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2 EDCAL November 19, 2018 Reaching underrepresented students Vice President for Legislative Action Terri Rufert poses with ACSA Valu- ing Diversity Award winner Manuel Colón during the awards presentation ceremony. Ensuring that every student has educational success is the goal of all educators, but wanting students to be suc- cessful is often easier said than done. It takes hard work – the kind of work performed by Manuel Colón, chief aca- demic officer with Anaheim Union High School District, and for which he is being recognized with ACSA’s 2018 Valuing Diversity Award. With Anaheim Union, Colón has led the English Learner Task Force and the development of four dual language programs. He also leads the Students with Disabilities Task Force. He was a keynote speaker at the Los Amigos Annual Conference at California State University, Fullerton, speaking on culture and family engagement. He guides the conversation and sets the vision for equity in the district. Colón said he knew he wanted to be an educator from a very early age. So when he grew up and it came time to make the transition to the classroom it felt very natural. “Teaching has come naturally to me and I have excelled at it,” Colón said. “My students have also done well.” The success was so marked it got noticed, and mul- tiple researchers write articles about what was going on in Colón’s classrooms. That led to Teacher of the Year honors, plus recognitions from county offices of educa- tion, institutes of higher education and non-profit groups. This, in turn, led to a challenging career choice. “In 2000, I was offered a position at the Los Angeles County Office of Education,” Colón said. “I was torn to leave my students and classroom. Many of my mentors encouraged me to pursue the opportunity and grow pro- fessionally, so I accepted the position. While I was at the county office, I completed my administrative credential through the Principals Leadership Institute at UCLA. See COLÓN, page 6 Still giving back to the profession The Robert E. Kelly Award honors those school leaders who continue serving even in retirement. Laurel Olsen is the true epitome of a servant leader. Upon leaving high school, Olsen had three personal goals. Foremost among these was to make a difference in the lives of children through education. She focused on learning everything she could about how children actually learn and the vital impact literacy has on their success and eventually, Olsen started gravitating toward leadership. “Although I greatly enjoyed teaching both general and special education students, I began to see how I could make a difference in more children’s lives as an administrator,” Olsen said. “I definitely had the desire and dedication and was encouraged by others to pursue this path.” From the very first moment, Olsen knew she’d made the right choice. “On the first day of my first administrative assignment internally I knew I was going to be able to make a differ- ence,” she said. “Their school library was housed in a small classroom area, it had two shelves of books in Spanish, and there was a cramped space to sit while the librarian read to them. Literacy soon became a schoolwide focus.” To encourage that focus, authors were invited to campus, books were added to the library and to every classroom and provided to parents attending parent reading workshops so they could begin home libraries. The city’s bookmo- bile began regular stops and a summer Pre-Kindergarten Readiness Program was provided. “It was a very special day when the approval of a new library and media center was announced,” Olsen said. “The “Developing resources and connections within my region, state workshops, committee meetings and annual conferences provided an additional network of support. I was always able to find someone willing to help,” Olsen said. As a retiree, Olsen is able to look back on the pro- fession with some objective perspective. In retirement, she has felt that every year the duties of school leaders has grown very large, and she made a commitment to help. “It seems that with every year the demands and responsibilities placed upon administrators grows expo- nentially,” she said. “Upon retirement, my mind ques- tioned if many in the younger generation would take on the administrative challenges and how they would Past President Lisa Gonzales, right, presents Laurel Olsen with a $5,000 grant manage the financial demands of housing, family and graduate education in Santa Clara County. Today’s chil- as part of the Robert E. Kelly award.. dren need administrators who are dedicated to making children, staff and community were ecstatic and literacy was a difference in their lives.” She thought to herself, center stage.” “How could I help?” She said that while forming a bond with special educa- “Upon discovering the funding had been decreasing for tion staff and students, it was important to her to ensure Region 8’s Retiree Charter’s Annual Scholarship Program – they were accepted and included in their school and their for students working towards their administrative credential school’s community. However, after having a successful – I felt it necessary to lead an aggressive campaign to obtain two years, the existing procedure was to transfer them to funding. Each and every retired administrator in our region another school for the next grade level Special Day Class, was contacted and we were able to recoup our previous and then again two years later. This made it difficult for the funding level and also fund additional scholarships. This children and their families to develop a sense of belonging important scholarship program not only helps fund tuition, or the feeling that they belonged to a certain school. it provides these scholarship recipients a special welcome “A proud accomplishment was reorganizing Special Day to ACSA and opens to them a network of valuable retired Class locations, announcing that changing schools was no resources.” longer necessary and knowing the children would experi- Laurel Olsen is a shining example of the oft repeated ence a true sense of belonging,” Olsen said. truism, ‘School leaders never really retire – they just find Through participation in ACSA, Olsen’s support system different ways to contribute to their communities.’ grew and enabled her to gather new ideas, opinions and solutions through an established network. ACSA's Resource Hub offers a plethora of useful information for school leaders on such issues as student safety, credentialing, increasing community engagement, deepening student learning, dealing with crises and much more. Access resources on these and other topics at http://content.acsa.org. Education California | The official newspaper of the Association of California School Administrators EdCal® (USPS 684-390, ISSN 0740-0357) is published Weekly, except for the following dates in 2018-19: 7/2, 7/9, 7/23, 8/6, 8/20, 9/10, 9/24, 10/15, 10/29, 11/12, 11/26, 12/10, 12/17, 12/24, 12/31, 1/7, 2/18, 4/8, 5/13, and 6/3, by the Association of California School Administrators, 1575 Bayshore Highway, Burlingame, CA 94010. Periodical postage paid at Bur lingame, CA 94010 and additional offices. Subscription price: $90 value to members; offered to non- members on a qualifying basis. For further information, contact the membership depart- ment at [phone]. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to EdCal, c/o ACSA, 1575 Bayshore Highway, Burlingame, CA 94010. EdCal keeps ACSA members informed of association activities, efforts on their behalf and issues pertinent to education and educa- tion administration. Ad vertising or the mention of products, services or programs in EdCal does not imply endorsement by ACSA. ACSA is affiliated with the National Asso- ciation of School Superintendents, Nation al Association of Secondary School Principals, National Association of Elem entary School Principals, American Associa tion of School Person nel Admin istrators, California Associa- tion of Latino Superintendents and Adminis- trators, Ca lifornia Associa tion of Education Office Pro fes sionals and the American Associa- tion for Adult and Continuing Education. Editorial Offices: 1029 J St., Suite 500, Sacramento, CA 95814; [phone] • Job ads: e-mail [email protected] • News: e-mail [email protected] ACSA Executive Director Wesley Smith Senior Director of Communications/PIO Naj Alikhan Chief Operations Officer Scarlett Vanyi; Senior Director of Member Services Margarita Cuizon; Chief Marketing Officer Tatia Davenport; Senior Director of Educational Services Margaret Arthofer; Senior Directors of Governmental Relations Edgar Zazueta and Adonai Mack; Senior Director of Information Technology Tony Baldwin; Senior Director of Equity and Diversity Marguerite Williams This series introduces ACSA staff to members. These are the people working tirelessly for you each and every day. EdCal Editor Cary Rodda Advertising/Website Coordinator Emily Agpoon Who: Cedric Burgess Content Specialists Michael Kelly and Darcy Totten ACSA CareerConnect Coordinator Tracy Olmedo ACSA Board of Directors President Holly Edds President-elect Linda Kaminski Vice President Ron Williams VP for Legislative Action Terri Rufert Past President Lisa Gonzales Members: Charlie Hoffman, Christine McCormick, Daniel Hernandez, Tim Gill, Jay Spaulding, Parvin Ahmadi, Denise Wickham, Juan Cruz, Ana Boyenga, Barbara Martinez, Blanca Cavazos, Ted Alejandre, Craig Helmstedter, Victor Thompson, Sue Kaiser, Angel Barrett, Rafael Plascencia, Joe Austin, Mike McCormick, Linda Hutcherson, Lisa Ketchum, Daryl Camp, Derrick Chau Burlingame, [phone] • Sacramento, [phone] • Ontario, [phone] • toll-free (800) 608-ACSA Job: Network administrator Cedric is reponsible for the physical infrastructure and hardware services for ACSA, such as email, internet connectivity and collaborative equipment. Interesting info: Cedric’s first job was cutting the grass at an Air Force base. He is also an avid golfer. ACSA. We work for you.