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  • Regional Parent Center opens in Contra Costa middle school as part of community schools initiative

    Regional Parent Center opens in Contra Costa middle school as part of community schools initiative


    Sandra Figueroa, navigator of Lovonya DeJean Middle School’s newly-launched Parent Center, meets with a student on campus.

    Credit: Contra Costa County

    Lovonya DeJean Middle School, located in the heart of Richmond, has its share of obstacles. Most of its 400 students struggle with poverty, and the challenges that come with that can affect their attendance, test scores and overall learning outcomes.

    But a newly launched community resource center at DeJean will go a long way toward providing additional support to families who struggle to meet basic needs, in hopes of improving student outcomes. 

    The Parent Center, which officially opened on Sept. 21, serves as a regional hub where students and their families can receive assistance in obtaining resources like health insurance, food stamps and cash assistance.

    On Oct. 24, the center also started technology assistance sessions — offered in English and Spanish — where parents can learn computer skills. They will receive a free laptop after attending four of these two-hour sessions. Additional sessions are scheduled on Nov. 2, 7 and 14, from 5 to 7 p.m.

    According to John Gioia, the county supervisor for Contra Costa County’s District 1, the city of Richmond and West Contra Costa Unified School District have been working together for several years to provide resources like the Parent Center for student families. District spokesperson Liz Sanders said such collaboration is vital to provide resources to school communities. 

    “We know that in order to meet the needs of the whole child and the whole community, we need resources in partnership beyond our own resources as a school district,” Sanders said.

    Sandra Figueroa, the Parent Center’s navigator, is the first to be funded by Measure X, a 20-year half-cent sales tax that was approved by Contra Costa County voters in 2020. The approximately $110 million in annual tax revenue goes toward community services like the county hospital, health centers and early childhood services. 

    Employed by Contra Costa County’s Employment & Human Services department, Figueroa is one of five Measure X-funded “4 Our Families” navigators who each represent one of the county’s supervisorial districts. Figueroa’s work varies day to day, but she’s always working with families to ensure they have access to and are using available community resources, whether it’s expediting access to Medi-Cal insurance, getting legal help or finding grief assistance for families suffering a loss. She said the Parent Center is “the puzzle piece that was missing” at DeJean. 

    Figueroa said DeJean’s students struggle with a variety of challenges at home that affect their learning at school. Many are learning English as a second language, and some are undocumented immigrants, with parents who are often scared to apply for benefits out of fear of being deported, or are unaware that they’re eligible for them. Some students, without access to health insurance, have vision or dental problems that can make it difficult for them to focus in school. 

    “If students are having an attendance or behavioral problem, there’s something probably happening in the home,” Figueroa said. 

    Figueroa hopes her position as navigator and the new Parent Center will help parents find solutions to issues happening at home, subsequently leading to improved student outcomes. As a local to Richmond and an employee of Contra Costa County for 31 years, she feels like the DeJean Parent Center is where she belongs. 

    Sanders said the DeJean Parent Center aligns with WCCUSD’s community schools initiative. The school district has employed the community schools strategy since 2007 and received $30 million from the state in May 2022 to support the initiative. The most recent contract between WCCUSD and the teachers union includes, for the first time, language about shared decision-making for community schools. 

    The Parent Center, Sanders said, “really fits into the broader programming of community schools at West Contra Costa by making sure that we’re serving the whole community while we’re serving the whole child,” Sanders said. 

    Community schools focus on the “whole child,” and under the strategy, districts and schools collaborate with teachers, students and their families to improve overall student learning and success. According to the California Teachers Association, community schools implementation can lead to lower rates of absenteeism; better work habits, grades and behaviors; higher enrollment in college prep classes; and higher graduation rates. 

    “When the family is doing better, the children are doing better,” Gioia said. “The idea is to treat the family as a whole unit. If the family has access to better health and social services, the parents and the children are all doing better.”





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  • Ballet opens doors for children to chase the joy of dance

    Ballet opens doors for children to chase the joy of dance


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNr3iXUvL2s

    Watch Gabriela Rodriguez dance at New Ballet in San Jose.

    Gabriela Rodriguez first glimpsed the magic of ballet in the third grade. The 7-year-old didn’t know a pirouette from a puppet when she first got tapped for the New Ballet School’s First Step program, which brings the joy of dance to low-income students in the San Jose Unified school district. 

    As a tiny tot, she loved to dance with her Wii every day after school. Now she’s 19, studying Level 6, the highest level at the ballet school, and is also a member of the studio company, a stepping stone to becoming a professional ballerina. The supple dancer with a sunny personality seems to float across the studio at a recent “Nutcracker” rehearsal, twirling like a spinning top. 

    Dance has changed her life forever, she says. She’ll never forget the first time she watched the beauty of “Swan Lake” unfurl on stage.

    “It was so beautiful and graceful, I knew I wanted to be up there on stage, wearing a pretty tutu,” said Rodriguez, who lives with her family in East San Jose. “I was also a really hyper kid, so ballet also taught me discipline, how to be still, how to focus.”

    The program shines a spotlight on the sheer love of movement for first, second and third graders at local Title 1 schools — schools that receive federal funding to enhance educational opportunities for low-income families. Roughly 50 children a year receive scholarships that include free ballet classes, including leotards and footwear. Like Rodriguez, many children are recommended for the program by their elementary school teachers. 

    Little dancers in the ballet’s First Step program often make their stage debut in the holiday classic, “The Nutcracker.”
    Credit: San Jose’s New Ballet

    “My mother warned me that it would be a big commitment if I decided to take this route,” said Rodriguez, who dances about three hours a day in addition to nightly ballet rehearsals, “and it is a lot of hard work, physically and mentally as well.” 

    Rodriguez whirls onto center stage this holiday season in the starring role of Clara in “The San Jose Nutcracker.” Based on E.T.A. Hoffmann’s story “The Nutcracker and the King of Mice,” Tchaikovsky’s gem was first danced in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1892 and has become a yuletide tradition. New Ballet gives the chestnut a local twist, setting the story in turn-of-the-century San Jose, the Valley of the Heart’s Delight.

    Many of the youngsters in the First Step program make their stage debuts as adorable rodents, the minions of the menacing Mouse King in the Christmas classic. They learn about the magic of live performance, how to combat stage fright with rehearsal and how rigor and tenacity can help unleash their individual creativity. Ballet balances the sheer power of kinetic energy with an almost mathematical exercise in precision. 

    “It taught me about discipline,” says Rodriguez. “You have to make sure you get your schoolwork done and your household chores done while you’re spending so much time at the ballet.”

    Rodriguez has now danced in “Nutcracker” nine times as well as recorded the story of “La Boutique Fantasque” for the troupe in Spanish. She also works as a hostess in a restaurant to make ends meet.

    “I want to pursue dance for as long as I can,” Rodriguez said. She fantasizes about training at New York’s storied Juilliard School but fears the cost would be prohibitive. “If I went, I’d be the first in my family to go to college.”

    Young dancers in the ballet’s First Step program get to take classes, to learn the joy of dance without spending a fortune.
    Credit: San Jose’s New Ballet

    The high price of arts and culture today keeps many cash-strapped audience members away. That’s why equity is part of the mission of New Ballet. Founder Dalia Rawson believes the arts are an expression of our collective humanity that belongs to all of us, not a luxury for the privileged few.

    “There’s nothing frivolous about dance,” said Rawson, executive artistic director of the ballet. “Dancing is part of everybody’s human experience. We believe dance is for everybody. It feeds everybody’s soul. If you don’t dance, you’re not connecting to a part of yourself.”

    As our society becomes ever more sedentary, some experts warn, we may be losing touch with the essential need to move our bodies. Children, in particular, need physical activity to stimulate the brain, enhance concentration and boost learning. Dance is an invitation to marry movement with the creative impulse, to make poetry out of motion. 

    “Dance is something that all humans need,” said Rawson. “We all thrive when we’re connected to our body. And it’s good for your soul. It’s good for your heart. It’s good for your sense of who you are as a human.”

    The thrust of the program isn’t so much to cultivate professional dancers and artists as it is to spread the alchemy of arts education, its ability to boost engagement and cognition at a time when chronic absenteeism has skyrocketed.  

    “We look for kids who have that little spark,” said Laura Burton, director of outreach for the ballet. “That’s something that you want to see grow, because especially at this age, we don’t need to see them do a plié. Does that kid have the heart and the passion? We bring them in and we have two or three classes that we run specifically for them. They get to take the whole semester free of charge.”

    Knowing who their audience is, what their niche is, is central to their vision of the ballet. The troupe is all about speaking to their unique community. 

    Tiny dancers in the ballet’s First Step program get to take classes, to learn the joy of dance without spending a fortune.
    Credit: San Jose’s New Ballet

    “We are not trying to compete with San Francisco Ballet,” said Rawson. “We never will. It’s a $60 million budget, and it’s not hard to get there. If you want to see one of the best ballet companies in the entire world, you can get there in an hour.” 

    New Ballet focuses instead on opening doors to the next generation, to children and families who can’t pay a fortune for a night of dance. 

    “We try to make it fun, easy and accessible,” said Rawson. “We don’t have the budget to pay top dancer salaries, but we hire dancers who bring something really special to the stage. We don’t discriminate by body type or anything else.” 

    These dancers, like Rodriguez, are true believers in the power of dance to uplift the soul. New Ballet dancers often hold down outside gigs to support their artistic pursuits. 

    “What they share is they want to be here,” said Rawson. “They love to dance. They’re passionate about ballet. That to me is more important than the perfect line of your leg.”’

    Rodriguez, for one, dreams of one day teaching dance to children and adults with disabilities, people who may not realize that you don’t have to be a world-class athlete to chase the joy of dance.

    “Why not?” she says. “If you start late, you can still dance. If you’re missing something, you can still dance. There’s modifications for everybody out there. Anyone can dance if they truly want to. There’s always a way.” 





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