What if you could influence the structure of your child's school, ensure they receive a quality education, and foster a vibrant community while doing so? In this podcast, Superintendent Ochoa is joined by Dr. Christian Rubalcaba, Director of School Leadership, Anavela Calderon, a student from San Mateo Park School, and Tania Toala, a parent with children in the district. The four discuss the community schools project and the impact our community makes to create a school that serves their needs.
Together they paint an inspiring picture of parent empowerment and community engagement in the school district, demonstrating the potential for a better school environment through collaboration and open dialogue.
Learn more by visiting the Community Schools webpage on the district website.
What if you could influence the structure of your child's school, ensure they receive a quality education, and foster a vibrant community while doing so? In this podcast, Superintendent Ochoa is joined by Dr. Christian Rubalcaba, Director of School Leadership, Anavela Calderon, a student from San Mateo Park School, and Tania Toala, a parent with children in the district. The four discuss the community schools project and the impact our community makes to create a school that serves their needs.
Together they paint an inspiring picture of parent empowerment and community engagement in the school district, demonstrating the potential for a better school environment through collaboration and open dialogue.
Learn more by visiting the Community Schools webpage on the district website.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us again today. My name is Diego Ochoa, I'm superintendent of the San Mateo Foster City School District and I'm really delighted to be with you all today on the One SMFC podcast. It's a really exciting episode where we are inviting parents and actually students from the district to be on our podcast. Let's give a round of applause for today's episode, and I'm here with three really great people who are going to be a part of this podcast. Each one is going to introduce themselves and tell us all about who they are starting with.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone. My name is Dr Cristianne Rovalcaba and I'm the director of school leadership and in my role I have the great honor of leading our community schools initiative in our district's five community schools in the making.
Speaker 3:Hello, my name is Anavela Calderon. I am a student at San Mateo Park School and I am attending this podcast today.
Speaker 1:That's our school, San Mateo Park School. You got the big, beautiful trees over there. I think some of those trees are 100 years old and maybe even older than a hundred. Do they talk to you about that at school?
Speaker 3:Well, mostly they just like talk about like what kind of trees? It is and how old they are.
Speaker 1:But yes, they do talk about that when our families go there for the first time, I'm always really amazed by how they react. The trees are gorgeous, the shade everywhere at that school. It's a really beautiful place to be. When did you start at San Mateo Park?
Speaker 3:So I started in third grade. I moved to San Mateo three years ago, I finished second grade in my old school and then I started third grade here and now I'm in first grade and I'm going to finish with grade here.
Speaker 1:It's your last year, the best year.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But you're not here by yourself. You have somebody else on our podcast. Introduce yourself for us.
Speaker 4:My name is Tania Toala. I am a parent in this district. I have a fourth grader at Fiesta Gardens and a seventh grader at Apt.
Speaker 1:So you have the two different schools, the two different start times, two different end times. It is complicated some days your student over at Abbott has a lot of teachers. Yes six or seven different teachers.
Speaker 4:Six, because he's in the motion program.
Speaker 1:So he's got a couple of classes with the same teacher. Yes, but you have a new principal there.
Speaker 4:Yes and we're assistant principals.
Speaker 1:Yes, and how's it going so far?
Speaker 4:So probably good. Yeah, we were sad to lose Mr Figueroa Mr Figueroa from the immersion program, but we're happy for him and we are positive that it will make good changes for the whole school.
Speaker 1:Definitely. Mr Figueroa taught in the immersion program last year. Now he's one of the assistant principals. You also have some new counselors there Dr Rugal Kaba. We're here with a student from San Mateo Park, a parent that's representing Abbott Middle School and Fiesta Gardens International School, and you as a as a director, who's been monitoring this community schools process. You're working with a lot of different schools. Help our, our families and our staff learn a little bit more about what schools you've been working with.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it's been a great journey. We started off at the beginning of last school year with year one of the multi-stakeholder input process For our five schools that received this planning grant, including San Mateo Park, fiesta Gardens, sunnybray, laurel and lead and it's been great. I think when we started off the initiative, you know, parents were showing up to the community evening events just curious about what a community school was Right and what the grant was all about. As we started meeting more routinely right, I would come out every month roughly we could started to see the crowds growing right when we started off at the beginning of you, with 20 or 30 parents by the end of the year, where we're talking like over a hundred parents and that was the case actually at the end of last school year at San Mateo Park, if you recall.
Speaker 1:That's right. And those meetings, when you meet with those families, they are separate. So you meet with Sunnybray staff and families and it's a different meeting than the meeting for the Laurel staff and families. Why is that? Why do you separate them in that way?
Speaker 2:I think it's important to Understand the assets of each school. Every school has different qualities.
Speaker 1:That these schools are very different from one another. It's if you go and spend time at Fiesta Gardens International School. It's really different than San Mateo Park.
Speaker 2:That's right. Yeah, and I think it's also as we're looking for feedback from families. We want to make sure that the community schools that were tailoring I mean there will be some similarities because we're following the California four pillars model.
Speaker 1:But if you have a meeting because some of these schools, you'll have 60 or 70 people there, right? So if you did that and you put all five schools together, that's almost 300 people. How much are people gonna be able to give their opinion if they're in a room with 300 other parents? So I think part of it is also just to because for you, that's five meetings you're holding instead of one meeting, correct? It's more time, right, and you probably spread it out over multiple weeks, correct?
Speaker 2:Yes, and you're absolutely correct. I think what's really crucial in this process is ensuring that every family at each site feels heard and valued, and so their contributions need to be actively collected at these meetings so that Part of the design includes their voice, and that's and that's what the empowerment process is all about is ensuring that families have feel that comfort right, that safety, sense of safety to be able to share what it is that they feel our kids need to thrive right to take us to the next level and then when you come across a school where they're starting to get some ideas together.
Speaker 1:This is the year. Now you have a district steering committee and now the schools are starting to create much more specific plans and much more Clear ideas about what needs to change in each one of those schools. Is that fair to say?
Speaker 2:That's absolutely fair to say at this point in our journey. We've received a lot of input, I mean hundreds of ideas from each school and the steering committees, which is part of the shirt leadership pillar. Their task is really to sift through the data. Right, I facilitate the process, but I don't actually touch the data. I don't Manipulate. You know, no one does right. What they now do is they come up with the trends, right, you know they determine like the top 10 or 15 ideas that the families have at each community. So it's really, really exciting to see that process.
Speaker 1:And we're joined today by one of our parents and you have kids at two different schools and I'm curious to know, when you think about a school like Abbott we have teenagers at that school what comes to mind for you about things that we can do to improve programs and services for students at Abbott? What are some ways that we could do our work better there?
Speaker 4:So I think one of the challenges, though, is that the schools, the middle schools, are so big. There are just too many students, so it is very hard to really understand what is happening because you have so many personalities and also the fact that the teachers they go through so many teachers during the day is not that you have someone that can be with them all day long to understand what these kids are going through. So I don't know if there is a possibility to have smaller groups, not necessarily smaller schools, but somehow divide this existing schools.
Speaker 1:Group, the kids together.
Speaker 4:Group, the kids. Yeah, in a different way, so that kids with specific needs have one way of doing things, and then other kids that are more interested in, let's say, sports, for example, they do something more towards that goal.
Speaker 1:Actually, most Abbott students will go to Hillsdale High School when they leave Abbott. I believe that's actually part of what happens at Hillsdale, where students are part of these learning groups, these cohorts of kids, and it's working really well for Hillsdale High School and it's just up the street. It might be something we learned from them.
Speaker 4:Probably something that could be implemented at the middle school level as well.
Speaker 1:So that's part of it to make the kids feel more connected. But you also have a child at Fiesta, so I'm sure you have some ideas on how to improve programs and services at Fiesta. What would you suggest for a school like Fiesta?
Speaker 4:I think communication is something that needs to be looked at Because up to these days, there are still families that don't know what is going on. So the first thing would be to find other channels to get to the parents even if it's like one-on-one communications at this point and then go through the entire 400 families and make sure that they know what's going on. That would be the first thing, and I'm sure that that will also engage more people if they are aware of what the district is doing.
Speaker 1:I think it's also important to open up, for our students to be able to tell us what school is like for them, and when we do that, I think we're going to hear it from the kids who are experiencing it. When you're at school on a day-to-day basis, what really gets you excited about being at school?
Speaker 3:What really gets me excited is also spending time with my friends and knowing that I'm going to learn something different today and knowing that today might be better than yesterday if I had a bad day and also getting to learn more about, let's say, now we're learning about corn, and it's interesting. You always have this question oh, what are we going to learn today? Or what else are we going to talk about? So that's a little bit exciting for me To be able to question myself oh, what are we going to learn today? Or what are we going to talk about today? And sometimes we have a silent reading and sometimes when I finish my book, I'm like OK, what book should I read?
Speaker 1:And you mentioned reading, and your school has this great library that's right, almost at the front of the school. When you go into the library, what books stand out to you? What do you want to read when you go in there?
Speaker 3:Well, in my opinion, my favorite books are usually like mystery books, chapter books or fantasy books, because I really like them, because it's something that you can actually imagine in your mind and it's very entertaining for me because you can imagine it in your mind and you can pretend to be somebody you're not, or pretend to be in the book, like you can pretend to be the main character, and for me it's like being in a play, so you read your role, and the best part for me reading a book is that you can invite other people so you can basically also make a play, like somebody can have their role and you can have your role, and it's super fun.
Speaker 1:And then when you're in class with your teacher and with the rest of your classmates, what activities in class with your teacher stand out to you, what really works for you in class.
Speaker 3:Well, something that works for me is like working with a partner, working with a group, because, in my opinion, you can actually like share your idea with other people so they can hear it and it feels like you're actually being heard. So it's very exciting and also a very popular game in my class is Silent Ball. So whenever people play that, like everyone gets so excited about playing it and I feel like that's also really fun, like actually playing with your classmates and actually making more friends. So you can like Be playing with other people, even though, like, you don't really like like it that much, but like you'll warm up to you have to explain the game tell me.
Speaker 1:Now you got me excited. I want to play this.
Speaker 3:What you do in my class. You sit on your desk and there's a you have to be like silent and it's basically in the name a thousand teachers.
Speaker 1:That just said oh my.
Speaker 3:So you Like you have to be totally silent, like if you talk you get out of the game. So there's a couple of rules like no talking, no throwing the ball, like really hard, no getting caught chaotic. And and like no like jumping off on the desk or anything like that.
Speaker 1:So most of the rules are about not Hurting your yeah and then what do you? How does the? What is what happens in the game?
Speaker 3:So you have to throw the ball, like sometimes the teacher said, like okay, one second hold. So you have to. Like you can only hold the ball for one second and then you have to throw it okay, so Usually like people are like so excited and like whenever somebody loses it, like kind of like hot potato.
Speaker 1:Yeah, kind of okay like mostly like hot potato and if you're holding it at the end, are you winning or are you out?
Speaker 3:Um, so kind of like, if you hold it more than one second, if the teacher says that you're Out, so you have to be really fast with your reflex, like you have to have like really fast movements, and sometimes people just hit the ball with their hand and it goes flying out of the classroom so somebody has to go get it and then the person that hit it like gets out. Um, it gets a bit chaotic in my class, but usually, like it's super fun to play well, and, and we want, as a teacher, we want kids to have fun in class.
Speaker 1:So sometimes these games, they add a little bit of fun To break up the day, to give kids something to look forward to. When, when, as a parent, you send your, your child, to fiesta or to Abbott, what are the events that the school puts on that you look forward to as a parent, because you know there's some special events that happen throughout the year? What? What are those events that you really look forward to?
Speaker 4:So yeah, so I'd be a specific. We do have several Events throughout the year, like fiesta is fine. Now, for example, we have the carnival at the end of the year. So all those events, they they get the kids excited because they know that they are going to be at the school, but it's completely unstructured time so they are free to roam and play as much as they can.
Speaker 1:And for parents, it gives the opportunity to connect with other families you know, and and establish more closer relationships so if the school district is moving towards community schools and you are at a school that already has two events that are very powerful to create community, then those are examples for a school like San Mateo Park that doesn't have fiesta hispana, but there are a lot of Latino students at that school and a similar experience might be something that the families at that school, dr Uwakawa, through the community schools process. This might be something that they develop and create. Is that right?
Speaker 2:That is correct and part of the role of the steering committees at each site, as they're developing their plans, their assets list and the things that they wish to use. The funding for these plans are then used and shared with the other sites. We just assembled a district level steering committee and part of the purpose of this steering committee is to have the different schools talk to one another after the input process and that's where those opportunities come in of sharing and these ideas that I think can be implemented at other sites, like fiesta, this Latino kind of infused festival that would help a school like San Mateo with so many parents who come from a Latino background. So that's kind of the idea behind the district level steering committee for the community schools.
Speaker 1:And actually one of our middle schools, burrell, puts on. They call it an international fair. They have two gymnasiums, one big one and one smaller, older gymnasium, and they have the gymnasium set up for three days and all the parents come in and it's a very international school. So there are parents from Korea, japan, australia, Mexico, el Salvador, all over the world Germany, russia, poland and they set up educational booths and they also make a little bit of food and they put on this event that at that school. It's a very powerful event and I think it's sort of a great way for us to ask students what they get excited about during the day in class, but also outside of class. Because it won't be very long here, you'll be at one of our middle schools next year. Have you thought about what middle school you're going to go to next year?
Speaker 3:Well, actually I am in a program called Peninsula Bridge, so they give you the option if you want to go into something called the Choice Program. It's kind of where you choose what private middle school you want to go to. So right now I'm in the Choice Program and I'm still looking for schools that I want to go to, and some of the schools that I've thought of going is like Castilea, sacred Heart and other schools kind of like that, like Nueva and Menlo.
Speaker 3:And I'm actually really excited to try to go to the schools. I actually went to the Castilea school a couple of days ago to go see what it's like and I had a tour guide, like one of the students show me around the school and it's actually a really cool school. So I've been thinking of going to one of those schools because I feel like it's a very big opportunity for me to go to a private school because I know that some other kids don't have that.
Speaker 1:And to bring it back to both Fiesta and Abbott and Laurel and some of our other schools, the program for Peninsula Bridge. It actually starts in fourth grade, so it started last year for you.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:And the program provides afterschool instruction and college counseling and summer program and it follows the student until they finish college. So they start when they're 10 years old, when they're in fourth grade, and they have this group of people follow them and meet with them for over 10 years until they graduate college. And part of the program is when they hit middle school. The program gives them the option of going to any school they want and it's an example of how that might be something that some of our other community schools say we need to bring Peninsula Bridge to our school because it's at Somatale Park. So where can we pull programs like that? And there are other programs Peninsula Bridge, the people that work there are amazing. They're very lovely people.
Speaker 1:We just created a new program at Highlands and at Laurel for Peninsula Bridge, so I'm excited. We have 40 kids who started the program this year and it didn't exist last year. But I think we have already involved those very Partners like Peninsula Bridge and others who are ready for us to step up and say bring our kids to your programs. And I think the community schools process is gonna help us get there and if we give parents that voice and that power, it Ends up serving the community. So what I want to end with and I want to give each person an opportunity to share, and I'll start with you, tanya is Give us a message about the importance of parents getting involved in their child's education.
Speaker 4:I think it is super important that parents to start from the very beginning, not only because they will understand how their kids are doing and then they can advocate for them and make sure that, first of all, that their families are getting their needs, their needs met, but also to to develop this sense of community with other families, but also with the teachers. It's important to have this partnership with the teachers throughout entire school experience and then, because you know they, we cannot leave everything just to this school. Definitely, education starts at home and then what the school will do is they will just work with you on that. So we cannot let, we cannot just expect that everything is going to happen during the hours that the kids are away. So that's why we need to be in constant communication and understand what's going on.
Speaker 1:Really wise words from one parent to all the parents that are gonna listen to this podcast. We have our student here, and One thing that I always want kids to to share with one another is what. What has been the best thing for you about being at school? What has helped you the most at school?
Speaker 3:I think the Most part that has helped me in school is probably like knowing that you're not alone in this, like you can actually ask for help and you don't have to feel like you're answering this on your own and Like nobody's gonna help you. Like you can actually know that like oh yeah, you can ask the teacher for help if you need help, or if the teacher night there, you can ask a friend. So I feel like that actually helps me a lot in school, like knowing that I'm not alone and knowing that I can ask For help if I need to and knowing that I'm not gonna be judged.
Speaker 1:Well, really, equally, equally powerful message. Dr Wakaba, you are one of many school administrators in this district and you get. You're lucky to be able to be at all these schools and to see their school communities Come together. What's your biggest hope for the community schools process? When it's all said and done, what's your biggest hope for community schools?
Speaker 2:I would say my biggest hope Is to see and I'm already starting to see this Parents fired up about their schools.
Speaker 2:I know the kind of community school initiative process. The approach that we that we took was, you know, one in which we were opening doors for families and inviting them to come to the table in a process that Doesn't always traditionally happen right in schools, whether public or private. Right, it's usually educators and folks on the inside right who Organize and plan and just make decisions, and we kind of we turn the model upside down and we're now opening the doors for families to have opinions, to analyze data, to Really look at priorities and this, make decisions and decide on these priorities, and so, like my hope is to see just an even greater explosion of parent empowerment and engagement at our schools, not just at their own sites, but like getting involved in district level committees, right, and looking at things more globally, because, you know, I firmly believe that when one child wins, they all win right, and so just want that's happen as a result. So I look forward to that.
Speaker 1:Well, and we're. We're a couple of months away, but we're also On the doorstep of the work starting. It is going to take the collaborative efforts of our teachers, our principles, our students and our parents, and I have every, every confidence that we're gonna get there. And thank you all for joining me on the one smfc podcast you.