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Garcia is excited to create change to invigorate the two schools in the district: Bayside MLK and the charter school Willow Creek Academy. Bayside\u2019s enrollment, according to Garcia, is made up mostly of students of color. He hopes to address the staff turnover\u2014one of the primary issues at Bayside MLK\u2014by implementing a more diverse staff. As he explains, academic research has shown that students benefit from having teachers of color, and he has already received tentative agreements with the University of San Francisco, Compass Education Group and 10,000 Degrees (a nonprofit that helps low-income students get to and through college) among other entities, to create a \u201cteachers of color pipeline\u201d for the school district.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As he puts it, he\u2019s been preparing his whole life for this moment. Before this undertaking, Garcia had spent 20 years in Alameda County working in Oakland and Hayward to improve some of the lowest performing schools there. Having been an educator, administrator and now superintendent, Garcia is confident in his knowledge of urban school reform and his ability to create high performing schools that emphasize diversity. While he was the principal at Cherryland Elementary School in Hayward, there were 35 teachers, of which only five were people of color. When he left, the number had increased to 17.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs a former teacher of color, I spent 10 years in the classroom,\u201d said Garcia. \u201cI was a bilingual Spanish teacher and taught kindergarten for most of those 10 years. I\u2019m here to tell you, you can\u2019t just post a job and expect teachers of color to apply. And you can\u2019t just randomly hire teachers of color and think they\u2019re going to stay. Especially not anywhere, but in a county like Marin.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As superintendent, Garcia is committed to unifying the two schools and is working toward a single school solution that is high performing, dual language, and pre-K through 8th grade. He is confident in the children\u2019s willingness to be a part of a unification. Garcia believes it\u2019s important to have roots in culture and community and feel positive about your identity, but it doesn\u2019t aid a child\u2019s development to be kept in an enclave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With his experience as a kid growing up around Marin City, but also having friends around the more affluent areas of the county, Garcia feels he is especially qualified to handle the particular challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou know the numbers are real different, but back then I was one of 10 Latino kids at Tam High,\u201d said Garcia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A pivotal event in Garcia\u2019s career was his first time as a substitute teacher in East Oakland. When his last day there came, he announced to the class that he would not be returning and thanked his students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis one little kid he raised his hand and he goes: \u2018Hey. \u00bfQu\u00e8 haces por aca?,\u2019\u201d recalled Garcia. \u201cAnd I was like: \u2018Well I\u2019m your sub, I\u2019m following this lesson plan,\u2019 and he was like: \u2018No, no, no. What are you doing here? I ain\u2019t never had a teacher like you.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The student told Garcia that he looked like his older brother or uncle. Garcia explained that he wanted to show them that people like him could be teachers and it\u2019s an asset to be bilingual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Garcia is currently holding unification meetings that will go into December. He is also setting up work groups for the community in order to gauge opinion and give them a voice. There will be a desegregation advisory group meeting this month, followed by another in January 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Following a desegregation order handed down by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, Sausalito Marin City School District has appointed Itoco Garcia superintendent to lead the charge for diversity and to close the inequality gap within the education system.\u00a0 A Marin County native, Garcia has spent 10 years in the classroom, a principal for six years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":42203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,7],"tags":[],"coauthors":[18445,18472],"class_list":["post-42202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-news","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n