- Welcome to "Inland Edition," where we have community conversations with people who make decisions that affect our everyday lives.

My name is Joe Richardson.

I'm a community member, an attorney, and your host.

And today, we're going to chat with the current Riverside County Superintendent of Schools.

The son of Peruvian immigrants, and an immigrant himself, Dr. Edwin Gomez arrived in California when he was young and, with the support of his parents, became a kindergarten teacher at the age of 23.

He went on to achieve a master's in educational administration, [background music] and a doctorate in educational leadership from Cal State University, San Bernardino.

He believes education is the most powerful profession in the world.

You could call him distinguished, attentive and intelligent, and I can't wait for you to meet him.

So, let's do that right now.

[gentle upbeat music] ♪ ♪ ♪ - [Joe] Okay.

Now, I wanna welcome County of Riverside Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Edwin Gomez.

Thank you so much for being here!

- Joe, it's an honor to be here.

Thank you for having us, and it's truly a pleasure to be here today.

- So, let's start.

You know, we always like to go back to go forward, you know?

How do we know where you're goin' if we don't know where you've been?

So, talk to us a little bit about your background and kind of what got you on the road to what became this stellar career in education.

- Yeah, that's a great question.

And, being immigrants to this great nation was just a phenomenal experience.

My family migrated from Peru to Mexico, and from Mexico to the United States.

And so, we truly lived the immigrant experience.

And, my parents didn't speak English.

They had to learn the language.

They had to learn the systems.

And so, for us, growing up in this environment, we were truly blessed to have amazing teachers that truly cared about us, that fostered an environment where we felt safe, where we felt supported.

And, I don't know where my mother got this idea, but from a very young age, she embedded within us a passion for learning, and high expectations.

And, she said basically that we're gonna go to college no matter what!

(Joe chuckles) And, she herself only had a fifth grade education.

- Wow.

- So, it was pretty amazing that she came up with that revelation that it was important for us to go to college.

So, my two brothers and I, we went to college, and because of the strong foundation that we had from our caring teachers, my dream was always to become a teacher.

I wanted to be the next Jaime Escalante.

I don't know if you've ever seen that movie, "Stand and Deliver?"

- Sure.

- It was very inspirational, very powerful.

And, I wanted to really be like that person, like that teacher, who had a heart of compassion for students, and that's what really drove me to go into the field of education.

So, I became a teacher at a very young age of 22.

Was a teacher that taught kindergarten, taught fifth grade, sixth grades.

And then, I felt that there was a need for leadership.

And so, I entered into the ranks of leadership.

And, that was quite the epiphany because, as we know, education's not all peaches and cream.

There's challenges.

There's things that we gotta go through.

But, it was an amazing experience.

And so, I became an assistant principal, principal, director, assistant superintendent.

Then, I served as a superintendent in two outstanding districts in Southern California.

In 2019, I was appointed as deputy superintendent in Riverside County, and then subsequently in 2020, I was also appointed as the Riverside County superintendent of schools, where we serve 430,000 students, 23 school districts.

And, we just have an amazing county, which I'm proud to serve as the county superintendent.

- So, you talked about all of the different things that you did.

Tell me how, you know, is there an element or two that you took from each of those things that informs so many things in education, right?

From a teacher on.

So you have that perspective, you know what I mean?

You can't take people where you haven't been.

And, you have the perspective of being a teacher, and being at these levels, being a principal, you know, that type of thing; being in leadership, but not quite the superintendent, and being the superintendent.

What did you take from each of those things that helps you today?

- You know, what I tell my colleagues all the time is that the most important person in a classroom, aside from the students, and we're here to serve students, and I think that that's really the nucleus of what we do as educators is we have a heart for our kids.

We have a passion for our students.

But, the second most important person in the classroom is always the classroom teacher.

- Mm hm.

- And so, one of the things that I firmly believe is that our entire system, whether we're custodians, or bus drivers, or we're principals, or directors of curriculum and instruction, our number one focus should be how we support our teachers in the classroom, how we provide the resources for them so that they can be successful in empowering and educating our students.

- Now, a lot of people have probably heard the terminology.

You know, you walk in the room, somebody would say, (whispers) "Hey, that's the superintendent!"

(Edwin laughs) But, tell us what it means to be the superintendent.

What does the superintendent of schools do?

- Yeah, I think, you know, and to your point, and I appreciate that question.

I think, for me, we can't live behind a title.

And, titles, in my opinion, they're important, but at the end of the day, they're not really that important, because I think we always have to have a sense of humility.

I see my role as one of service, of servant leadership; being able to support our parents, our students, our stakeholders within the community.

But, in essence, in theory, the terminology of superintendent is basically working with our stakeholders, once again, to empower our students, to ensure that every student in Riverside County is receiving a world-class education.

And so, my job is really a facilitator.

It's connecting dots: connecting us to our civic leaders, our community programs; working together as a unison, as a team, to ensure that we can really ensure the college and career readiness of our students and the next generation.

- Give me the 30,000-foot view.

Gimme the playing field on Riverside County.

It's so important.

It's part of the Inland Empire, houses the biggest city in the Inland Empire, and the county seat.

I understand that 'cause my wife actually is in Alvord School District.

- Oh!

- She's a speech therapist.

So, give me the playing field on Riverside County and what you see as its role, not only in the Inland Empire, but statewide.

- So, Riverside County is actually the fourth largest county in the state of California.

Once again, we have over 430,000 students.

We're about geographically the size of New Jersey.

We go as far east as Blythe.

And, we go all the way down to South County, which would be the Temecula, the Murietta, Lake Elsinore area.

And, we also have regions in the San Gorgonio Pass.

So, we're a very, very vast region, very diverse, which I think are beautiful things, right?

To have diversity, to have an eclectic community that really cares about students.

And so, for us at Riverside County, we believe in supporting our 23 school districts.

As the Riverside County superintendent of schools, one of my main priorities is to ensure the fiscal solvency of all 23 school districts.

And, I'm proud to say that in the last four years every school district in Riverside County has been fiscally solvent, or has had a positive certification, which I think is outstanding.

And, we're also focused on supporting our school districts with their professional development, whether it's in language arts, whether it's in mathematics, or science, or social studies, our job is to ensure that our school districts are up-to-date with curriculum, through the Williams Act.

We're also responsible for alternative programs, and also career tech education, amongst many other things that we do at the county office.

- How does Riverside County, your department, connect with-?

Tell me about the interplay between your agency and then statewide agencies, state government, related to education issues and resources, and even federal.

- So, as a county office, and I think the same is true with all of our school districts, we work collaboratively with the California Department of Education.

Obviously we work with the federal government, as well.

And, our job is to provide a free and accessible public education of high quality to all of our students in the county.

In particular, we have four initiatives that we have partnered with a variety of stakeholders and independent contractors, as well as social service agencies.

And so, the first one is Mental Health.

- Okay.

- And, I think mental health right now, as you know, with the onset of COVID, - Sure.

- and now that we're kind of thankfully going beyond that, mental health has really, really been critical in empowering and ensuring that our students are free from anxiety and depression.

And, even though those are challenges, we believe through our efforts and through our initiative, we've really been able to tackle some of those major, major issues within the realm of mental health.

The second initiative that we're very proud to really address is Financial Literacy.

- Yes, sure.

- I think we all agree that financial literacy is so very critical, right?

When we talk about equity, when we talk about empowering our students to become entrepreneurs and to become business people, they need to learn the basics of financial literacy so that they don't go into debt.

So that they're not living the lifestyle of living paycheck-to-paycheck, but having the tools and the resources so that they can become the next generation of multimillionaires, and innovators and creators in the business world.

And then, the next initiative, which we think is very, very important is our Literacy by 5th Grade Initiative.

And, this is all about literacy, ensuring that every student in our county is ready for middle school and high school in the area of literacy.

One of the issues that we've seen because of COVID is obviously a relapse or a detriment to our students, because they weren't receiving high quality education during the pandemic.

And, I think for those who have had students in schools, such as mine- I had two during the time of COVID- most of their instruction was done through Zoom.

So, imagine teaching a kindergarten student literacy through a camera.

And, that's very difficult to do.

So, we've seen some gaps that we need to close.

But, once again, we have powerful-- we have amazing teachers and educators in Riverside County that are doing such a phenomenal job in really closing that achievement gap.

And then, the last initiative that we're doing is the Equity and Inclusive Practices Initiative.

And, basically what that is, is ensuring that every student, regardless of their background, regardless of their socioeconomic factors, that they too are receiving a high quality education.

- Tell me about how you see some of the advances that we have coming along and how it affects education.

You know, educating is teaching, helping someone to learn, someone to get educated.

So, there's all of these things on the horizon.

There's all of these technology things.

There are things that are going on in the state of California, which often prides itself on being a bellwether for where the nation goes.

So, we're talkin' about technology; we're talkin' about AI, you know what I mean?

(Edwin chuckles) We can't not see that in-- through an educational window, you know what I mean?

So, what are some of the things that you see out there from an education standpoint, and are there technology, et cetera, and are there connections with businesses, with technology companies, industries, et cetera, that allow us to kind of take advantage of what it is that's coming in from around the corner?

- [Edwin] Great question, Joe.

And, I think for us, cultivating our career tech education programs are critical.

Ensuring that there's pathways for our students to enter into careers that are viable, that are fluid.

Careers that obviously they could earn a living from, I think are very important.

And, I think it's also important to state that not every student's gonna go through the traditional college path.

Some kids want to go a different path, and that's okay.

We've gotta validate that and we've gotta support them.

So, one of the things that we're very proud of at Riverside County Office of Education is that we've cultivated relationships with our businesses, with partners.

And so, our students have opportunities to do internships, as well as apprenticeships.

And, it's been very, very successful in getting our students into about almost 80 different career pathways.

- Wow.

- Whether it's medical, whether it's technology, whether it's health care, and we can go down the list.

But, it is very, very powerful.

And, to your question about AI, I think we gotta use those tools, those new innovations that are out there.

We've gotta embrace them, not run away from them.

But, they can be tools that can be utilized in classrooms.

I think when teachers are open and transparent with their students, that they can use this in their realm of research and their realm of discovery, I think it gives students permission to be able to use this as a first draft, or as a second draft, and to check their resources, and to check their work.

As seasoned educators, I think what's important for us is to use these tools so that we can make it acceptable in our schools.

- [Joe] Tell me about what's hard about your job.

(chuckles) - I would say, I think, understanding that there's many, many perspectives in our community about what education's about.

I think for us, it's important that we are sensitive and compassionate to the different voices that are out there.

Because, they have a legitimate voice regardless whether we agree with them or disagree with them.

I think at the end of the day, I think 99% of people truly want our students to be successful.

So, I think it's important that we listen, and that we listen empathetically, that we listen with compassion.

And, that we are authentic listeners, so that we can get the voice of our community immersed into our schools, and not to negate their passions or their concerns.

- Let's talk about resources a bit.

As you mentioned, Riverside County, in terms of our students, there's a high percentage that are disadvantaged.

And, some of us believe that in a lot of areas the Inland Empire in general tends to get left behind in terms of resources.

Has that been a thing?

Is that a real thing as it pertains to education?

How do we make that better?

And, tell me about you guys, for lack of a better term, maybe "fight"?

Or, "quest"-- (Edwin chuckles) - for further increased resources.

- I think, for us, it's important to maximize the resources that are dispersed to us.

And, I would say that in Riverside County, we have the second best high school graduation rate in the entire state of California.

- Mm.

- I think we've been able to masterfully use the resources and the grant funds that have been given to us in a way that is systematic, in a way that's truly pushing college and career readiness.

One of the things that I'm very proud of within RCOE is that we have a College and Career Readiness division, or department, that has truly, truly empowered our counselors, our administrators across the county to bolster graduation rates, to bolster A through G rates, to really work with our families and getting them plugged in to financial aid so that they can start making inroads in how to pay for college and how to finance their college experience.

And, it has been very, very successful.

So, I would say the resources that we've been given in the last five years has been tremendous.

We're very grateful for it.

Obviously, we know that the ongoing funding of our programs is important, but we also believe that having good stewardship is critical in making things happen.

- Now, I know that you guys have a few offices.

Tell us about, you know, and they would, of course, be the first physical impression that a lot of folks would have of your department.

Tell me what people can expect, and why they would go to one of the offices, and what they get in the range of, or in the way of, day-to-day services.

- So, our offices, the way that I explain it to our team and the way that we express it to our community is they're not our offices.

They're the offices of our community.

We were very blessed to have a new conference center in downtown Riverside that is our new building, and where we allow for professional development.

We allow for community events to take place.

And so, what we want to exude is that it's a welcoming environment for our parents, our students.

We do celebrations.

We do student recognitions.

We do end of the year teacher appreciation events.

And so, once again, for us, RCOE is a hub.

It's the center of our educational system.

And, it doesn't belong to one person.

It doesn't belong to RCOE; it belongs to the entire county.

- I wanna talk a little bit about civic engagement.

You're actually elected.

- Mm hm.

- And, you know, life happens.

So, even folks that have kids that are in school, family members- everybody's got somebody they know in school!

So many people are just dealing with their day-to-day life and trying to just be okay and trying to keep their head above water.

Talk about the importance of civic engagement in light of the fact, not only despite the fact that people are very busy, but because they're busy, it doesn't make what they're doing any less important.

How do you encourage folks- or make what you're doing any less important- how do you encourage folks that it's really important for them to be civically engaged as it pertains to education issues, and it actually helps you do your job better?

- You know, I think we're in a particular time in our history where it's important that we take civic responsibility and civic engagement to a higher level.

I think in education sometimes we tend to not engage in politics and engage in the political landscape.

And, one of the things that we've learned, and being in this elected office, is that we need to teach our students, as well as our educators, as well as our stakeholders, that being part of the democratic process is extremely important.

I tell people, "right now, more than ever, "it's important that we have the right school board members "in the right places.

"Because if we don't, it could be catastrophic "in the way that it might impact "the student wellness of our students, "how it might impact curriculum, how it might impact the budget of a school district."

So, I think being at the forefront, and me giving speeches throughout the county, and talking to different stakeholder groups, I always communicate to them the power and the importance of voting and voting for the right people.

I don't care if you're Republican, Democrat, or Independent, it's important that you put the right people in office based on your vote.

- What would you say, if you had your druthers, that you would give the teachers that they don't have, or more of something that maybe they do have?

How would you maximize teacher resource and teacher experience to not only do right by the ones that are teachers, but to remind folks of how worthy and important of a profession it actually is?

- So, one of the things that I always tell our school districts, and when we work with our educators, one of the things that we communicate as a whole is teachers learn best from other teachers.

And, within Riverside County, we have exemplary programs that are addressing things like chronic absenteeism, programs that are impacting the high school graduation rates of our districts.

And so, instead of trying to learn from people in a different state, or to learn from vendors or outside consultants, I always say, "let's learn from within.

The power is within our system."

And so, we're trying to create spaces through our professional development team and our leadership team to really involve our teachers to learn from each other.

So, we're creating those spaces.

We're creating training specifically designed by teachers for teachers.

And, we believe that that's how teachers learn the best.

They learn from their colleagues.

They learn from each other.

And, that has the greatest impact on student achievement.

- Is there something out there, society, that you would tell us as a society-?

People everywhere, we all rely on education.

You know, when I'm hiring somebody, I'm hiring somebody that has education, that has training, or whatever else.

Is there something that we're worried about that we shouldn't be?

You know, give us some encouragement as it pertains to dealing with the challenges that we need to, to get at this advanced state of education and accomplishment, you know, that we're talking about, with our high expectations and those expectations being met.

You know?

Are there areas where we need to just make sure we can continue to push through?

Not be scared?

Stay encouraged?

How do we get past those things?

- I think number one, we need to get all of our stakeholders involved in the decisions that impact them.

I think, once again, if we're gonna isolate people, I think that could be detrimental.

But, I would say that we have to, once again, embrace our free public education.

I believe emphatically, based on my experience, that it can liberate a person, right?

From the scenarios of poverty, from the scenarios of things that have been generational in a family.

And, I think that we can't be afraid of learning from different subjects.

And, getting back to the basics, I think is critical; of reading, writing, at the highest levels of your abilities, I think are extremely important.

So, I would say, for me, if there is diversion from that, if we get too, quote/unquote, "fancy" or "exotic," I think we're gonna be in trouble.

But, I think we gotta get back to the most important thing which is creating an environment where students can think critically, where they can be creative, where they can have these open landscapes to engage in science and mathematics and philosophy and art, and not be afraid of that.

And, I would say, taking that a step further, I'm a firm believer in the arts, and I think we need to invest more in creating music programs that are relative to our students.

Dance and the visual arts, I think, are a great way to express the sentiments of the human soul, which I think create better human beings, in my opinion.

- Right.

You have a monumental task, right?

Super important, difficult.

I don't know how much or how little you feel the weight of that, but how do you get through, you know, a tough spot, a tough moment?

Say something didn't come through that you were hoping for?

There's something that happens on a campus?

Or, you know, how do you as a professional, as a superintendent, as a person, you know, as a father of school kids, you know, how do you get through the tough moments?

- I would honestly say that I get through those difficult times through my faith, believing in God, believing that everything happens for a reason, and that we're here for a reason.

And, I think every life is critically important.

We're all part of this "ecology," that we may wanna call it that way, and I think we have a role and that role is to support others, to help others.

And so, I wanna believe that I'm an optimist.

And, even though things can be difficult and tough, once again, it goes back to the mission and the vision of each respective district.

And, for us, the mission for the Riverside County Office of Education is providing that extraordinary service to all of our students, and ensuring that they're college and career ready.

So, I go back to that.

That centers me.

That grounds me.

I know there's a lot of politics out there.

There's hardships, as you described, but I think that, for me, adapting that same resiliency of our students in my life, I think, is important.

And, we can overcome those things because, at the end of the day, we're here to support our students.

- This is great.

I think I'm gonna ask you the easiest question I've asked you!

(Edwin chuckles) Because, it involves someone with a teaching background giving us homework.

So, you know, I assume, I am certain, that people have been able to take a look at this interview, and they are educated, they are informed, and they're inspired.

So, give us some homework on how we can follow up, you know what I mean?

Like, "Wow!"

You know, "I saw Dr. Gomez.

I learned some "incredible things about Riverside County.

He talked about these four initiatives."

You know, tell us how to follow up and to get more information based on what we've talked about here today.

- Well, first of all, I would say to an incoming teacher that maybe is thinking about going into the field of education is "get informed and get involved.

We need you."

I think, right now, the shortage of teachers is vast and great.

And so, we really need to do a better job of recruiting and getting exemplary professionals into our field.

But, I would say, you know, RCOE provides wonderful information through our website, through our messages of the month that we have, through our Twitter, social media pages, that we developed.

And, we're always available to support and empower our colleagues.

We do have an actual School of Education within Riverside County Office of Education, where we do offer credentials to prospective teachers - Oh, wow.

- and administrators, as well.

- Okay.

Well, this has been fantastic.

Riverside County Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Edwin Gomez, I thank you so, so much for joining us.

- Joe, it's been a pleasure.

Thank you so much for everything that you do, and it's been an honor to be here today.

- Well, thank you.

And, we want to thank everybody for watching us on "Inland Edition."

Continue to join us as we build bridges one conversation at a time.

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