Shownotes:
If you are looking for a master class in authenticity and making the invisible, visible, look no further! Jerry Almendarez is an inclusive, listening leader, who continuously shares the brilliance of learners of all ages.
About Our Guest:
Jerry Almendarez’ career in education spans 28 years and includes experience as a classroom teacher, assistant principal, and principal. As the Superintendent of Schools for the Santa Ana Unified School District, he is responsible for leading the 11th largest school district in the State, with 56 schools and programs, approximately 5,000 employees, and an expense budget of $890.6 million. In 2019, Jerry Almendarez was named a 2019 Ted-Ed Innovative Educator and in 2020 was named CALSA Region 6 Superintendent of the Year.
Website: sausd.us
Twitter: @JerryAlmendarez Instagram: @JerryAlmendarez
Transcript:
Transcribed by otter.ai
Lainie Rowell
Welcome to the Evolving with Gratitude Podcast. I'm your host, Lainie Rowell and I'm thankful you're here. Let's talk about ways to bring gratitude into our learning communities to nurture relationships, improve well being, and activate learning.
Lainie Rowell
Hello, my friends. Thanks for being here today. I am delighted to have a wonderful person with me, Jerry Almendarez. How are you, Jerry? Good, good,
Jerry Almendarez
Good, good, good. Having a great day so far and even better now that I'm here with you.
Lainie Rowell
Oh, you're so kind. I'm going to do a quick introduction of Jerry. Jerry has a career in education that spans 28 years, and includes experience as a classroom teacher, Assistant Principal, Principal, he is currently the superintendent of schools at Santa Ana Unified School District. This is not a small district. This is actually the 11th largest school district in the state of California, with 56 Schools and Programs. Jerry is an amazing human, he has been recognized for that in a multitude of ways and including some awards. In 2019, Jerry was named a TED Ed Innovative Educator and in 2020, with named CALSA Region ^ Superintendent of the Year. Superintendent of the Year every year for me, my friend. And that was only scratching the surface. Jerry, what else would you like people to know about you?
Jerry Almendarez
Oh, nothing, you know, I received those accolades with amazing people surrounding me. And it's just a reflection of the work that my team has, has been a part of, ever since I started. So it can't be more thankful and more grateful for the team that I've had surrounding me during my career.
Lainie Rowell
So that is a true Jerry way. For those of you who are not familiar with Jerry, he always shares the credit. And so he gets these awards and the first thing he says is, it's about my team. And so that is one of the many things I adore about you, my friend. And I'm so honored, thrilled, delighted, excited, like all the words, to have you here today because I don't know if you realize this, but to me, you have been on this gratitude journey with me almost the entire way. You are one of the first people that I started highlighting as "look how this person is showing their gratitude" in the Edutopia article that I first wrote about gratitude, a while back, and I'm just, I'm just so thankful for you, because you are doing so many amazing things you and your team. And by the way, in honor of you now, when I share your work, I say Jerry and his team, because I want to do it the way that you would do it. So
Jerry Almendarez
Great. And I attribute you know, are connecting through the work that you do. But also, you know, having a number of what I call reverse mentors, people that I see in the industry, researchers, authors that I come across on my social media feeds, and just begin to follow and embrace the work and identify what their values are. And if they're close to the values that I aspire to be like, well, people like you, I start to follow. And that helps me identify the new and emerging trends as a 13 year superintendent. And so reflecting and not necessarily working and making decisions that create systems that work for me, but work for the upcoming generation.
Lainie Rowell
I truly appreciate how inclusive you are, how you're a lifelong, continuous improvement learner, I think that shines through in everything that you do. And I truly appreciate that. And I'm super happy to be a little part of that. Because I'm constantly learning from you, my friend. But to get on to my big first question that I say big because some people are like, Why do you ask the hardest question first, like, let's just do this. Let's just say, you know, what does gratitude mean to you? Oh, that's just a light question. Right?
Jerry Almendarez
Yeah. No, it's a great question. And I think it is evolved over time. But to summarize, it means feeling and the treating of people as human beings, and just the genuine experience that you get when you encounter other people growing up, it wasn't always easy for me. And I was always on the receiving end of some maybe not so generous or gratitude, comments and conversations. And I remember telling myself, if I ever get to a position that has influence, I'm not going to treat people the way that people are treating me. And that has stuck with me my entire career. And gratitude, again, is just the feeling of that human spirit, embracing the kindness and the generosity and the value system and the integrity that other people have.
Lainie Rowell
I just, I'm gonna like not even be able to form sentences here, because I'm just so in awe and so adore the way that you lead. And I mean, you probably heard me say this before about you, but it's like, you're in a room with all of these educators and your peers and you don't feel compelled to be the one talking all the time. You're this excellent listener. And so I just think that's a form of gratitude as well if that makes any sense because you're honoring everyone around you. And I just wanted to share that.
Jerry Almendarez
Thank you. Thank you, I've learned from I've learned you know, I made a lot of mistakes throughout my career. And sometimes been a part of conversations that are truthful, but also piercing. And I think one thing that I've learned to do is over time is be that active listener and just be more reflective. And I learned more by just listening, you know, I can ask one or two questions, and then let the room have a discussion. And so I value that, I appreciate that early on in my superintendency, I think I was probably a lot different than I am now. But with experience, with age, with life happening, I think things have been put into perspective that just make me respond differently now. And I value that. I appreciate that. And I appreciate you sharing that with me. That means a lot.
Lainie Rowell
We see you. I'm not the only one. All right, so now I will say for those who haven't read my first Edutopia article on gratitude, I definitely shined the light on you. And hopefully it felt like it was you and your team. But maybe that's something I have evolved to be better at honoring that. One of the things that I see you doing so beautifully is making the invisible visible. You are in the 11th largest school district in California, you have like roughly 5000 employees, how many students do you have?
Jerry Almendarez
Approximately 41,000.
Lainie Rowell
That's a lot of kids, and you have all these programs, you're doing all these tons and tons of things. But if you're not in Santa Ana unified, you don't know about it. And even if you're in Santa Ana unified, you may not realize what someone else is doing, maybe even the room next door, maybe in the site next door, and things like that. So in the Edutopia article, I pointed out that you are very good at using social media to, like I said, make the invisible visible and highlight all the amazing people who are doing so much for our learners. And so would you be comfortable sharing a little bit more about how you do that. You're actually really strategic with it, which I would love to hear about that too.
Jerry Almendarez
Sure. It's actually evolved. It started out with me being a new superintendent, and really having conversations with some of the adults in the district, previous district saying I wasn't out at school sites enough. They didn't see me out enough. And this was me prior to being on social media. And so I really struggle with that, because I knew personally I was out. I was in classrooms and I was out. And I was thinking, why don't they know that I'm out there? How can they don't see me out there? Well, if I didn't go to their site or their classroom, then they wouldn't know I was there. So it was at the time that I'm giving away my age now as social media was starting to become more mainstream. And so what I started to do was follow some people that I really valued their contribution on social media, and I started to see their posts. And then eventually, I became comfortable enough to say, and think, you know, I can do this too. So I started to actively engage in social media, very quickly, after that engagement in the various platforms. I was getting responses from teachers and from principals saying, Hey, how come you don't come and visit me? And so very quickly, did the conversation go from the superintendent not being at school sites to how come you didn't come to my site. And it was at that point that I learned the value of being able to lead with the social influence model. And over time, as I have navigated my previous district in this district, seeing the amazing things that we're doing, and then reflecting in conversations with the staff, and the community is like, How come we're not sharing the amazing things that are happening here. Nobody knows about this. And so really made an intentional and tactful effort to encourage our people to be on social media and to tell their story. And so I think we've done an amazing job. We have a brand ambassador program, that we have volunteers from throughout the district and various departments. I have my facilities department on social media, showing pictures and video of buildings and construction that's taking place. Another thing I'm proud of is our nutritional Services Department showing the farm to table process that they use and the scratch cooking that they do. I have my custodial crew during the COVID time did a big push in social media, letting our community and our students and parents know what they were doing to make the schools in the classroom safe. And it has transitioned now to be more intentional in the sense that we're asking our school sites to create hashtags that reflect the work that our community has done through the development of our graduate profile. So it's been kind of an evolution. And the leading with social influence mindset has kind of set in not just to post but to post intentionally to create a common understanding of the alignment that is happening in Santa Ana Unified School District.
So I will say, coincidentally, you and I are geographically not that far apart. I'm in like one city over. But just because I am in proximity to you, close, that is not how I know what's going on in Santa Ana, I could be in New Jersey, I could be an Iowa I could be anywhere and I would know what's going on in Santa Ana, just by looking at the socials and all the things that you share. And I love how you talk about that you have invited, encouraged, empowered your team to do this as well, this isn't just you doing it, you're actually saying no, come on, you guys tell your story, you're doing amazing things. And so you've given them that permission, which I think is really important.
Exactly. And you know, a lot of that reflection, and a lot of the validation for that comes from your book, gratitude that I know, a lot of our people have on their desks. And so the support in the network that I have, and the researchers that are out there and doing the research are just validating the importance of this social connection, especially in a time now as we're transitioning with the evolution of technology. We're no longer competing regionally, this is a global competition and competition in a sense that we have to create opportunities for everybody to be competitive globally, not just within this region. And that's the social influence part, the leading with the intention, and being tactical about how you use social media, not necessarily just to post pictures, but to tell the story.
Lainie Rowell
Could you tell us a little bit more about like, if there's an educator doesn't matter what their role is, because every educator can tell the story of the great things happening in their learning communities, right?
Jerry Almendarez
Yeah
Lainie Rowell
And I'm putting you on the spot here, we can always cut this out if you're not comfortable to answer this, but like, what would be your your first step? What would you suggest they do? There, they've just created their account. They're like, I don't know what to start posting, what do you look for when you're thinking about things to post.
Jerry Almendarez
Two things. One is make sure that your professional account is your professional account. And that you do your best not to put any personal opinions or personal pictures or posts on your professional account. I tell my people, your professional account is like your resume. It is a digital resume now. And so yes, you can give a hard copy of a resume. But when I get a resume, I take that name and I Google it, or I'll do a internet search and see what other experiences or what other information is out there. And if I find the social media feeds of potential applicants, or teachers, then I'll go on there and see what they're posting. And what that tells me as a superintendent is what are your professional values? What do you highlight? What is important to you? I can see different principals throughout the country, posting a lot of pictures of athletic events, and very little of what's going on in the classroom. Or there are other people that post a lot of pictures of them. So that demonstrates what they value. And then there are those the ones that really catch my attention is that student engagement and capturing the activities, the enthusiasm, and the uniqueness of what is happening in their setting, it could be in a department, it could be in a classroom, it could be in a district, you know, those are really my attention getters. And when something captures my attention, I want to know more. And that's what I tell my people is look for those special moments. Take as many pictures as you can, knowing that you may only use two of them. But really try and capture those special moments, and then push that out for the world to see. And it really is the world
Lainie Rowell
Brilliant! "What you post is what you value."
Jerry Almendarez
Correct.
Lainie Rowell
I want to savor that for a minute. Because that is so true. It's so true. And it's interesting, you're talking about like keeping the professional professional. You know, when I was in the classroom, I would tell the kids like if you don't want grandma to see it, mom or dad to see it. If there's anyone that you care about that if they saw this, you would be embarrassed, ashamed, hurt, upset, you know, like, just don't do it. And like you said, the world will see it as soon as anyone in the world will see it, including college admissions officers, I got to preview a book Brand Up by Stacey Cohen that will come out in the spring. And I got to read an endorsement for that. And she's talking about how important it is that kids start to build that online presence in a way that would represent them well, and I love what you said what you post is what you value. And so when a college admissions officer is trying to determine, you know, and they spend, I think, very little time on each application, I think it's less than like 10 minutes on each application if I remember correctly. So a lot of times they go to the socials because they know everything's all super polished on the application. So let's go see what this person's like and what they're going to bring to our learning community if they were accepted. It's a lesson we all have to learn and sometimes relearn.
Jerry Almendarez
You know, and there's a lot of fear, people have a lot of fear, you know, and there's so much, you know, the topic being gratitude, there's so much to be shared in a positive way. But there are also those negative aspects of it. But if you do a good job at it, the credibility that you build as a professional will far outweigh those negative comments that come those naysayers and I get them myself, you know, I get them and I'll respond in appropriate manner to some and some will just let sit there. And usually what happens when, when I just let them sit there as my, my followers will start to jump in and make comments that kind of go into a little bit more detail as to why things are happening, or why they're not happening. And I just stay out of it. And I think over time, people just have to become familiar, everybody is pretty much in that space already. And if they're not in that space, than they need to really reflect because the research out there indicates that 80% of adults primary source of information is coming from the social media platforms. So if you're professional, and you're not operating in that environment, you're missing 80% of your target market. And so you know, what other options is that gonna give you if you're only operating with a 20% of your potential. And so, you know, we just have to learn how to embrace it, the technology and the platforms are changing so rapidly. So what's what's hot today, Twitter is a good example of maybe not as hot a month from now or two months from now. So what are their emerging trends that allow us to get on platforms that are are more positive or precieved to be more positive and more professional. And so that's why I always have my finger on the pulse with people like you, and other rivers, mentors that I call, because, you know, I need to know what those trends are happening. So I can continue to tell our story, in a good way.
Lainie Rowell
Yeah, and we're all kind of learning it together, right? Shout out to Bri Hodges, our mutual friend, she was the one who kind of pushed me more towards Instagram, I was so heavily invested in Twitter, and she's like, you gotta go over to the Gram. I love social media, I see a lot of positive in it. But I'm trying to have this, you know, appropriate combination of how much time I spent on that. And the IRL people that in real life people.
Jerry Almendarez
Yes
Lainie Rowell
But it is it's constantly evolving. And I do I look to you, I look to many to figure out like, Okay, well, what's happening in this landscape? And where should I be now? Where can I be connecting and learning and sharing and showing gratitude? Where are the best spaces for that?
Jerry Almendarez
The other thing too, that like, that have migrated towards with intention is, if we have initiatives within the district and a school site, particular principle starts to capture these special moments like with our graduate profile, I'm going to retweet that or I'm going to comment on that and say, Wow, what an amazing job, you know, elementary school or Mr. Principal, you know, keep up the good work that creates a sense of... and other principals will see it. other community members will see it. And there have been times when I have either retweeted or reposted or made comments on certain platforms. And I have parents coming up to me and saying, How come I don't see this at my child's school? Or other principals will say, How come you don't like my stuff? You know, and so, you know, with intention through my lens, what I try to do is identify those practices that are aligned with the standards, and then really highlight those practices and that student engagement, and then reposted or retweeted or comment out on it.
Lainie Rowell
Yeah. And you were talking about kind of promoting the use of the hashtags, which is really helpful, right? So my friend, Dave Burgess, taught me the "stock and staulk", so "stock it" like, put good things in it so people will want to like come and see what's happening in that hashtag, and then "staulk it" as in like, watch what's happening in it. So you're like putting stuff in it, but you're also stalking it to see like, what's happening in there. Hopefully, Dave doesn't mind me sharing this, this was a private conversation, but I'm sure he's fine. But so that idea of like, if you're giving the team's suggestions for hashtags, or I encourage them to use hashtags, and then tell you what hashtags you can be following them and that way, you're gonna have all that transparency and be able to promote further.
Jerry Almendarez
And it creates a like a tidal wave of gratitude or good positive stories that come out because ideas that are posted by one site, that site is a brand ambassador doesn't have to be the administrative team, but the brand ambassador could say, oh, my God, we're doing that or Oh, my God, we did something similar. Check this out. And so now it creates this professional competition that people are trying to tell their stories and in some cases, outdo each other when, when they're, they're capturing these special moments
Lainie Rowell
That yeah, "we're great too"
Jerry Almendarez
Healthy competition.
Lainie Rowell
It isn't healthy competition, because it's for the good. It's for the good of the learning communities. It's for the good of actually connecting with the community outside of the physical campus. So you said brand ambassadors, can you tell us a little bit more about that?
Jerry Almendarez
Yes. So a few years ago, I had an individual in my office, and she was working directly with me. And she had an idea, Lynette White, to work with our school sites, because she was helping me with the social media push throughout the district. And it became overwhelming for her to do it for such a large district. So she sat me down and she said, Hey, I got a plan. What do you think about creating this brand ambassador program? Tell me more. So we're reaching out to the school sites, various departments and asking for volunteers that wanted to learn more about the social media platforms. And that would help volunteer to help us tell our story. So we have parents, students, employees, certificate and classified, over 80 individuals district-wide, that have expressed an interest in being trained in these various social media platforms. So we pull them in quarterly, and we pulled them in at the beginning of the year. We gave them their charge, we have our board priorities, our graduate profile. And we intentionally asked them to look for things that were aligned with the board priorities and components of our graduate profile, and ask them to capture those moments, and then #SAUSDgraduateprofile, or #SAUSDboardpriorities. And the reason why we asked him to focus on those areas is because we have a lot of community leaders that put a lot of time and effort into supporting the district. And we wanted them to see the work that their work being actually carried out at the school sites. And so every opportunity we get as a district, every presentation we do to our community, we will highlight these hashtags. So our community partners see that their support for our district and our kids and our families are actually being carried out in the community. And so we're just so blessed, they are so excited. We meet with them four times a year, the first meeting is to give them the charge. The second meeting is to see how they're doing check in what support or resources do you need. The third time is again, another check in. And then the end of the year is a celebration.
Lainie Rowell
Oh, I love that. And now, you mentioned community partners. I imagine that not only does you making the invisible, visible helpful for current partners, I would imagine it's helpful for future partnerships. Does that does that pan out?
Jerry Almendarez
Well, it is and we get we we started getting phone calls, emails and knocks on our door asking for participation. And it's a nice thing. It's puts a smile on our face when people say, hey, you know, you guys are doing some really cool things. Can we be a part of that? We have to be selective because we do have a large number of community partners. But it is a good feeling. I'll tell you, I'm a prideful superintendent, when I walk into different spaces and people come up to me and say, Hey, what do you guys do in Santa Ana, because, you know, it's just amazing. And it's not me, per se. You know, the people in the schools in the classrooms, the support staff, they're the miracle workers, all I'm doing is capturing those moments and pushing them out on the platforms that we have in providing opportunities and space for our employees to capture those moments and to push it out.
Lainie Rowell
I'm glad I hear you taking some credit. Not probably enough, but I do feel like you, you're good at not doing it in a completely self effacing way. But you're saying like I create the conditions, right? Like that's, and that's important. You're that you are the leader of the entire district. That's the model set. You said, Now, I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you one little quick story. I'm going to be very vague about it because I don't have permission to give too much away. So I'm gonna be a little cryptic. But my son plays soccer and I'm sitting there talking with another one of his teammates, mom's turns out, she is an employee in your district. And I said, and I just started gushing over you immediately, of course, oh, my gosh, Jerry is amazing. Like, I love I can see all the great things happening in your district. He's done such a good job about this. And what was really cool is she goes, there's even more than he does that you don't get to see because... so she tells the story. I'm gonna be a little bit vague, but you might know who I'm talking about. That there was a student on campus, a little boy who just was so starstruck by you because he'd heard so many good things and then you came on campus. He saw you and then you will like kept in touch with this kid over the years, I think you even went to this person's graduation. Do you you know who are talking about?
Jerry Almendarez
Yeah, yeah.
Lainie Rowell
So I love this story because it was like, it just, it just validated what I already knew about you that you're a genuine, authentic person. And that it's not just what's happening on the socials that this is happening, even when people aren't looking. And so that was like a really lovely thing.
Jerry Almendarez
And those are, those are really special, special moments that are private moments, you know what I mean? Yeah, that that I don't promote on social media, because it's not about looking at me or looking at this situation. It's that genuine, just that genuine spark that keeps me going. And when I encounter and there have been many, many more situations like that, interactions that I have, when I walk on campuses, that students come up to me and just say, the most heartfelt conversations with me that just tugs at my heart, that I take pictures with them, but I don't necessarily post them. Because I know it was a genuine moment with the students. And I do keep in touch with a lot of kids. And I just, you know, I'm so blessed to be here. God works in mysterious ways. And I'm here for a reason. And, you know, I'm going to continue doing the work that I can do as long as I can do it, but it is a blessing to be here. And I'm just moments like that keep me going.
Lainie Rowell
Yeah, well, and I hope I didn't divulge too much. I know more details than I shared. But I was trying to honor the privacy of like, everyone involved. And I just, it was just, again, such a validation for how I already know you're amazing. And then I'm like, okay, just random person that I just meet, like, we mentioned your name, and then we're in the story. And I'm like, okay, yeah, this guy's amazing.
Jerry Almendarez
Let me show you something here. So this was a gift to me from that person that you're talking about.
Lainie Rowell
Oh, my goodness. Can I describe it a little bit for our listeners? Okay, so that is a beautiful drawing? Well, actually, I'll let you describe it if that's okay.
Jerry Almendarez
Well, he is it is a beautiful drawing. But he drew a picture of me. He framed it with a mat and put it in a beautiful frame and wanted to make sure that I got it. Because, you know, we were friends. And so it was it was a pleasant surprise, when I heard he was doing this for me.
Lainie Rowell
Oh, my friends that was not staged, I just happened to tell the story. And he busted the frame out like within half a second. That was amazing. And just again, validation.
Jerry Almendarez
I keep it here as a reminder of why I do what I do is difficult as times as this job can be. And as things happen throughout the district, I keep these reminders in my office to remind me that it's bigger than any issue that I'm facing out there and that I'm here for the kids and in the community.
Lainie Rowell
Yeah, I will say I do know more employees of Santa Ana Unified. In fact, one was just telling me how what you do has made it into school site meetings and how there's just this, you know, the recognition, appreciation, the gratitude that just emanates from you, that you model that you like I said, empower others to do it just it really happens. And for that to happen in such a big district is quite an accomplishment. So I don't know that I've appropriately gushed over you because I feel like I could spend the whole time just talking about how awesome I think you are. But I just want you to know that you are appreciated. And every time I come across someone who knows you, they're like, Oh, my He's amazing. I'm like, I know. You're very welcome. All right, my friend, I know that you are a very busy person, I've got to get you going. Any final words, before we get on to our shout out anything you would love people to know,
Jerry Almendarez
The job that we do is already as difficult as it is. It is important that we we do our best to have fun to realize that it's okay to make mistakes as long as we learn from those mistakes, take risks. We owe it to our kids, and we owe it to the community and to the families. And then constantly kind of reflected think about what is the future of education look like for for our little ones. What can I do as an adult as an educational leader to be a positive contribution to that future? I'll leave it at that.
Lainie Rowell
Perfect, could not have been said better. I truly appreciate that. I know our listeners do too. So this is the part where people get mad at me because I asked you to give a shout out and I'm particularly nervous with you, Jerry, because you are like really good at amplifying everyone. So I don't know if this is going to be quick at all, but we're going to try, right?
Jerry Almendarez
This will be quick and for reasons that you'll understand but I just want to give a big shout out to my wife 32 years of marriage. You know she is an educator as well and She has really dedicated and her profession is the family. And she's oftentimes told me you know what my responsibility, my priority is here to take care of my grandchildren and, and the rest of our family. She goes you do you do you and I will, we will be here to support you. And so I could not be the person that I am or do the things that I do without 100% support from her. And and I just want to shout out to her and say I am so thankful. And we are highschool sweethearts. We've been married for 32 years and you know, it feels like just yesterday.
Lainie Rowell
So what a lovely shout out. Do you mind sharing her first name?
Jerry Almendarez
Monique.
Lainie Rowell
Monique. Oh, Monique. Well, thank you, for all you do to support Jerry. And, you know, just from a couple conversations we've had like I get the sense this is a very beautiful partnership and that you both support each other in many, many ways. So that's the best we can hope for right? All right, my friend. So I think it's going to be obvious to everyone that you are not hard to find on the socials. But what's the best way to to find you? What platforms do you prefer?
Jerry Almendarez
I am on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Those probably the best way to just type in Jerry Almendarez and Santa Ana Unified School District and then all my various platforms will come up.
Lainie Rowell
Perfect. I will also drop them in the show notes so people can be sure to catch up with you that way. Jerry, I so appreciate your time. And I just again, I don't feel like I got to gush over you enough. But I hope you feel how much I appreciate you, how grateful I am for you and I know so many people are so thank you for all you do.
Jerry Almendarez
I appreciate that and thank you for all you do as well.
Lainie Rowell
You're too kind. Alright, thank you all for listening. Have a great rest of your day evening morning. I don't know whenever you're listening to this. Thanks, everyone.
Lainie Rowell
If you're grateful for this episode, please be sure to subscribe today. And if you're feeling really thankful, please go to Apple podcasts to submit a review so other educators know the value. One last thing. Please connect on social media using the hashtag #EvolvingWithGratitude to share your gratitude stories.