Fresno Archives - Starting Smart and Strong

Juan Cruz

SUPERINTENDENT, FRANKLIN-MCKINLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT, SAN JOSE

“I’m intricately involved in everything early learning. A lot of the decisions we’ve been making are a result of my better understanding of what is needed in early childhood education and making sure that we’re allocating the resources.”

Though he started out his career working with teenagers, Superintendent Juan Cruz has become a big advocate of early childhood education. Under his leadership and with investment from the Packard Foundation, the school district has partnered with community organizations and early care providers to create a robust infrastructure for training adults who work with young children. This work has included teacher-led professional development, multilingual training for parents in Vietnamese and Spanish, collaborations with the local Educare and Head Start and community-driven data collection. The school district has done a fair amount of adapting along the way, changing programs to better fit the needs of educators and parents and responding to shifting community needs, economic insecurity and the pandemic. Cruz is proud of where they’ve arrived. “It really has transformed our system.”

Ramona Ruacho

HOMECARE PROVIDER, FRESNO

“Before, I thought: ‘You sit down. You read. You finish the book. And then you go on to the next activity.’ Now [I know] you have to listen to the kids’ conversations. You focus on what you are reading. You use voice inflection and you talk about what you are reading.”

Ramona Ruacho participated in a training program developed in Fresno designed to support teachers and caregivers of young bilingual children. She attended regular professional development programs on Saturday mornings along with other family homecare providers, teachers and those who work at child care centers. The training is designed to ensure all adults who work with young children in this city are trained in how to do intentional language-building activities with the children in their care. Ruacho said the opportunity to be trained alongside teachers helped her understand the critical role she plays in getting children ready for school.