For San Fernando High Students, Future May Be in Front of Class

Ismael Jimenez had two choices: Stay on a team of UCLA scientists searching for a cure for Alzheimer’s disease or return to his old high school as a science teacher.

Diane Hernandez, Julie Padilla and many other alumni also had career options, but they all chose to join the faculty at their alma mater, San Fernando High in Pacoima, the Los Angeles Unified School District’s second-oldest high school, where nearly 18% of the students who enroll as freshmen leave before graduation.

While the district does not keep track of how many students return to their old high schools as teachers, San Fernando High educators take notice.

About 10% of the 220 faculty members are alumni, and the 4,500-student school hopes to see the percentage grow, said Maria Reza, a former San Fernando High School principal who is now an L.A. Unified administrator.

“Our kids need more role models,” Reza said. “They need somebody they can look up to.”

San Fernando High alumni teachers could offer plenty of excuses not to come back: better jobs and higher pay in tonier parts of the city. But they cannot forget their strong ties to their alma mater.

Their bond with students is more cultural than geographical, they say.

“We have brown faces, just like they do. They look at us and feel more connected,” said Padilla, class of 1987, a bilingual teacher at a school that is 98% Latino. “I feel we can make a difference by coming back.

“Here is where I want to work in the long term,” said Padilla, 31. “I’m happy here in San Fernando.”

Padilla; Jimenez; Angel Ortiz, a computer science teacher; and Priscilla Hernandez, an English teacher, are among those who still live in the old neighborhood. They recall sitting in the same classroom chairs and going home to an environment similar to that encountered by today’s students: busy, blue-collar parents and after-school jobs.

And just like many of their students, most alumni teachers are bilingual. They understand, for instance, that a student sitting alone in the back of a class might not be shy--the student might be unable to speak English.

Diane Hernandez, class of 1970 and a social studies teacher and dropout prevention coordinator, said she understands the pressures that cause many students to consider leaving school. Every year she gets a list of about 800 students who want to quit. Sometimes she is able to persuade them to work toward a high school equivalency, sometimes she can’t.

When Hernandez, 48, was a student, she remembers classmates talking about the need to work part time to help support their families. Soon the students’ jobs became full time and they began dropping classes and then left school altogether.

“Yes, we have students who go on to Harvard, MIT and Yale,” Hernandez said. “But the majority don’t. Nothing much has changed. I see the same problems as when I was in high school--students who do not think they are college material.

“They just need a little push, somebody that can tell them, ‘You can,’ ” she said.

Ortiz, class of 1987, said he pushes his students by assigning additional homework and making the class atmosphere less fun and more challenging.

“They must think I am a jerk, but later on they will appreciate what I am doing,” said Ortiz, 32. “When I went to Berkeley, I was just surviving classes. I was getting A’s and Bs here, but the reality was, I did not have the foundation to take higher education courses.”

Jimenez, class of 1993, a science teacher, hopes his students will see reflections of themselves when he talks about earning his college degree in molecular cell biology and becoming a UCLA senior research associate. His high school teachers helped him believe he could fulfill his dreams, he said.