Meet Helen E. Anderson-Cruz, one of the three candidates running for the two full term positions on the Coronado Unified School District’s school board. (The other two candidates for the two full term positions are Julie Russell and Maria V. Simon.)
Helen, whose father served in the Navy, was born in Guam, and raised in San Diego. She moved to Coronado in 1987, and has been here ever since. Her daughter attended elementary, middle, and high school in Coronado. Helen credits Coronado’s schools with preparing her daughter “very well” for UCLA, where she earned a degree in education. Today her daughter is one of Village Elementary School’s very own first grade teachers.
Her daughter, of course, followed in her mother’s footsteps because Helen herself has spent a lifetime as an educator. Helen studied at San Diego State University, and went on to teach high school literature, high school reading, high school forensic debate, French, and geometry.
After teaching for a few years, Helen returned to graduate school, and earned her doctorate degree at University of Southern California. Upon completion of her doctoral program, the newly titled Dr. Anderson-Cruz was invited by USC to join the faculty as a professor.
Helen continued teaching at USC until she retired in order to care for her mother, who had Alzheimer’s. “After her funeral, a friend of mine from San Diego State called me, and said, ‘I have one class for one semester. Would you please teach it?’ That was 2006. This is 2016. I’m now retiring again,” she says with laughter.
Since 2006 Helen has worked part-time at San Diego State teaching in the rhetoric and writing department, and now that she’s retiring for the second time and will have more time on her hands, she’d like to put her years of education experience to use by serving on the CUSD school board. Helen says, “I’ve been a consultant with Sacramento and the Department of Education for the Commission on Teacher Credentialing, and helped write the language arts standards for the state of California, which are about to expire now because I believe we wrote them ten years ago. I’ve also been on a California accreditation team for WASC (Western Association of Schools and Colleges) and CTC. They review university programs for accreditation purposes. There’s a great deal of information that needs to be covered, and I did that for quite a few years.”
Helen has actively participated in CUSD through the years. She shares, “I’ve served on the Strategic Planning Committee for the district, the senior prom committee, and the after-prom committee. I was also a room mom.”
Additionally, she belongs to a philanthropic educational association called P.E.O. International. Of P.E.O. Helen says, “Our mission statement is to help women who would not have access to education have access to education through scholarships.” She’s also a member of the USC Alumni Association and the Phi Delta Kappa International organization, which, according to its website, is focused on “growing and connecting leaders in education.”
As far as other community organizations within Coronado itself, Helen is excited to “investigate” which groups she would like to join now that she’s retiring. She’s interested in the Coronado Rotary Club, the Optimist Club of Coronado, and the Soroptimists. “I think I will probably join one of those three associations if I’m invited to join because I think that community service is very important when you have time. They don’t just support in name only; all three groups actively support our kids and our community,” she says.
Why do you want to be a member of the Coronado Unified School District School Board?
“I’ve been involved in a low-profile sort of way with the district, and was asked by some people to run for office because they wanted an educator on the board. I’m delighted to serve my community because I think Coronado’s a great community. I think that the parents and the teachers and the administration are a wonderful group of people, and when we’re on the same page, you can’t stop us.”
“I think that parents need to feel welcome and validated. I think teachers need to be honored and appreciated. I think the administration, as my observation has been, support the teachers for the most part.”
“I’m excited about Karl Mueller returning to Coronado to replace our superintendent, who departed, because I think he will do a great job. He smiles every time you see him, and he really loves his job. He knows the students’ names. He knows the parents’ names. He goes out of his way to be available and to communicate openly, and I think that’s important. I think school board members need to be open to communicating with parents in the community and the teachers, be active listeners, and be advocates for what’s best for kids.”
“I feel privileged to live here. I love how in this community we all look after each other’s children; it’s an old fashioned idea, and most communities have lost it, but I know my neighbors’ names. I know their children, and I know their grandchildren. They know my daughter and my granddaughter too. It warms my heart!”
What strengths do you possess that you feel will make you an effective school board member?
“I think an extensive background in education; I’ve taught elementary, middle school, high school, undergrads, and graduate students. I’ve taught every level, primarily in language arts, but not exclusively. I enjoy students, and I enjoy watching their faces light up when they get it.”
“Same thing goes for parents when I’ve had parent teacher conferences with them concerning their children. When they receive interaction from the teacher that keeps them current on the students’ progress and how they can help at home to actualize their full potential, the parents light up too, and I think that that’s very important. Parents were some of my greatest assets when I was a teacher, and I think they are in Coronado too because we have a highly involved, caring set of parents. I know sometimes that can be misinterpreted, but parents love their children, and want what’s best for them, and I support that.”
What changes, if any, are you hoping to bring about as a school board member?
“I think I would like to see more transparency among the community and the board. For example, when I first moved here I remember that you could go into one of the schools, and you could meet a board member, or have coffee, and they had a little meet and greet, where you could share your concerns, learn something, or just ask a question. I’d like to see that happen again.”
“I know we appreciate our teachers, but I think there are professional ways to support them that would be so helpful for morale. So many of our teachers do so many things that go above and beyond; we have teachers who go to kids’ sporting events, and the kids are delighted when that happens. When teachers go above and beyond, which many are always doing, it would be nice to have a congratulatory ‘I noticed you did . . . ‘ little something in their mailboxes. It goes a long way! We assume that they know that we’re thankful and know they’re doing a good job, but as a teacher I can tell you that you rarely hear it. I’d like to see more of that.”
“I think we all need to appreciate the different strengths and talents that our teachers have. If it [teaching] looks easy, you’re watching a really good pro! It is not easy. If things are running smoothly, someone has done a great deal of planning and front-loading of classroom management issues. I think sometimes we don’t appreciate that because it’s running smoothly. If you want to appreciate a really good teacher, you need to be in a classroom that isn’t running smoothly, where everything goes wrong, and then you go, ‘Whoa! Okay! I get it.’ We don’t have that in Coronado though. We are blessed.”
“On a professional level, if a teacher has accomplished something with a particular instructional delivery system or has students who may have been a little reluctant to learn, but are now excited about learning, I think it’s nice if that’s observed. I think teacher morale needs a little boost; at least that’s been my impression. Appreciating, honoring, and valuing our teachers is always in everyone’s best interest.”
“For parents who volunteer, who are room moms, it would be nice too. We used to have a reception for all of the room moms at the end of the year. I think small gestures like that are so important, even maybe a little gathering to say, ‘Thank you! We appreciate you!’ I think just like we give gold stars and certificates to the children, we could give those out to parents, and that would go a long way toward letting the parents know that we really appreciate them.”
“I’m a homeowner in the Cays, and sometimes the parents down there feel like they’re not as appreciated as parents in the Village. I don’t think that that’s accurate, but I would like to make sure that they’re included because the Strand is such a good school with such wonderful teachers. Bill Cass was so amazing! I know that as a parent because he was my daughter’s basketball coach when she could hardly walk and talk. He was a great teacher.”
“On a larger scale I would like to see our programs continue. I would like to know more about our budget, make sure we can fund the things that are necessary. I have a great deal of appreciation for our Coronado Schools Foundation, and the work that those people put in because it’s all volunteer work. I think the general public knows this, but school board members aren’t paid; they do this out of love for our community. We currently have an excellent board. They get along well, and I believe they do what’s best for our community and for our children, and I’d like to continue that, and contribute what I can.”
What changes, if any, do you feel need to be made to the way special education services are provided in the district?
“Since I’m not on the board and I’m not a teacher in the district, I’m not up to date on the inclusion program. I know a little bit about it from being a member of the community in that they’re trying to accommodate the needs of the special needs students through inclusion with aides who come in to assist. Teachers are dedicated to trying to help them actualize their full potential. I need to know more about it, and see how it’s implemented to even give you an intelligent response, but if you’re asking me if I’m in favor of all students having access to the core curriculum and actualizing their full potential: YES!”
“When I taught high school, I was that teacher who had special needs children, and they were great. When you make it to twelfth grade as a special needs child, you’re amazing, and you need a teacher who validates that, and I think we have that in our district. The teachers I know are so dedicated and so caring; they go to everything. They travel to water polo games in another city. They go up to football games and tournaments. They’re there on Friday nights cheering in the stands. It’s an amazing community. I love my community!”
Tell me your thoughts about Common Core. In your opinion, what are the advantages and/or disadvantages of Common Core?
“It is my understanding that Common Core addresses the state standards for teaching and learning. The implementation is a little different, and it’s been frustrating for some people to understand and implement. I was chatting with a mom the other day who said, ‘My son was doing his math homework the other day, and I told him he was doing it wrong. Then I logged onto YouTube for Common Core, and, by golly, he was doing it right, and I was doing it wrong.’ Because they’re approaching it from a conceptual basis as opposed to a memorization basis, and I believe that there’s room for both. Memorization is good; there are sometimes you just memorize it, and the concept follows.”
“And, again, I need to get more current on it, but based on the feedback I’ve gotten from the primary teachers, they love it. My daughter loves the math Common Core, and the way it’s taught because it helps students understand the math conceptually. They can take a concept that they learned in arithmetic and apply it in another context, and see how learning arithmetic really is important.”
“I’m not opposed to Common Core because I haven’t seen or heard anything negative. I’ve heard a little bit of frustration from parents who think, ‘What are you doing?’ It can be frustrating. One of the things I would suggest is have a little meet and greet in-service where somebody comes in, and says, ‘Here’s Common Core. Let me give you a CliffsNotes edition on this is how we approach it in math, this is how we approach it in English, this is how we do it in primary, this is how we do it in middle school,’ so the parents can go to whichever Common Core seminar is available. I think that would mitigate frustration. It would for me if I were a mom who had to deal with this. I think it needs to be ongoing, and needs to be offered at various times to accommodate parents’ work and home schedules.”
“In-services for parents would help parents with their Common Core understanding without making them feel like they have deficits because learning differences are not necessarily learning deficits. The frustration with it comes when people are confused. I don’t like to be confused, but I think there’s a certain amount of vagueness and ambiguity that everyone needs to learn to tolerate, and we teach that to our kids. My idea on Common Core is just access to information and access to teachers. They [parents] may also get to see the teachers in a different light as someone who’s helping them rather than someone just sitting across from them during parent teacher conferences. As a board member, I’d like to be available to help with the meet and greet in-services, to be accessible as your neighbor.”
Additional Information:
Helen is hosting a “Meet and Greet” on Friday, September 30, 2016 from 8:00-9:00 am at 561 Country Club Lane. She encourages voters who are interested in discussing their school related concerns as well those who are interested in learning more about her and her ideas to attend. At the Meet and Greet, which is right after morning drop-off at school, Helen is especially looking forward to connecting with parents over coffee and donuts.
