Successor Needs to Pick Up Where Castruita Left Off

Pio Pico Elementary School in Santa Ana sits in one of the county’s most impoverished neighborhoods. Of the 300 families with children in the school, about a dozen have a car. The median education level of the parents of Pio Pico students is third grade. That combination limits the life choices of those parents; part of Rudy Castruita’s mission as schools superintendent was to see that it would be different for their children.

Castruita has left to take over the superintendency in San Diego County. The task now for the Santa Ana Unified School District’s Board of Education is to find someone who can run the county’s largest school district and yet not forget about a school like Pio Pico.

Castruita was so celebrated during his 6 1/2-year tenure as Santa Ana superintendent that some consider him irreplaceable. To some parents who felt uninvolved in school life and to many students who felt little connection before to successful professional Latinos, Castruita took on almost messianic proportions.

He was one who could court the Santa Ana business community in the morning and hunker down with second-graders in the afternoon and tell them that he, too, began school not knowing how to speak English.

“That’s always been his message: that ‘I know what it’s like not to have things, to be raised by an extended family,’ ” said Pio Pico principal Judith Magsaysay. “That means a lot to them. It’s symbolic and it’s tangible at the same time, to see someone who has struggled like they have.”

I asked district board member Audrey Yamagata-Noji, a Castruita supporter, if his charismatic appeal makes finding a replacement more difficult. “I think the temptation for people is to want to clone, to get another Rudy, and I think we may be setting ourselves up for a major disappointment if we try to do that,” she said.

“What we needed him to do in ’88 he did, which was to improve morale, reach out to parents and kids and classroom teachers who sometimes felt neglected and forgotten about in the big picture,” Yamagata-Noji said. “I think what Rudy did was give us all a sense of hope in a district that had been hit by some bad press and a lot of misperception and white flight. And in a city with a lot of gang activity and crime and violence, the district had an image problem and people were beaten down morale-wise, and he gave a lot of people hope. They just felt better about themselves and their work and were proud of being in the district.”

I asked her about the next superintendent. “I think the biggest problem we have now is morale (because of Castruita’s departure), so if we have someone who can come in and pick up the human contact and be visible and connect with people and parents, that will really work. . . . I guess I’m saying everything is well in the district, and Rudy left us in a good place. What we need is to continue to come together. We don’t need radical change. We’re not looking for a superintendent to come in here with an agenda that will encompass a lot of changes in personnel and policies and direction, because we’re pretty solid on that.”

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High school teacher Rick Bryan is a Castruita supporter but said recent school board elections suggest the district now has a divided constituency, as evidenced by 3-2 votes on issues. The next superintendent, he said, should be someone who can work with all groups.

Indeed, the scuttlebutt around the district is that the two relatively new board members have taken credit for Castruita’s decision to leave.

I asked Bryan if Castruita left at the right time. “I think so, in the respect that he worked extremely hard for things he thought were best for students, and he wouldn’t have been comfortable if it were a situation where he had less say as far as autonomy. I saw him as a very dynamic leader who would only be happy if he were given ability to make some changes, and I don’t think he would have been happy with the situation (of increasing trustee resistance). I know he wouldn’t have.”

Bryan said interim superintendent Don Champlin would be a “perfect choice,” but given the inherent difficulty in following Castruita’s act and the increasing acrimony on the school board, Bryan wondered if an outsider may not have the inside track.

Adams Elementary School Principal Frances Byfield said, “I think Dr. Castruita left things in place, so programs will continue. My personal opinion is that we don’t need someone to replace him. We need a new leader. We need someone who’s just a leader in their own style. I would like to see someone who is hands-on and not just theory. I want to be able to know the person. I think it’s important for the kids to know him, too, as well as parents.”

Finally, this anecdote that captures exactly what Byfield means:

Several weeks ago, Pio Pico parents threw a going-away party for Castruita. Saddened that he was leaving, one of them approached him and said, “Who will speak for us when you’re gone?”

“You will,” Castruita responded, meaning the parents as a group.

Before hiring Castruita’s successor, the school board should insist that the candidate understands both the depth of that question and the answer.