk, a job she kept until 2000. She also worked summer school sessions as a custodian or office clerk to help make ends meet. Meanwhile she found time to earn her high school diploma.
Elected to the Board of Education in 2010
Robinson was elected to the Board of Education in 2010. As a board member, she campaigned to pass Measure J, a $152-million bond measure for facilities repairs and improvements. That bond funded many improvements Robinson said she has been proud to see come to fruition, including Pleasant Valley High’s auto shop and west gym and a new ventilation system at Chico Junior High.
Fiscal responsibility has been a key focus for Robinson.
“If we didn’t maintain fiscal health, if we couldn’t run the district with the money that was coming in, we were going to lose the increasing support for students we were able to put in place,” she said. “I am so proud of the work former Superintendent Kelly Staley and the administration did to the quality of training for teachers and what we’re delivering in the classroom.”
Trustee Tom Lando told ChicoSol that working with Robinson has been a pleasure and an honor. “Eileen was also very kind to me when I first joined the school board, and I appreciate her warmth and caring,” he said.
Lando added: “While we often disagree – as board members should – her dedication to students has been constant. She focused on student mental health before that was a major topic, and she has been a strong proponent of interest-based bargaining, which sees labor and administration as partners rather than adversaries and is one of the major reasons Chico Unified has had a much smoother relationship with our labor units than many surrounding districts.”
Focus on equity issues
Robinson shared her story as “a high school dropout” who grew up in Capay and left Hamilton High after two years.
“For some of our kids, they don’t have that parent saying that, accepting our gay and trans kids as just the next person” — Eileen Robinson
She spent her childhood in rural Capay, often doing farm chores such as collecting eggs, and participating in 4-H. She left her family home when she turned 18, explaining that her childhood was “tenuous and difficult.”
She said employment at Chico Unified helped her provide opportunity to her four daughters. She urged her daughters to, “‘Get an education so you can support yourself.’”
“I wanted them to have an education so they never had to be in the situation I was in, where I stayed in a marriage situation I couldn’t get out of because I couldn’t afford to do anything else,” Robinson said. “I didn’t want them as girls to ever be in that situation.
“I’m so proud of my girls, they’ve done amazing stuff,” Robinson added.
Robinson has been vocal about support for LGBTQ+ students and preventing discrimination in Chico’s schools, including during a period when some families disagreed with how the issue was handled. She said some parents have expressed discriminatory attitudes at school board meetings that concern her.
“We have a problem with those kids being fully supported,” Robinson said. “And that’s not right.”
Robinson has a folder of letters from LGBTQ students thanking her for publicly supporting them as a board member.
She said she has a folder of letters from LGBTQ students thanking her for publicly supporting them as a board member.
For Robinson this is a personal issue. One of her grandchildren introduced themselves as trans during middle school, and she said her first instinct was to learn how to support her as a grandparent.
“For some of our kids, they don’t have that parent saying that, accepting our gay and trans kids as just the next person,” Robinson said. “My experience as my grandchild transitioned was that the staff support was amazing. It was the inability of peers to accept something different that was the hardest.”
She said she hopes that parents know teachers and staff want to help. “It takes a village, and if you’re an aunt, uncle or neighbor and see a family who needs something, just ask, ‘can I help you?’”
Balancing educational priorities
As an attendance clerk, Robinson said her philosophy was to keep children in class, and she carried that responsibility with her to elected office. “Unless the kids are in school and in class, they’re falling behind.”
She also learned how to work under the state Department of Education as it shifted its priorities and funding.
On this, Robinson was frank: “Sometimes they got it wrong. But by the time we figured out they got it wrong, it had been half a generation. We got lucky with a couple of governors, including the one we have now, that firmly believed in early childhood education and the science of reading and doing a better job of figuring out how children learn.”
As a trustee, Robinson also faced the challenges of educating children during the COVID-19 pandemic amid school lockdowns and “the explosion of screens for young children.” She said while technology continues to be a helpful educational aid, she thinks computers cannot replace children’s need for social-emotional learning.
“Computers have taken up part of that social need,” she said. “People in charge of making educational decisions didn’t recognize fast enough that it was significantly impacting our youth, as it has.”
She emphasized how much more support teachers need today, with less funding and more behavior and learning issues to address. Robinson voted to support increasing training for teachers to increase their professional development.
“The load on teachers, because of the changes and expectations of the state, is huge,” Robinson said.
Robinson thinks educators and schools form the safety net for the next generation. She served as a member of the Greater Chico Homeless Task Force and on the board of directors of the Torres Community Shelter.
“We don’t have the capacity to provide the kind of mental health services and things for our people on the streets,” she said. “Some of our city leaders don’t understand the complexities of why we have people on the streets. The children show up at school and we’re trying to give the kids [help]. Some don’t know it’s normal for a parent to get up and go to work every morning. Their parents may be incarcerated for years.”
The excitement of classrooms
“It excites me to go into the classroom still,” she said. “The energy of people in education, the empathy for our youth by people who are in education, it gives me goosebumps.”
She said her passion for advocating for Chico’s children and their families won’t dissipate. In retirement, she doesn’t plan to stop being active in the community. Expect to see her at public meetings going forward, including school board as well as Chico City Council meetings.
Natalie Hanson is a contributor to ChicoSol.