Three miles from a different life
Eva R. Baca Elementary School educates families through hardship
Eva R. Baca Elementary School is just three miles away from a four-year university. As parents pull into the school’s parking lot, they can catch a glimpse of Colorado State University-Pueblo in the background.
But for some families living in the school’s boundaries, located on Pueblo’s east side, higher education has been much further than that. Instead of being separated by mere miles, though, the families have been separated from education by circumstance.
That’s why the administration at Baca Elementary has introduced measures, including college-readiness and restorative justice programs for its students, and an eventual GED program for parents, to encourage the families to think about continuing education, especially in the face of hardship, and sometimes, violence.
Much of Baca Elementary’s student population comes from poverty and consists of traditionally underrepresented groups. Ninety-three percent of the school’s students qualify for free and reduced lunch, a categorization that serves as an indicator of poverty, according to the Colorado Department of Education.
Additionally, during the 2014–2015 school year, 87 percent of its population consisted of Hispanic or Latino students.
“They come with so much,” said Preston Wenz, the school’s principal. “Somebody told me once, ‘You’ve got to teach them like everyone else and you leave it at the door.’ That’s easy to say.”
“You tell that to the kid who has been, you know, molested by a family member,” he said. “You tell that to the kid whose mom’s lost her job, dad’s lost his job, not sure if he’s getting food other than the breakfast and lunch he’s getting at school.”
Wenz emphasized that Baca Elementary sees great, hard-working parents.
“Our families have worked their tails off,” he said. “We have great parents.”
But sometimes, he said, circumstances lead the families into hardship: “We just had siblings in the building whose mom just died at 27 from an illness.” He estimated the school also helped four or five homeless students find shelter this year.
The school recently became involved with the No Excuses University network, an organization that promotes “the idea that every student deserves the opportunity to be educated in a way that prepares them for college if they so choose to attend,” an informational brochure said.
But before the school can get into everyday learning, Wenz said it’s important to address outside problems. To accomplish this, the school introduced a restorative justice program that enlists adults to help students work through conflicts.
Baca Elementary also regularly sets up circles in classrooms where students can talk about issues that have been bothering them, up to and including violence in Pueblo.
“It’s amazing how many kids want to express how they feel,” Wenz said.
“It’s the idea of just letting them talk, and it came out about the violence in town. It came out about the kid that was shot and killed in the park,” he said. “Some of them knew him.”
By talking about their problems, Wenz said he believes students will be better prepared for learning.
“You know, until we help these kids at least get that out, and know that we do really care, they’re not going to learn,” he said. “And so, beating them over the head with academics isn’t always the answer when they’re coming to us not always in the right frame of mind.”
“Will they all go? Probably not. But at least we know they’re all educated, and they’ve got the information they need and they’re ready to go if they so choose.” — Preston Wenz, Principal at Eva Baca
And the emphasis on the kids extends past addressing their problems.
In order to promote the idea of college readiness among its students, the school applied for a spot in the No Excuses University network.
“The beautiful thing is it’s not a program,” Wenz said. “It’s just an idea, and it starts with the idea that all of our kids can and will be successful, and they all should be educated so they can go to college when the time comes.”
“We’re dealing, sometimes, with lower socioeconomic kiddos. They might not have anyone in their family that’s ever been to college. They don’t know any of this.”
The school was officially accepted into No Excuses in November, a few months after it sent a team of teachers to Seattle to learn about the network’s ideology. No Excuses works by setting up each classroom with a university to communicate with regularly.
The universities, for instance, often send information about their respective schools and classroom materials, such as pencils. Each classroom has a university pennant hanging outside the door and every Monday, students wear college shirts to school.
Fifth grader Khloee Jiron, 11, said she didn’t know what college majors or minors were before learning about them at Baca Elementary.
“It also helps the students to tap into their inner-selves to choose which career they would like to have,” Khloee said, “so it’s kind of like, ‘Oh my gosh, I can have this career.’ There are so many choices.”
Last month, the school brought in recent CSU-Pueblo graduates and guest speakers to talk to the kids about college. One speaker, a local priest who attended the University of Notre Dame, told the students about his path toward college.
“The coolest thing I learned was that the priest came from a neighborhood just like us,” Khloee said, “and he was still able to achieve his dreams.”
Wenz said he realizes that not every student will end up going to college, but the school’s goal is to educate them anyway. The school teaches that any education after high school, including specialized certifications, is considered college.
“Will they all go? Probably not,” he said. “But at least we know they’re all educated, and they’ve got the information they need and they’re ready to go if they so choose.”
Outside of the school’s involvement in the No Excuses network, Baca Elementary has made changes that go right down to the way classrooms are set up. Instead of traditional chairs and desks, the classrooms use a variety of seating arrangements, including old auditorium seats, office chairs and even window sills.
The school also has a learning commons, where students can check out books and use iPads.
“What we’ve done over the last few years in education isn’t working,” Wenz said.
So, a few years ago, educators from Eva Baca Elementary started making changes. For one, the school traveled to Douglas County in northern Colorado to see how schools set up their classrooms.
“People say, ‘Oh, Douglas County, no Title I schools, very rich.’ We’re not there for that,” Wenz said. “They’re still educating kids. How are they doing it?”
Wenz moved to Pueblo from Texas two years ago, just after the school started making changes. He was previously a principal at a Texas school, where he learned about No Excuses University.
After Baca Elementary joined the network, it became the only school in the state to belong to it.
“We’ve got to kind of get outside the walls of Pueblo, so to speak, and realize it’s a big world,” Wenz said. “There’s different ways of doing things, different ways of thinking and if you’ve done something for awhile and it hasn’t worked, be open to something new.”
The students said that so far, the changes are working.
“I’ve been here since kindergarten and this is much better than how it used to be,” Khloee said.
“It was kind of bad,” added Jose Maldonado, a fifth grader who also attended Baca Elementary before major changes were made.
And the changes aren’t just limited to the students — administrators also want to educate parents on topics ranging from helping their kids with homework to continuing their own education.
“We assume parents know exactly what they need to do to help their kids. Well, they need to help them with their homework,” he said. “Well, mom and dad may be working their second or third job.”
“I heard the story of a bilingual parent that said, ‘my kid’s taking AP classes and I don’t know if that’s good or bad.’ And that’s reality. That’s not on the parent.”
The school also plans to introduce a GED program next year for parents.
“We’re putting in a GED program for the community and the town. So, two nights a week, two hours a night, parents can come and get their GED. The idea is we’re teaching college and pushing college to the kids,” he said, but some parents might not have had access to finishing up their own education.
“But nothing says they can’t go back,” he said.
Another issue the school comes across is a lack of resources among parents. One parent, for example, was unable to get her kid to school after encountering car troubles she couldn’t afford to fix.
To combat this, Wenz said he wants to create an independent fund, separate from school funds, that helps parents get through problems like this. He said the school would help by paying for a portion of a necessary expense, though not all of it.
“It’s really about helping people,” Wenz said.
And as the school helps families work through problems, college can seem a little closer.
