Trinity County Office of Education
Sarah Supahan – County Superintendent of Schools
www.tcoek12.org • (530) 623-2861

Historical Schools Series, Part Two: A Short History of Trinity Center School District by Sarah Supahan

Trinity Center was so named as it was situated at the center of the Shasta-Yreka trail. Originally the land of the Wintu, the first white community was said to be created by Moses Chadbourne in 1851. One hundred years later, several of the town’s buildings were moved to the present location after the construction of the Trinity River Dam and the flooding of the original townsite. Trinity Center School District is said to be one of the earliest school districts established in the county, in operation during the 1862 – 63 school year. Then as now, there was one teacher.

The 1862 county school census indicated that there were thirteen, 4 to 18-year-olds in the town. The school census report for school year 1894-95 shows that the number of children in the Trinity Center community between the ages of five and seventeen jumped to 35 boys and 37 girls, for a total of 72 students. Of those, 38 attended school.

In 1867, the school was adverting in the local paper for a school teacher for just two months; The salary was $50 per month.

In May of 1895, a report on the school appeared in the local paper. The report said that Trinity Center’s school was “surpassed by no other district in the county in length of term, [and] regularity of attendance.” This was considered a real achievement due to the severity of the winter. That year there were three students promoted to the 9^th grade: Lena Larsen, Viola Mathews, and Ettie Parry. Miss Ettie Parry also received a prize for the best work in spelling, and nine students attained regular attendance of over 95 percent.

Prior to 1950, there had been four different school buildings used at Trinity Center. The first was the “Hoffman home”; the second was located “opposite Lodge Hall”. The third was built in 1885, while another one was completed and dedicated in 1950. Because of the construction of Trinity Dam, the school from 1950 was then relocated, by moving truck, up to the current school site and served as the preschool until it burned down in 2001. Before that fire, the school was already in the process of building the new, separate classroom still in use today. The current school’s main building has one original structure built in 1962 and the rest has been added on to over the years. Further, a major remodel and roof replacement due to mold was completed in 2014-15.

By 1997, the Trinity Center yearbook shows a staff of nine and a “Resource Staff” of an additional nine members. There was a total student body of fifty-nine. There were so many students then that the 3-5^th grade classroom of twenty-one students had to be located in the old school building.

Today the school is still thriving and this year has a student enrollment of thirteen students, the same as in 1862. There was a high of seventeen students during the 2020-21 school year, and ten students in 2021-22.

If you have more historical information about the school, please contact Sarah Supahan, County Superintendent of Schools, at 530-623-2862.

Trinity County Office of Education
Sarah Supahan – County Superintendent of Schools
www.tcoek12.org • (530) 623-2861

Trinity County Office of Education, Column for October, by Sarah Supahan

In the winter of 2021, the Trinity County Office of Education (TCOE) received a grant from the North State Equity Fund, which is, in turn, funded through a collaboration between the Northern California United Way and the North Valley Community Foundation. The TCOE grant application was to create Native American-based classroom curriculum and resources for schools to utilize county-wide. The TCOE held a workshop in the summer of 2021 to give volunteer teachers throughout the county an introduction in how to create such curriculum and the goals of the project. Curriculum drafts were due to TCOE during the fall of that year. Unfortunately, that was the fall that several different fires broke out in our county, schools and homes were evacuated – and so was TCOE - and the work was stalled and had to be reduced in scope. We did have a few curricular units completed and more resources purchased or obtained such as primary sources, informational books, children’s books, other sample curriculum, and other information. These resources have been added to TCOE’s growing Native American reference library held at TCOE for all teachers to access.

An additional project for the grant was to create a map of the tribal areas of Trinity County as a reference for classrooms. Before starting on the project, TCOE believed that there were four tribes represented in our county: Chimariko, Nor Rel Muk Wintu, Tsnungwe and Wilacki.

The Yurok Tribe’s well-known Information Technology Department, located near Weitchpec, California, was engaged to create the map. That department researched through every published map as well as all tribal information they could find to create a beautiful map that could be distributed to local schools and tribes as well. Through their extensive research, it became known that within our county boundaries are the ancestral territories of NINE tribes: Chimariko, Hupa, Lassik, Nongatl, Nor Rel Muk Wintu, Shasta, Tsnungwe, Wailaki, and Yuki. Our county also encompasses a small portion of the Round Valley Reservation which is made up of a confederation of small tribes: the Yuki, Wilacki, Concow, Little Lake Pomo, Nomlacki and Pit River - all the tribes who were forced onto the land originally occupied by the Yuki Tribe. While many of the tribe’s territories encompass a greater area outside of our County, all nine tribes have traditional land within the borders of Trinity County.

During the TCOE-sponsored American Indian Day celebration, observed on the fourth Friday of September in California as well as in many other states, TCOE presented the maps to Paul Ammon, Tribal Chair, Tsnungwe Tribe, and John “Sonny” Hayward, Tribal Chair, Nor Rel Muk Wintu Nation. They received the maps on behalf of their tribes. Both, laughingly, organized themselves to stand on the correct side of the map – the left side showing the Tsnungwe land and the right side indicating the Nor Rel Muk territory.

If you have more historical information about the school, please contact Sarah Supahan, County Superintendent of Schools, at 530-623-2862.

Trinity County Office of Education
Sarah Supahan – County Superintendent of Schools
www.tcoek12.org • (530) 623-2861

Historical Schools Series, Part One: A Short History of Coffee Creek School District by Sarah Supahan

Coffee Creek, located in Wintu ancestral territory, was said to have received its name from a pack mule loaded with coffee that was swept away by the creek’s high water. Eventually a town was built along the creek and a post office was established there in 1882. The requisite Coffee Creek School was established 14 years later on January 6, 1896. The single-school district is the northern most district in the county. It’s entirely possible it began, like most schools in Trinity County, as a private school, paid for by the parents of the students attending. One clue that it started as a private school is that the first Board of Trustees was not in place until 1899. To be an official public school district, a Board would have to be established.

It’s is difficult to say where the first Coffee Creek School was located as the site moved several times. At one point, the location was at the mouth of Coffee Creek. A “new“ school house was built for use in 1902. It’s not clear what building was used prior to that time. The first eighth grade graduation occurred on May 24-26, 1905.

The first teacher that taught there was said to be Alice R. Powers of San Francisco. By April of 1897, a new teacher, Miss Mabel Bishop, was hired and stayed until Spring of 1898. Five more teachers rotated through the district from then until 1901, with one from as far away as Gilroy. This was a regular occurrence for many of the early districts in Trinity County, the fact that many teachers came and went, never staying very long at any one school. It may be that their experience in Trinity County was not what they expected. As one early teacher in another county school said, “Having in the past taught only certain subjects in large educational institutions”, the teacher, “found that her experience had not fitted her to conduct a school such as ours”.

As is the case with many of the early schools in Trinity County, Coffee Creek eventually absorbed another district. Pinkham School, which no longer exists, was made part of the Coffee Creek School District on September 13, 1919. By July 17, 1926, Coffee Creek District was suspended (temporarily closed) due to a lack of students, but only a year later it was open again. The entire history of this school district has continued this way with families coming and going, filling up the school, and then the school facing suspension with too few students. For instance, there is another record that the school was suspended on July 2, 1928, but was reestablished on July 3, 1929. Today there are nine students enrolled and the school is thriving with a dynamic husband and wife team of very experienced educators. Interestingly, in the current student count there are four sets of brothers and sisters and one student who is an only child. Coffee Creek is still one of the smallest single school districts in the county.

If you have more historical information about the school, please contact Sarah Supahan, County Superintendent of Schools, at 530-623-2862.

Trinity County Office of Education
Sarah Supahan – County Superintendent of Schools
www.tcoek12.org • (530) 623-2861

August – Mental Health Expansion

Welcome to another school year in Trinity County! As we look forward to the upcoming year, we first have to recognize the fact that many of our students have been working through some truly unprecedented times. From virtual learning and pandemics to the constant threat of devastating wildfires, our students have dealt with and carried with them a lot of emotional baggage. We have heard the need for additional mental health supports, whether that be counseling, mentoring, or social skills training from many of our school districts and we wanted everyone to know the steps we are taking to address some of those challenges.

Trinity County Office of Education
Sarah Supahan – County Superintendent of Schools
www.tcoek12.org • (530) 623-2861

By Sarah Supahan, Superintendent of Schools

Suggested Title: A home library and just six minutes of reading a day

In a recent study it was found that a child growing up in a home with at least 80 books will have greater literacy and number sense in adulthood. In addition, a home library can promote reading and math skills more than college alone. The study, which surveyed 160,000 people, found that just having 80 or more books in a home results in adults with significantly higher levels of literacy, number sense, and communication skills.

Trinity County Office of Education
Sarah Supahan – County Superintendent of Schools
www.tcoek12.org • (530) 623-2861

By Sarah Supahan, Superintendent of Schools

Clutter and Mess Increases Stress

Did you know your cluttered home, office or classroom may be having an adverse affect on health?

Clutter can play a significant role in how we feel about our homes, our workplaces, our classrooms and ourselves. Messy spaces can leave us feeling anxious, helpless, and overwhelmed. Yet, rarely is clutter recognized as a significant source of stress in our lives. That direct link between excess clutter and higher stress levels has been made in numerous studies.

Trinity County Office of Education
Sarah Supahan – County Superintendent of Schools
www.tcoek12.org • (530) 623-2861

By Sarah Supahan, Superintendent of Schools

Creating a healthy sports environment

Nearly everyone with a child in sports has seen that parent or has been that parent who starts screaming from the bleachers at coaches, umpires, and players at a questionable call, a missed ball or a cheap hit. For many, the outburst is isolated, but others yell and complain all nine innings, four quarters or two halves, making life on the field, dugout and bleachers miserable for everyone.