Anyone in the last 13 years who has had reason to call or visit the elementary school has been greeted by the warm and cheerful voice of Cinda Pearson. Cinda is the school secretary at FE Miley Elementary School, though the kids have all sorts of job titles they call her by including "doctor" because she hands out bandaids. She wears many hats in the course of her day, which suits her just fine. "My favorite part of the job is the variety," she explained. "I'm not a sitting in my office and crunching numbers all day kind of person. I love to have that interaction with the parents all day on the phone."

Cinda describes her role in the school as working with the family connections element of school life. She helps families connect with the school in various ways, including registering kids, helping to make sure they get where they are going during their day, and helping with the coordination of their after school destinations.

Cinda earned her degree in Business at the University of Montana (she added "Go Griz" when she mentioned her alma mater). Along the way, she focused heavily on business administration and Human Resources. She mentioned how much enjoyment she got from electives like Child Development and Child Psychology. She describes her current work as a perfect mix of the two focuses in coursework. She does a fair amount of Human Resources and administration work in the office, as well as taking frequent breaks to spend time with kids who earn awesome attendance awards, need bandaids, or just stop in to say "hi".

Cinda is a Big Sandy native, who only spent 5 years out of the area during her college years and during one year of work at Montana Power Company's Missoula Offices. From there, she was given the option to transfer to Butte or Big Sandy. She jumped at the opportunity to work back home, close to her family. She worked in the Big Sandy office for 13 years before the company closed them down. From there, Cinda took a job at the school as a Title Aid. She loved working with the kids in that setting for 2 years before moving to the office and was hired on as the secretary.

Cinda's love for the elementary school is evident in the energy she devotes to her job. This is especially true of the fun outfits she wears for special costume days at the school such as Spirit Week, Halloween, and other holidays. She said she didn't get excited about that sort of thing when she was younger, but now she feels that creativity is very important. So, she expresses her own creativity by dressing up.

When asked about her favorite part of her job, she quickly replied: "The fact that the administration works so great with the staff. The staff work so well with the kids. The Pioneer family just jives right now. That's nice."

Cinda has been married for 34 years. She proudly points out that she is married to one of her prom dates, Robin Pearson. Though he says he fell in love with her much earlier. Specifically, in the first grade when she pulled the seat out from under him while he was sitting down because she wanted it. He has been in love with her ever since. The couple has 2 children, Shalayna and Corbin. They have farmed together for 34 years. "Farming is one of my big passions. I've always have had a lot of passion for farming," Cinda explained. She describes farming as one of the things she does for fun, but quickly adds that her favorite thing is spending time with her "five little sugar cubes." Cinda's five grandchildren: Alexis, Kara, Kylie, Cambri, and Kinzlee Dee are all girls and the source of all kinds of joy for their grandmother. She especially enjoys having the two oldest call her every evening to read to her for 15 minutes each. In addition to her own grandkids, she explained that she also feels a bit like a grandma in the Pioneer family.

Every day, Cinda takes a 2-mile walk on the roads near her home, and she loves the outdoors. This is part of the reason the family (Great-grandparents, grandparents, kids, and grandkids) take annual family trips, especially for camping at Seeley Lake. She has been traveling there with her family since she was a small child.

Cinda's motto, which has been heard by students for over a decade, is "Take care of your brain, because you need it to take care of you." She closed our conversation by commenting that with Thanksgiving coming up fast, she is always reminded of "how grateful I am for my own family and for our Pioneer family; you all rock!"