As a first generation college student herself, Dr. Fuentes has worked to close the achievement gap by nurturing strong parent and community engagement, providing innovative learning experiences for students, all while promoting a culture of equity, collaboration, and support throughout her career.
Dr. Michael Conner
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening and welcome to another episode of Voices for Excellence. I am your host, Dr. Michael Conner, CEO and founder of the Agile Evolutionary Group and also the host of the VFE. And today’s guest is more than a friend or minor. I mean, she’s a disruptor in California. And I just extremely love Dr. Roxanne Fuentes, because I tell you, you know, a lot of people. Right. And this is just going to be a reflection of my own leadership practices. A lot of people would say, you know, Dr. Conner, you would talk systems, you would talk redesign and transformation in a very high level manner. But what does this look like in practice and what does this look like? From a contextual sense? We’re I can touch it, right? And the best person that I can be able to equate, Right. I notice, yes, she’s out in California. She’s in Silicon Valley. That’s why we have to find all we out there. But in order to really leverage. Right. The theory and the empirical research around this disruption working. You see this in practice. And I have the superintendent where I actually saw this in practice, and we are going to talk about it here on today’s episode. She is the proud superintendent of Berryessa Union School District out in what I call the Valley. Right.
Dr. Roxanne Fuentes
Silicon Valley Valley. It’s not part of the valley.
Dr. Michael Conner
Right. We want to talk about innovation. Go see Dr. Phil when says And then also she is the incoming president of the well known house. I’m telling you, that group, if you will, that every other every other day. I see something, a new program coming out of there which I just absolutely love. And there’s multiple threads with the program, the programs that they have coming out, of course, to support every type of leader, every type of education, stakeholder. And I know personally from working with Zandra Jo Galvan, who is the superintendent Greenfield, current House Council president, where we have our course, Academy for Leadership and Innovation, Dr. Rock’s influence as is there. So it is work. My absolute honor. I am a fan. There it is, Roxanne Fuentes on VFE. Dr. Fuentes, hermana, what’s going on?
Dr. Roxanne Fuentes
Yes thank you. It’s good, all is good. And I appreciate the opportunity to be here to chat with you. I can chat with you any time you know about so many fascinating, wonderful things. I think, you know, I always think there’s a lot to be said for those of us who you find those like minded people, right wherever you go. And you just know the conversation and flows and more importantly, the ideas and the advocacy and the creativity just flows. And I appreciate your thought, partnership and being invited to be here today, man.
Dr. Michael Conner
Dr. Who says to my audience out there, full transparency, We geek out every time we see each other. It is something we are talking about. Roxanne Did you see this or Roxanne that you hear about that? I’m like, Did you hear this? My dad? Is it because we need that type of synergy within the field? So, Dr. Fuentes, I can’t wait to get into this podcast with you. But here’s the first question, and this is just well known. You are a SLA graduate from Alaska. You speak nationally, well respected in California, in the country. But this is a fun question because I want to get to know or have my audience get to know Dr. Roxanne Fuentes. And Dr. Fuentes, we get to know her by her equity song. So, Dr. Fuentes, what equity song to find you? And when you walk in a room and listen, I seen you walk in the room, I seen you present. You command authority when you walk in that notebook in the pen is already gone. When cabinet leaders, instructional leaders at the site base level or even your teacher, students and community, when they engage with you, what song comes to mind when it pertains to you, Dr. Fuentes?
Dr. Roxanne Fuentes
Well, you know that that is fun, fun question and it’s hard to choose. I’ve got two and for two, like very different reasons. So the first one, I’m just going to throw it out there. This is kind of a short, really fun one. I’m a total eighties junkie. I’m an eighties girl. I love everything. The eighties music sounding. So just can’t get enough like just can’t get enough and just can’t get enough because I love my students. I love our children and you know, I just can’t get enough of them. Right? And I bring my best self, you know, for them each and every day. And so so there’s that one. But in terms of, you know, equity specifically now I’ve got to go really old school all the way back and go back to a song that was played in my home often by my mom and dad and that’s Ain’t No Mountain High Enough. You know, and I think that one’s very special. I think it’s inspirational, right? Ain’t no mountain high enough. Like pushes us to do the work, you know, and that we can do it. I think about my parents, you know, being first generation college graduate. You know, my parents were my cheerleaders, right? They saw a rock star in me and they wanted better for me. And so I always think of that, that song and them and their confidence and, you know, their dreams for me. And I think the other piece, there’s a part in that song that tells people like, you’re not alone, right? If you need me, call me, right? That’s a great little piece in there. We can’t do equity work by ourselves, right? We can’t. We we need we need allies. We need partners across all different kinds of spaces. And I think that’s a good it’s a good reminder that we’re not in this work alone.
Dr. Michael Conner
Absolutely. And Dr. Fuentes, I tell you, some of those themes. Right. Just looking at them in an interrelated manner. But yeah, two songs, right? It ain’t No Mountain High Enough. Enough a just can’t get enough because you know the love for our students the best self of us. I, I tell my son every day right, is you got to be better than yesterday when you be better than yesterday that you know embarks upon this really deep self-reflection on how I can be able to grow. Peter Singer Contextualize it really well. Creative tension, right? Your current in your desired outcome, but a mountain high enough as that model and the example of keep going no matter what circumstance might be and barriers that might be in place, you know, whether it be from a personal or even from a professional standpoint. Because, you know, like if someone says as sit in the seat, right, you got to keep pushing and you got to keep going, especially if we want to limit this equity work.
Dr. Roxanne Fuentes
Yeah, absolutely. And I think a lot about resiliency, right? A lot about resiliency. And I think especially, you know, children of color being a person of color. Yeah, we’ve learned how to build resiliency since the day we were born, you know, and so in for a under a lot of different avenues. And so I think that’s such a critical trait, you know, for for a leader and especially just, you know, in trying to think about your goals and what you want to achieve for yourself, for others, resiliency in an individual resiliency in a community is going to be really key. And that’s where I think, you know, I love being a superintendent. I love it. I loved being a school site principal and for very similar reasons, because you have in that position, which is a privileged position, you know, you have the ability to elevate an entire school community, an entire district community. If you’re really being intentional and thoughtful about, you know, your work.
Dr. Michael Conner
Yeah. And Dr. Fuentes, when you talk about resilience, see, Right. I mean, just the way you you capture what that looks like in a definition, because, you know, as I’m writing this down and when I’m thinking of result and see right, I think I’m thinking of this quote that I was engaging in within Women’s History Month. And it actually resonated resonated with me and said level and that deep level with the quote specifically and I’m paraphrasing at a very high level, but essentially because who you are about influences who I am, right, you being a Latino woman. Right. Your bringing and me coming up. Right. And me as an African-American man. The system is already not designed for us. So we have to continue being our authentic selves and to enact activism within the teaching and learning organization. It just so happened. Now, within the past ten years, still deplorable for women. 4% only of black and brown women are super right? Honorable. We got to increase that. But now, you know, because we lived through a system where we had to be resilient, we actually now get to dismantle racist them so students don’t have to have that very experience. So I thank you so much for your leadership. Like I said, I admire you from about 3500 miles away, but I want to talk to you about your incoming president. Yes, you are president elect. I will get to see that in San Diego, that transition occur. Yes. But now, as that official transition occur in July, right when our sister Xandra, Joe Galvin, concludes her term as Andrea gravely just handed it off to even better leadership. I mean, that’s going to be great. I mean, that’s just going back. I mean, with Z and we’re Rock Z courses in good hands, but we’re closer right now. You have some extraordinary programs even right now that’s going on. You know, the the academy that I’m a part of, that’s the one thread where Z and I create it. And then there’s the Women’s Institute. You know, that’s in April, the summer statute, the Med conference. That was amazing. I mean, wow, So many leadership things that are going on. I course. Right. So but as president elect, what are your specific goals and how can you continue on the legacy of the great presidents and the amazing board members, of course, of moving into this next stage of leadership?
Dr. Roxanne Fuentes
Yeah, thank you for that question. Certainly big shoes to fill following mine and Sandra. Yes, positive, good energy, doing wonderful work, you know, in her own right And so, you know, she’s taken, you know, these past two years, partly through the pandemic, too, and has led our organization very well. And so now, you know, I think continuing the work that she started, which was really to not only make CALSA a premier organization in the state of California, but nationally. Absolutely. And globally. Right. So definitely continuing that work. I think for me, my personal love is teaching and learning is building capacity in others in all different ways. So really wanting to continue to enhance the professional development offerings that we have. And so, you know, one of our signature programs is our mentoring program really wanting to do more, you know, with that opportunity to make sure we’re continuing to grow our own and developing, you know, leaders with that equity lens and that resilience and persistence for students. And I think the other part to that I don’t think we do enough of is having a true voice on the advocacy legislative platform. And I really think that we are now positioned well. You know, as Sandra has done a great, great she’s done it. She’s put us on the map in all of these different organizations, not just Khalsa, but alas, our national affiliate, etc., that now, you know, our presence is there, continuing that visibility, but now really being more leading the advocate, as she will for both our students as well as, you know, all of our growing leaders, Because, you know, we know that our students have gone through a tough time. We know, you know, teachers are having a tough time, you know, dealing with the aftermath of the pandemic. But administrators out there, no one’s really talking about them. And, you know, I I think about my principals all the time. You know, I think about the supports that they need and making sure that they have the tools in their back pocket and the support to do this equity work that’s so critically important. And I think, you know, working at the legislative level and working on being that voice for stronger policy around equity and race, I think is critical.
Dr. Michael Conner
And I tell you, Dr. Fuentes, you are the one when we talk about, you know, and just knowing you personally with your level of expertise right now, borderline at that czar level, Dr. Fuentes, with policy, legislative platforms and and designs of policies to ensure that equity, whether it be gender or whether it be race or some of our students, most marginalized student groups are attended to. And that next level, of course, will be amazing. And I look forward to, you know, being a part of it, helping and assisting, because I know that, you know, I joined the Council water.
Dr. Roxanne Fuentes
Yeah. I mean, and you know, and that’s the thing. Like we have so many good things. And I think the other part is just continuing to let people know like we’re out there and this is the work that we’re doing and we welcome you to be part of our team. You know, one of the things that people will often tell me is like, Oh, I thought I had to be Latino to be a member. And CALSA said, no, not at all. I said, Yes, you know, I am. You prove that.
Dr. Michael Conner
You don’t have to be Latino to be welcomed to CALSA, you are mi familia. But yes, when I go out there it is nothing but absolute love. Nothing. But I. Let’s get to work. And how can we move our students collectively despite gender, race and color? And that’s why I just absolutely I feel at home when I’m so glad to hear that. Yeah. Because that that’s definitely our mission. And, you know, we all need our allies and, you know, and we need to do this work together to get it done. Absolutely. So that influence, as when you officially take over in July, please note that I am an ally, a loyal ally, and I will help you reach your vision and your goals under your two years of leadership. Let’s go. And I want to take this right, because again, this is a course, a program, the course Academy of Leadership and Innovation. Amazing of how it started. And Sandra, you know, before transparency’s on your right, she knew the book was coming out. She knew in the summer as when we were planning this. So it didn’t kind of connect when we were talking about the anchors of innovation, science and the disruptive excellence framework, because we knew in December the book would be out. And this thing is going to be great. And everybody’s like, But where’s the research is coming? Six months is a few months is coming. But, you know, when we one thing that we did was this we wanted this disruptive professional learning model where we actually see right. And what we call our we call it not not theory and practice, but practice and theory, where we see the practices first before the actual research and theory that’s grounded in my book. And our first site visit was to very asset. And I have Dr. Point is unwrap this for us but when you think about the alignment to my book, Intentional, Bold and Unapologetic A Guide to Transforming Schools in the AC Stage of Education. The anchors of Innovation science right. And what Dr. Fuentes is going to highlight for you when I asked her the question is now you’re going to see the correlation between, oh, wow, here’s the practice or here are the practices or here are the systems that we intentionally disrupted for innovation. And here is the alignment of the research. But, you know, when I look at Dr. Fuentes, pillar one, right, Lean practices, and when I look at pillar four or Yes, pillar four, which is culture, right? And when I look at that, I’m sorry, pillar five, when I look at those two pillars, right. Culture and and lean practices, I look at what you did from an innovation standpoint with your systems of what I saw. And I’m like, Oh, wow, this is going to be easy to digest and explain in a wrap the research because we already saw it in place. So as one of the I would say, wow, it took years. But the way you explain it, I’m like, listen, I want I need that architect 101. That’s great. But your mentoring program, right? You’re flexible spaces is just phenomenal. So if you can in the context of talking about lean practices and changing a model from where it doesn’t look like your traditional classroom to not flexible spaces or taking an innovation and moving it to a level of creativity, a dual language program that focuses on Mandarin. What was the process of you tactically? Right, because we have to our people tendons that that listen to. VF Tactically, how did you address that from a cultural standpoint and from an innovative standpoint for excellence?
Dr. Roxanne Fuentes
Sure thing. And you know, before I go into that, let me give our audience here just a little background of what we look like in various because one of the things that attracted me because I’m from Southern California, moved up to Northern California for the superintendent see opportunity and area, so was the diversity that’s up here in the Bay Area in the heart of Silicon Valley. So, you know, our school district, about 6000 students, of those 6000 students, over 50 plus languages are spoken here. And so an incredible, incredible amount of diversity and and very rich in culture and something that we like to really acknowledge and celebrate having. You know, this is a very different just living environment than I was exposed to when I grew up. You know, I grew up in Los Angeles in a community that was predominantly Latino, like 99%. I always tell people, yeah, I grew up in the Latin X bubble, you know, sheltered in some ways, right? And I said, So that was my, you know, my interest in coming up here and now working with our children in various ways. I always think about how fortunate they are to be growing up in such a diverse community and as a school district. Are we maximizing that opportunity for them? Right. You know, what are what are we doing to really add extra value for their education, for their learning? Because this is a unique situation that not all people have exposure to. And so I think, you know, having that mindset and knowing that our our diversity is one of our values that we have in our school district that our school board fully advocates and supports, it’s finding out how can we, you know, build upon what our children are bringing to the table and, you know, and do and provide, you know, some extra benefit in their educational programing. Now, the Mandarin program’s a wonderful story, and it really touches the heart of that appreciation for culture and really wanting to provide our students an opportunity to be not just good citizens, but global citizens, right? Global citizens who are multilingual and can advocate for themselves and for others and can appreciate their culture and appreciate others. Right. All of those things. And with the Mandarin program, you know, our board always wanting to value the diversity of the district and wanting to build dual immersion programing to show respect to that cultural heritage, I didn’t know how to go about doing that. So when I got hired, I knew that was going to be one of my goals and I had past experience in doing that in Spanish, not in Mandarin. And that took Reuters back…
Dr. Michael Conner
If I could interject with that, because what you did right when I heard when I was when we were going to visit your district, we’re going to see a dual language program. And I’m like, okay, you know this And I’ve seen her do language. But Zandra said, No, it’s not your traditional Duolingo, and I’m not going to explain what it is. I want you to see it. So when I was visiting it, right, and it was I mean, literally is the constructs in the frames of a dual language program, albeit the integrated elements within that system, is where you see the innovation one, the broad innovation is Mandarin, and then you have the subsequent themes that support that. I think I said, Roxanne is a superstar. I’m sorry, Dr. Fuentes, I had to interject on that.
Dr. Roxanne Fuentes
Yes. No, of course. And, you know, and so it was really, you know, the the interest in the Mandarin program. Like I said, our board already had that. But it was propelled by our parents. You know, our parents came forward and actually, you know, were advocating significantly for a mandarin opportunity, so much so that they wanted to propose a charter school. Right. They wanted a charter, a charter model. And so going into lots and lots of conversations with all of those parents and letting them know and this was my first year as superintendent, letting them know, you know, Mandarin is a new language for me. But the dual immersion model is not we don’t need to go out to a charter like we can do this work. I can help you build, you know, this opportunity, but letting everybody know from the onset we’re all going to be pioneers is in this process. You know, there’s good and bad to that, right? Like we’re going to have some some starts and some stops, but you’re all going to be part of that process to help build it. And not everybody gets to have that opportunity, right? Sometimes you inherit something that’s already been developed and so having that mindset of, yeah, you know, as a district, we’re going to take that risk, we’re going to take that leap and build something we’ve never seen before. And we were we’re going to put our best foot forward or are we going to have some mistakes? Sure. You know, are we going to have some obstacles that we’re going to have to figure out? Absolutely. Give us that grace, you know, and give us that space knowing that our full intention is to provide something that’s absolutely excellent for our children. And so I think having a lot of those open conversations, both with parents, with teachers who are thinking like, how is this going to impact me and what I do every day in the classroom, Lots and lots of, you know, lots and lots of meetings, lots and lots of forums to get all that buy in and but also to really create a space where everybody’s part of that team. And, you know, now we’re five years in the program is full kindergarten through fifth grade. It continues to evolve, you know. But the other part, too, when we when you mentioned it doesn’t look like your traditional dual immersion program. Well, no, because we had another successful, you know, another successful process that was in place, which was our SEAL program. And, you know, our SEAL program is based in the development of, you know, early literacy. It looks at lots of fantastic strategies to build language in children, all children and our teachers across the board in kindergarten through third grade had already started a professional learning series on supporting this early literacy model. And we you know, you know, when you see good practice and good routine, Right? Why are you going to stray from that? You’re going to build upon that and you’re going to stay consistent in that work. And so that’s what we did. We said we know that these strategies are working for our children. They’re working for English learners. So let’s apply that to our Mandarin model. And so and that’s what we’ve been doing. You know, it’s not always perfect. There’s always different things that we need to rework. Our teachers are very vocal about what they need. You know, our principal at the school site is very vocal about what she needs, you know, But that’s great because, you know, that’s one thing that I always tell my principals especially is their number one job is to advocate for their school. Absolutely. That is their number one job. And, you know, and I tell them, you know, you may not always get a yes, but you got to ask, you know, because my expectation, Asian, is that you are the expert of your school community, like, you know what your parents desire for their children. You know, the capacity of your staff, you know, you know where those gaps are and what you need to address them. You know, that’s my expectation is that you do know that as the site leader. And so, you know, I would expect that based on that input, based on that observational, you know, and, you know, information you’re going to bring forth to me what you need to move to that next level. And, you know, and I let my cabinet team know that, you know, when our folks come forward to do everything in their power to be able to say yes. So and, you know, and if they can’t say yes, they need to have a darn good reason why. And, you know, is and I stole that from a superintendent mentor of mine when I was assistant superintendent. I do I wasn’t always, you know, a big risk taker. I’m very methodical. You know, I’m always like having I have a very I have a plan in mind, you know, checklist type person. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, but I had a superintendent who was just a risk taker and and I’d be running behind him. But hold on. You know, did you think about did you think about you know, but that was his challenge to me. He was like, Roxann, you know, I want us to be able to say yes. Like, what do we need to do to say yes? You know, it’s not always about no, because this is what we’ve always done. Or, you know, he’s like, No, no, no. How do we how do we get to. Yes. And that really I saw under his leadership how much progress and change that we were able to make in such a short period just by that shift in mindset. It absolutely how we go about doing things operationally. And I try hard to emulate that in my own leadership in what I do, you know, with my folks here in various.
Dr. Michael Conner
And you do an amazing job, Dr. Fuentes, because everything and this is to my audience, everything that Dr. Fuentes described, it is a very simplified version of my book. Right. She went through the process of defining what Agile is, right, using data to be able to guide the transformation within the system. She took a strategic approach right to ground the voices of the community to design for demand based off of her most important customers. Right? If you think about the correlation to design thinking, the first step in design thinking is empathy, right? Understanding and designing for your customers. Being customer centric. You see, you heard Dr. Fuentes said multiple meetings, multiple iterations of what her constituency was stating because she was designing a model based off of the constituency feedback. And then she was very lean and agile, iterative around shaping this culture. And then the innovation aspect was the highly successful CEO program of the early childhood program, and that strategic interface of a dual language program. Please, if you want to follow John Hattiesburg on direct Instruction point six for the effect size. And we’re going to use this in a asynchronous manner, rewind that answer because I we went vintage just gave you the secret sauce, no doubt. I mean, and I give in to the level of risk management and risk analysis, please when you elaborate on that because a lot of leaders are not willing to take that risk. What does it look like from your leadership practices?
Dr. Roxanne Fuentes
Well, and I think, you know, again, it’s always doing your best to hear as many voices as you can. Right. But also, I think when you’re starting something new, whatever the initiative is, just because you launched it, Yeah. Doesn’t mean the work is done. Correct. It’s ongoing. And so, you know, we’ve completed the K five series, but every grade was a new year, a new development year for the children. So we had to keep iterating. We’re in the process of doing that again because now these fifth graders are going off to middle school and we’re now figuring out how are we going to design the middle school program to make sure we have this continuity of this Mandarin experience there. And so the conversations haven’t stopped. And like I said, you know, it’s it’s not been always, you know, a perfect evolution. We we’ve had our struggles. We’ve had our disagreements, too, that we have to talk through and and figure out, okay, what’s going to be best for the kids. So I think that’s something that people need to remember. It’s just it’s the ongoing work to make sure that you’re continually providing the best program out there because resources change, you know, and there’s also new opportunities that present themselves. So you want to continue to be able to bring in the latest and the greatest. So I think there’s that piece. The same thing with that is besides all the conversations, there’s the critical teaching aspect and the professional learning that happens. And that’s a commitment, you know, and that’s very time intensive for our teachers, for site principals, because that training is also not a one year deal. It’s it’s every year, you know. And so I think that’s where you find the strength in our program and the consistency of delivery comes from from that continuity.
Dr. Michael Conner
Yeah. And expertise, Dr. Fine says, I tell you, you know, that is if anybody really wants to see what innovation look like and that can explain how to go through that transformation process in a very simplistic form that is digestible, that is not like Dr. Conner, explain it to you, but that is digestible where you know, you will be like, Oh, okay, I get it. Please go see Dr. for Winters and various out in Silicon Valley, because again, if you think about it right and I’m saying this from literally an objective and subjective standpoint, her practices are textbook. I mean, trust me, they’re textbook. Okay. So when you hear that, right, that interface and the intentionality around the design, you know, using data, qualitative data, you know, looking at how we’re going to interface best practices. But a lot of leaders, when they’re putting us together, separate on the structures and systems that influence us. But every time that you and I talk, it is a universal practice of how we create a shared model with capacity and right really is at every single level. And for you, right. I like to say, because, you know, I love to call myself an education architect. When you’re designing the hardware, you have to take into consideration what are the, what are the needed capacity levels in order to enact this model with a level of success. And you can see there’s a true systemic alignment with the actual structures and systems and how you’re building capacity around that. So I commend and thank you.
Dr. Roxanne Fuentes
And I think the other part I want to note for people is as we highlight the Mandarin program, because it’s so visible, because you see it happening in English and then you see it happening in Mandarin, you know, all of this good teaching. But this is also occurring at our other school sites as well, you know, and you got to see Vinci Park Elementary, which is not a mandarin program, but you know that you saw how beautifully, you know, their teachers work with the children there and their love of literacy. And that culture that they’ve developed, you know, is so supportive of that. And so what’s it really this. Yeah, and the flexible instructional spaces are amazing. And that was also a commitment. You know, we appreciate we have wonderful community support of all of our schools. So a bond program has helped support the financing of those those flexible spaces. You know, got to give our community a shout out for for that support. But yes, you know, those those flexible instructional spaces where kids can be creative, where they can get their hands dirty, they’ve got kitchens, they’ve got art spaces, all of that good stuff. Every school site, we all you know, some district can go do those spaces and do them cookie cutter site to site. You know, that didn’t happen here in various it went back to the staff what would you like to create in that space for your students? What is that theme going to be? What resonates with you? What do you think will be inspiring for your students? And so each space is created personally by each school team. So I think I love that, you know, I love the uniqueness of that from site to site.
Dr. Michael Conner
And now I tell you, the and when we talk about when we talk about uniqueness. Right, and it just reads all over your strategic operating plan and it just is evident within your schools. I see, you know, just as school, the two site, the two sites that I visited, you can tell that there’s innovation that is aligned to their uniqueness. But what I want to do now, right at this point is, is really I want to push the thinking of my audience because I want them to hear your response with regards to this level of connectivity between innovation and equity, because everything that you brand your work on is equity, right? But this is a very simple question How are you using innovation as the driver or the or lever to reach equity with all your students and bear? Yes, because again, when I look at your flexible spaces, right, when I examine the strategic integration of essentially a new system that hasn’t been designed, a market creative innovation, Clay Christian would define, then you would take an existing program that has been highly successful, integrate that, where you see this really fascinating creative model that has innovation built into it. But if that’s provided equity right. How are you using that as a key lever to drive that to ensure that all students are receiving high quality instruction within your district?
Dr. Roxanne Fuentes
Yeah, and I think, you know, it starts with asking people about, you know, about their dreams for our children, right? I think that’s my favorite conversation with our parents is what do they hope for, you know, when it comes to their kids? What do they want for them? And, you know, because I think that’s where we get to that heart of equity is is making that our target and then trying to create as many opportunities and spaces, you know, to to get to that level of achievement. You know, when it comes to our staff, when it comes to, you know, our administrators thinking about their own children, what would they want for them? Would they bring their own child to their school? Right. You know, and I and I have to say, many of our teachers have their children in their schools. You know, some of my principals have their children in their schools because you’re proud of that. And you know that that is a wonderful place for children. Right. So you set that as a bar for all kids, you know, making sure that you’re going to reach every single one. And so I think you get to the heart to to a person’s heart, you know, And then, you know, I also think educators in general, we all came into this work to do right by kids. I truly believe that, you know, based on different experiences in workplace conditions, people may have strayed, you know, from that initial intention. But I think it is possible to bring people back to their passion and why they pursued this work to begin with and to be able to get them inspired to ensure that, you know, we are acknowledging that every child that comes into our classroom space is unique and that every child has assets. I think that’s really critical. Every child, regardless of their background, has assets and is bringing, you know, those strengths to that classroom for contribution and, you know, making sure that that’s acknowledged and recognized is really important for me.
Dr. Michael Conner
Absolutely. I mean, you can’t answer it any better way. I mean, building a model that is grounded or grounded and assets, an asset based model where we’re looking at the strengths of students, that right there is a disruptor from the context of mindset, because usually and you know, the starting point is we usually look at students from a linear lens of achievement, but leave out what are the student’s strengths, what are the students aptitude, what is their acumen of development, as opposed to categorizing a student by just a linear metric? And you have done that so very well out there. I mean, literally, I hope that leaders across the country will be able to engage in just one or multiple conversations and then come out there and see it and really use you as a leadership catalyst or a change agent that can really define what leadership can look like. But again, this is really arduous work, but I want to focus on building capacity because every time I hear you right, you talk about the importance of capacity building with regards to the instructional leadership level, the site base level, and you are like 1,000% correct. When we talk about leadership matters, I even say that in my tweets, right. And I’m talking about the site base level because I love how you really put that intentionality on building their instructional lens, their collective lens around what it means in the context of ensuring that we have culture responsive classrooms. So when we talk about right site based leaders, developing them to be effective change agent, you clearly as an instructional leader today, or my superintendents or executive leaders or even broad change management, continuous improvement architects that are out there to improve the success of students. Right? What advice would you give your I like to say, second tier leaders, right? I love my my CIOs. The reason I say that is because I was a former chief academic officer. I was a former assistant superintendent, teach and learning. So I have a natural bias for that, Dr. Fuentes. What would you say for those leaders that have principals, right, that reports in indirectly? And we know that an a coaching model that builds the capacity of our teachers really provides that. I like to use Atul Gawande days. I believe is 10000 hours right where you do it right but and that can only be done through a coaching model, right? Where is that going in seeing practice, implement, you know, change practice, Really look at it from a low inference manner. But how would you tell superintendents how, would you tell those those those second tier leaders, those executive leaders to build capacity around your instructional leadership, around your instructional leaders, and how learning leading never stops?
Dr. Roxanne Fuentes
Right. And I think also as leaders, we have to be willing to try different approaches, too. And, you know, because I number one, I put a lot of emphasis on my school site principals. I see them as direct extensions me, you know, and also I was just meeting with one with one of my first year principals this week. We were just doing a little check in and seeing how things were going and I was sharing with her. I said, you know, I said, the principal job of all the administrative positions that we have, I said, The principal job is the most like mine as superintendent. Yes, I said, it’s it’s the most similar. I said I said. And also I said and I explained why, you know, because we’re kind of juggling similar things, but at different levels right now. Yes. High level me at a district wide community wide level. And I think if you can turn it and work with all the adults and the principals with the kids, right. Because I love the kids a little bit more. And I told her, I said, you know, my my famous words to people is, if this superintendency job doesn’t work out for me, I’m going to go right back and be a school principal because it’s like my favorite thing to do. I loved being a principal and, you know, and I have no problem going back, you know, to to that position. And, you know, and I was telling, you know, my principal, I said, you know, I said, the other thing I want you to keep in mind is the other way that our two jobs are very similar or is in decision making and the amount of power you have in the types of decisions you make. And I shared with her, I said, because, you know, once you leave principal ship and you’re a coordinator, a director, an assistant, Sue, you’re having to ask other people permission a lot. You know, you’re having to do a lot of check ins. You’re having to do a lot of like, is this okay? You know, you’re getting direction from other people. I said, but as a principal, I said, yes, you’re always going to have the district telling you, here’s our new initiative or this is what we’d like to see. That’s always going to happen. I said, But as a principal, you get to decide what that looks like. Like you get to personalize that again because you know your, community, you know your students, you know your staff. So you get to mold that. And that’s wonderful privilege to be able to do that. And sometimes I think principals don’t realize how much power they have in really being able to shape the culture and shape the, you know, teaching and learning environment, you know, of their school site. So really wanting to empower them and letting them know that they have room to do that, I think is huge. And being able to give them the space to take risk and make their own mistakes and learn from that. Right. You know, and I tell my cabinet also, you know, I really want our divisions to be divisions of support. And what does that look like? And, you know, when sometimes we get caught up in our own day and day, you know, our day to day business and it doesn’t look like support anymore. And it looks like a lot of directives. Right. And so being able to kind of pull the team back and say, okay, you know, let’s time out because I’m seeing our principals are drowning again, you know, So we need a go. We need to circle back. So I think being able to kind of being strategic by taking the pulse, you know, in different ways, and that’s how I do that with these check ins. You know, it’s very helpful to kind of see how someone’s doing individually, but also doing check ins by group. The other thing that I’ve done this year, which has been really powerful and I would recommend it to others, is my whole Cabinet team. We’re doing site visits, right? And so, you know, and so what that looks like is we go out to the school site, we go about a half hour before the first bell. So we’re doing the meet and greet, but we’re also observing traffic, we’re observing safety conditions. You know, all of that to be able to give some feedback or support. I have my you know, my my business services assistant soup. He’s responsible for transportation and and school safety and facilities. So he gets to see things firsthand, things he thought that were fixed and aren’t fixed right. He gets it right. He gets in the conditions of the cafeteria and the meals that the children are eating. Why do they like them? Why do they not like them? Right. He gets to see that the same thing. Then we go in and we go and visit as many classrooms as we can. And again, that’s an opportunity like my assistance soup of human resources. You know, I want him to be able to check in on those first year teachers. I want, you know, h.r. In business to be able to see. What does it look like when a teacher has to teach a combination of class, right? You know, what is that workload? Because we’re always looking at staffing projections, right? And we know we’re doing our, you know, we’re doing our right sizing to make sure we’re not overstaffed. But sometimes in structurally we have be to do the right thing. Right. And so making sure…
Dr. Michael Conner
Faculty, Dr. Fuentes, what you just stated, you know, and I think a lot of people, Dr. Fuentes and I apologize for interject. Because you are. Absolutely. And I think that we have to have that critical lens when people say we have to right size the district. I always used to say, well, what does right size mean? Because there has to be embedded flexibility because more some students are going to need a little bit more. Right. As defined and grounded and rooted in the data that we analyze. So thank you, Dr. Fuentes, for bringing that up.
Dr. Roxanne Fuentes
Yeah, exactly. And so, you know, so being able to have my team with me, to see all of that firsthand so that they have context of, you know, what our sites are experience seeing and and also what they’re doing. Well, Right. And and all of that. And so then at the end of our visit, we debrief with the school site principal. And, you know, and we kind of give the principals some feedback, but also let the principal know, okay, you’ve got the entire cabinet team here. What you know, what do you need? Like what do you need? You know, how can we support you?
Dr. Michael Conner
Absolutely. And Dr. Fuentes, what I love about this, right, is that you just described a tight, loose coupling concept of a theory of action. Right. And I’m going back to work from when I worked with Dr. Steven Adams Ski in Canada, Kid, and there was a book out to name of the offer by was called Strike and Progress and they talked about a theory of action that is loosely coupled and tightly coupled and the development process or or the whole process of designing your district around that right, is giving your principles that structured and define autonomy as you’re building capacity as it’s going. I mean, wow, very iterative and dynamic and dynamic. You know, when I was a superintendent, I wish I actually had a Dr. Winters. I thought I was the Lone Ranger thinking like this in your way out in Silicon Valley. But last question that Cohen says and I’m want to try to limit you to three words. Now, I know it’s going to Roxanne’s going to be hard, right? But just try. Everybody breaks the rules. So listen, and we’re disruptors here. So take the question for what it is now. But what three words, Dr. Winters, do you want today’s audience to leave with regarding excellence, equity and transforming your learning organization by innovation? Because you know this whole how did this whole interview within a podcast has been? I’ve been jotted down so many nuggets that I think that are relevant, right, that are relevant and not only just relevant, but robust to really expanding leadership principles and practices in the AC stage of education. But what three words would you use to be able to limit excellence equity and transform your learning organization shown by innovation?
Dr. Roxanne Fuentes
Sure. I think the first one’s persistence, yeah, you know, it’s just absolute persistence. You know, kind of keep your eye on the prize, you know, it’s going to get hard, but you get backed up and you keep going. So I think, you know, that’s critical. The other part, the other word I would say is humility, just being humble, because I think especially with equity work, it takes time. You know, it takes some courageous conversations and people need to know who you are, you know, as an authentic leader and being humble, showing vulnerability. I think that also builds trust in others to support the work. And then I think the last word I would say is empowerment. Yeah, empowerment, right? That’s what I’m really trying to do with my principles, trying to empower them, you know, and and build them up, you know? So because they’re going to be our future leaders. Right? And the same thing all the way down, our teachers, our classified staff. You know, I was really so excited this year that five of our paraprofessionals became teachers in our district this year. So building those pipelines, you know, building, building up, you know, from within is really important. And every opportunity that, you know, we can do that, I think we should.
Dr. Michael Conner
Thank you, Dr. Fuentes. Persistence, humility and empowerment. And I love how you said to build this pipeline of leadership, and it starts at all levels. So Dr. Fuentes, thank you. You lasted on VFE. That’s a hard thing to do, hermana. But, Dr. Fuentes, I would be remiss if I didn’t ask you if any of my audience or leaders across the country that want to be able to contact you, to ask you a question, whether it be about what does innovation look like or even that Mandarin program sales. How would they be able to get in contact?
Dr. Roxanne Fuentes
Yeah, they can contact me very easily. They can go to the Berryessa Union website. All my info is there. They can go to the CALSA website, they can find me under CALSA President elect. I’m there. So that’s CALSA.org. So either way, happy to help out a friend.
Dr. Michael Conner
Absolutely. And please if you want to get involved in council please reach out to Dr. Fuentes because I tell you, the programs, they’re extensive, they’re relevant and they’re meaningful so that if weren’t as from the bottom of my heart, thank you for your leadership and everything that you’re doing, not only for your students and Berryessa and for the state of California, but what you’re doing across the country and impacting everybody. So thank you for being on Voices For Excellence.
Dr. Roxanne Fuentes
Thank you so much. It was an absolute pleasure to be here. Thank you for the opportunity.
Dr. Michael Conner
Absolutely. And on that note, onward and upward everybody. Have a great evening.
