(Photo: Sweetwater’s Jesus Gandara came from humble beginnings to lead the country’s largest public high school district. Ana Tintocalis/KPBS )
The
Sweetwater Union High School District
reigns supreme in San Diego's South Bay. It serves 42,000 students from National City to San Ysidro. Its also the largest high school district in the country. The man in charge is a straight-talking, Texas-born native named
Jesus Gandara
. He's known for turning around border-city school districts with large numbers of poor, Spanish-speaking students. Now he's trying to do the same in Sweetwater. KPBS Education Reporter Ana Tintocalis this profile.
We meet Gandara on the campus of
Chula Vista High School
as students rush to class. He has slicked-back black hair, round glasses and a grey-pinstriped suit.
Gandara came to Sweetwater shortly after an attempt to unify South Bay campuses under one school district failed. Gandara says the community was at war.
Gandara:
Superintendents weren't talking to one another. People were upset. And when I arrived, I was immediately told, that I was walking into a very unfriendly territory.
But Gandara saw an opportunity. He met with everyone in the community in his first 90 days. People began to settle down and listen to his message of cooperation and independence.
More than 70 percent of Sweetwater are Latino, and more than 40 percent live in poverty.
Gandara says he identifies with his students because he grew up in a poor Mexican family in El Paso, Texas. His mom sold flowers. His grandfather -- who he was close to -- worked in the fields. Gandara says education was seen as a way to get out of poverty.
Gandara:
My conservations with him (his grandfather) would be, 'Educate mijo, educate.' And I remember that. And then when I was helping my mom lower these one-gallon cans of flowers, she would say the same thing, 'Mijo educatse.' Educate yourself so you don't have to do this. So it was a constant message.
Gandara was the first in his family to graduate from college. He made a name for himself in Texas years later as superintendent of a school district on the U.S.-Mexico border filled with poor, Spanish-speaking families.
Gandara says in Mexico, teachers are held in extremely high regard. So parents tend not to interfere with their child's education
He worked hard to change that mindset by getting people to spread the word about 'chats with the superintendent' or 'platicas con el superintendente.'
Gandara:
They would drive around in a car with a bullhorn saying, 'There is a meeting, with the superintendent.' Really grassroots. And we had one meeting in a garage. The place was packed. And we brought enough sweetbread, coffee and juice because that was religious. Its significance because we're breaking bread. Then I would tell them what I needed. And they would tell me what they needed.
Gandara say he uses his Catholic faith to connect with Latino families. Its also a source of strength for him -- when drugs, gangs and violence threaten his schools.
Gandara:
I see my role as a superintendent sometimes fighting evil. And so I carry a blessed St. Micheals with me. And I also carry a Rosary with me. Having grown up in the barrio, and seeing the injustices of what we went through in schools, in the community, you have to have courage to take those on.
And that determination seems to helping Sweetwater move forward. Sweetwater High is one of only two high schools in the state taken off a federal list of failing schools because test scores have improved dramatically. Attendance is up, Advanced Placement courses are up, and the district is reviving its career tech program.
Gandara says his passion is to help poor, Latino families see education as the key to a better life. One way he does that is by showing parents how much he makes, and then asking the question:
Gandara:
How would you this child to make that kind of money? Because I'm not any different than their children.
And so Gandara says it's a new day in the South Bay. In fact, he's predicting the district will satisfy all of the federal academic benchmarks as under the
No Child Left Behind Act
this year. No large urban school district was able to do that last year.
Ana Tintocalis, KPBS News.
