Q&A: Cheryl Hines on Detroit's "School Pride"

You may know her best as an actress, most notably as Larry David's wife on “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” But Detroit will soon know her as something else: Producer of a life-changing show called “School Pride.”

Check this out: Hines is co-producing the new reality television show for NBC. It is going to completely renovate Detroit Public Schools' Communication and Media Arts High School. The renovation will take place the first week of August – volunteers are needed. The show will air sometime this fall during the show's regular time slot of 8 p.m. Friday nights.

Some 630 people have already signed up to help; Hines is looking for more. In fact, she has thrown down the gauntlet, noting that Detroit claims it will have the most volunteers of any school profiled on “School Pride.” Let's make it happen…pretty please?

Anyway, here's some questions and answers with Ms. Hines and a little bit about this project. I'm hoping to do some volunteering and writing about what happens as the renovation happens. This is the kind of television Detroit needs – your thoughts?

Background: Inside a building that once housed a Catholic school, the students of Communication and Media Arts High School are proving that students in Detroit Public Schools can succeed against all odds. Nearly every member of the class of 2010 is bound for college – except those entering the military for the G.I. Bill. This excellent small school, which boasts a 97 percent graduation rate, was originally slated to close this summer due to lack of funds to repair the building. It was saved after being selected to receive significant repairs as part of “School Pride.”

According to NBC:  “Making use of local businesses and skilled local labor, the community will make over classrooms, public spaces, athletic facilities, and art and music halls. The changes at CMA will truly be a community effort, with ‘School Pride' producers planning to recruit a large number of volunteers from the local area to work on the transformation effort.”

Q: Most people know you as an actress; why work on a project like “School Pride”?

A: It started as a very small grass-roots style project. I had reached out to a school in Compton that was in need. I cold called the principal of the school and asked her if they needed jump ropes and soccer balls. I feel like I've been fortunate and I had a need to give back to the community. I have a daughter and I feel that she has a great school, so I want all the kids in the county to have a great school. Called Dr. Jacqueline Sanderlin, asked her. … She said, “Oh, among other things.” She said, “Why don't you come down to the school, let me show you around.” I was surprised to see the school hadn't been painted in 28 years. The playground that they did have had yellow police tape around it and the kids weren't allowed to play because the sand around them was infested with bugs. So I realized the problem was much bigger than jump ropes and soccer balls. (The renovation there) had a huge impact on the community. I was so transformed by that. … My then husband told me this should be a TV show; you should show America how you're doing this. Then, I met (fellow producer) Denise Cramsey, and she loved the idea. We decided to work together and make it into a show.

Q: What has the reaction been so far?

A: It's overwhelming. The excitement and the enthusiasm we've had for this project is overwhelming in a good way. I have crew members come up to me every day and say they're so thankful to be working on this project. That's so nice because it's a tough job. It's not easy, working on these schools. They're dirty, they're rundown and there's a lot of work that has to be done on them. We have volunteers that show up every day. At the end of the day, they're sweaty and they're dirty – but they're really happy. And they show up the next day and do it again. What we've realized it that no one is going to save our schools except us. So we just have to. Our kids deserve good schools, and our kids deserve to be happy to have a safe place to learn. Parents want the best for their kids. And a lot of times there are single parents working hard all day long to make enough money to pay the rent and don't have the resources to volunteer at the school every day or even know where to begin to volunteer to make a difference at a school.

Q: Why come to Detroit and why focus on CMA High School?

A: We were so impressed with the integrity of the school. It clearly the building is not a reflection of the accomplishments that are happening at that school, what the kids and the faculty are doing is remarkable. And we should be rallying around that school every day, telling everybody at that school how great they are. I know it's hard; there just seems to be no money anywhere. So we have to be creative. “School Pride” is all about empowering the community to come together, and we knew just by looking at the statistics of the school we knew that the community would be supportive. Because they clearly care about these kids and they clearly care about their education. We're going into CMA and we're going to transform it into something beautiful.

Q: How can you do this in a week?

A: First and foremost, “School Pride” comes in and we have professionals that will do a lot of the heavier things. But we also rely heavily on the community to come together. We have a web site set up where volunteers can come. We try to keep it very organized so we have a good idea of how many people will be there that day and we know what tasks they can do that day. They clean, paint, organize. There's also a lot of weeding and planting. We've had a great deal of success so far. We've found when you empower a community to come together and change a school, that community now has an organization in place to keep working on other parts of the community and other schools. There are things that I've learned about this project that I didn't expect to learn: something like putting in a great football field at a school not only helps that school, but that it helps the community around it. You even have other schools that can use that field. Same with auditoriums, track field and things like. … Even the property values around the school go up. We did not set out to change the community (around Compton) but that's what happened. Now when you drive by the school you see something beautiful and you know it's thriving. You want your kids to go to that school because it's going well and it is. It raises the bar. Now, teachers want to be transferred there.

Q: Detroit could use the help, you think?

A: They need a spot of sunshine. It really is infectious. You start doing one tiny gesture, one tiny positive gesture, and it makes you feel so good you want to do that next thing. And you want to bring your friends to do it with you so you can talk about it. What we're hoping is that “School Pride” will be the spark and Detroit will be the flame.