My turn: A tapestry of educators 

Don’t tell Stephanie Bruce that she and her staff in food services have only one role in the life of a child in school. If the kitchen is their domain, the child is their focus, and it is in that arena where recipes for student success often simmer on the back burner of education.

Bruce is director of food services at Chaffey Joint Union High School District, serving 24,000 students in Ontario. She knows that some students learn life lessons from someone whose realm is not a classroom. Her voice lifts and the words come quickly as she offers a story to illustrate her point.

“One of our cafeteria managers met a ninth-grade boy whose mother refused to fill out the application qualifying him for the National School Lunch Program. The mother was in rehab, and the grandmother had taken him in. Our manager allowed him to work in the kitchen to earn his meals. She treated him like a son,” Bruce said.

Bruce, who chairs the California Association of School Business Officials Child Nutrition Research and Development Committee, went on to describe a young man who had lost his way in school until the cafeteria manager turned her attention to him. Even though he stumbled at one point and had to enter a continuation high school to bring up his grades, the boy eventually graduated from his original four-year high school and enrolled in an area community college.

To help cover his college costs, the cafeteria manager took up a collection from other workers in the kitchen. Vendors were happy to contribute. Bruce matched the donated funds and the boy, who at one time had nowhere to turn, was suddenly on a road with direction. That road led to employment in the restaurant industry.

“He just needed a place to fit,” Bruce said. “I have employees who know the children and even grandchildren of students who have come through the schools. … Those kids are just like our own children. Sometimes we become their mothers and aunts.”

Debi Bishop, cafeteria manager at Sheehy Elementary School in the Merced City School District, agrees with Bruce’s philosophy.

“We interact with almost every child in school, whether they have hot lunch or bring a sack lunch,” she explained. “We know just about every child’s name.”

She explained that familiarity with a child is helpful if that child is unexpectedly absent from class or a school event during the day. Those most familiar with students can assist in quickly locating them or in providing valuable information.

Bishop has spent most of her adult life working in food services at schools and has been manager at Sheehy for eight years. The school has a diverse student population with language barriers that further challenge youngsters entering school.

“We had a kindergartner who was very insecure. She cried almost every day despite having a very positive teacher. I would sit with her while she waited for her mom to pick her up each day. The family appreciated it so much they gave me gifts. It was a very big bond. Sometimes it just takes a positive word. So many kids need that,” Bishop said.

To the uninitiated, a school cafeteria can seem a chaotic atmosphere with its natural and animated noise. Bishop admitted that at one time she considered a change in career path, but instead she mastered the art of focusing on the task at hand, adding a valuable lesson to her own education portfolio.

“I love every one of those kids. I am so happy doing this,” Bishop said. “I insist that my staff work with positive words and a smile. It is so important. We might be the only positive force a child has that day. You never know.”

School districts will have a chance to celebrate the Month of the Educator in May and in doing so have an opportunity to recognize all of the people who work in public education, but are not necessarily in the classroom. A wide net covers this pool of educators.

Decisions in the board room directly affect what happens in the classroom, and the impact of trustee responsibility can weigh heavily on a child’s educational environment, according to Luan B. Rivera, immediate past president of the California School Boards Association and a longtime member of the Ramona Unified School District in San Diego County.

“School boards and superintendents function as a governing team, making decisions on programs and curriculum,” Rivera said. “Budget issues also impact decisions that affect classrooms.”

Rivera stressed that boards have a responsibility to set the tone for the district by making student learning the primary focus, providing a model where performance is the goal.

“We can create a positive tone and encouragement so that everyone works as a team with the board setting the direction,” she explained.

Boards make decisions regarding bonds and facilities that can dramatically improve the classroom setting, which in turn affects what is taught and how instruction is delivered.

Beyond the classroom, Rivera noted the importance of classroom visitations, giving board members firsthand knowledge of the kinds of opportunities students can and do have.

“Visitations are essential for school board members to make informed decisions on behalf of the students,” the 12-year school board veteran said.

Peggy Reyes, director of facilities services in La Quinta’s Desert Sands Unified School District in Riverside County, agrees that dedicated professionals outside the classroom influence learning environments, and that teamwork is the key.

“We are not in instruction but we learn so much when we go into the classroom,” she said of her department. “What type of technology do classrooms need? What are their learning tools? The question becomes ‘What can we provide to help students meet higher standards set by the state?’ ”

Reyes noted that her facilities staff met with students when developing a modernization plan to learn how to best provide what they need. “We’re always thinking about an environment that is conducive to learning,” Reyes, the chair of CASBO’s Facilities Research and Development Committee, added.

Sue Burr, executive director of the California County Superintendents Educational Services Association, noted that “virtually all superintendents began as teachers,” laying a foundation of knowledge for their leadership roles outside the classroom.

And those working in the business services divisions have an equally important role in the academic mission, she added, because retaining those highly qualified teachers and administrators who have been hired requires efficiency in payroll and health benefits. Hiring practices must be smooth, and communication comprehensive, she said.

“If you buy into the notion that teaching is the heart of the matter, it stands to reason that personnel and payroll are equally important,” Burr said.

Burr also served as the assistant superintendent of business services in the Elk Grove Unified School District in Sacramento County, overseeing departments not ordinarily associated with the classroom. She believes bus drivers—particularly in a district such as Elk Grove, where services cover a 360-square-mile area—are education’s unsung heroes, given the amount of time they spend with many of the students.

One of the most visible persons in a child’s school day is the custodian, whose appearance in the classroom comes only after everyone else has gone home. Still, it is the custodian that many children turn to in the absence of a teacher.

Another member of the Sheehy Elementary School family of educators is head custodian Mike Akins. The soft-spoken Akins acknowledges he doesn’t know all of the children at his school of more than 600, but he is confident he knows 80 percent of them, most of them by name.

“The younger kids look up to me … of course, I’m 6 foot, 2 inches tall,” he laughed.

“I try to be aware of things around me, and if I see a student who appears to need help, I alert a teacher or administrator,” he said. “I think that is a big part of my job, but I don’t take matters into my own hands. I’m not trained for that. I try to keep my eyes open. I like these kids. They are good kids.”

Just like his co-worker Debi Bishop in the school cafeteria, Akins believes the educational experience of a child is a shared responsibility and not restricted to the classroom.

“I see office workers, cafeteria workers and custodians creating the environment outside the classroom,” Akins said. “I think it is everybody’s job, whether you are mowing the lawn or seeing to a sick child. We all have a part in creating an environment where the student wants to come to school.”