The wheels on the bus—and a school superintendent—go round and round

Lea este artículo en español aquí.

Five buses roll out from the Anzar High parking lot in San Juan Bautista every weekday at 7 a.m., fanning in all directions to bring students to the three district schools. According to school bus driver Jesus Garcia, his route, which stretches out to Highway 156 and Mitchell Road near Harvest Time Roadhouse, has 30 stops, and he will pick up just under 70 students, all of whom he knows by name.

“Some of them are really happy to come to school,” Garcia said. ”Some of them make my day because they smile when they see me, and that’s a good feeling for me when I start my day.”

It may have been too early for the kids being picked up on Aug 27 to acknowledge the woman sitting in the front row with much more than a glance or a bleary “hello.”  However, Aromas-San Juan Unified School District superintendent Barbara Dill-Varga cheerfully greeted each one as they trudged past, looking for a seat.

Dill-Varga, who was appointed ASJUSD superintendent in August, 2022, says she plans to ride each route from time to time this year to gain better insight into her students and see where they spend their time when they are not at school.

“It is the most important thing I could do in the morning,” she said. “I want to see where they live and see them with their parents. I want to welcome them and get to know them because they spend 8 to 10 hours daily with us, and maybe sometimes that’s more time than they spend with their families.”

Dill-Varga started riding school buses when she was the Carmel Unified School District superintendent, trying to better understand the logistics of getting students to school in a district that covered 600 square miles of sometimes rough terrain. 

“As superintendent,” she said, “I need to know where our kids live and how difficult the bus routes are. If there’s bad weather, I want to know which roads might be flooded or closed.”

This year, the district increased its bus program, with ten buses now available to run five routes.  They transport around 250 students, a quarter of the district’s attendance, from as far as Hollister. 

Last year, there were only two drivers, including current transportation manager Maria Solano. She is conducting outreach to parents through Aeries, Internet-based school software, to let them know that services have increased and efficiency has been improved.

“Many parents are not aware that we were fully staffed,” she said. “We now have an electronic  application we send out, and I have been receiving responses immediately.”

Solano said maintenance is a constant issue with the current bus fleet, and she hopes the district will be able to buy new vehicles soon.  But she prides herself on making sure the students get to school no matter what.

“The buses sometimes die when they are out,” she said. “But we have never been that late or stopped picking up students because I’m here, and I’ll just grab another bus and take over the route.”

Beyond seeing how the system works, Dill-Varga said, riding the bus is useful for learning what kind of home environment the students are coming from so she can better understand how to support them.

“I want to connect with the parents,” she said. “Communication has been a challenge for us. Email doesn’t necessarily work.  Phone calls may or may not work. Some parents have multiple jobs to afford where they live, so maybe we can’t reach them.”

Upcoming English Learners Advisory Committee (ELAC) meetings are part of the district’s outreach to parents. They occur throughout the year and are open to parents, teachers, and concerned community members.

English language teacher Sarah Perez joined Dill-Varga on this ride, getting off the bus at any stop where a parent was waiting with their child to encourage them to attend the meetings.

Sarah Perez talking with a parent. Photo by Robert Eliason.

“I was describing my first bus trip to Sarah,” Dill-Varga said. “I suddenly realized that’s where the parents are. I thought, ‘We need Sarah to jump off the bus to get them to attend our ELAC meetings so we can talk with them about what they and their kids need.’”

Recent concerns about some of the district’s English-learning students, who comprise 30% of the total school population, helped to prompt this outreach effort.

“It’s hard to discern whether or not it’s a language issue,” Perez said, “or if there’s something else really going on. Part of my job is helping to get to the root of some of those concerns and determine what help we can provide.”

The ELAC meetings begin with an assessment. Parents are given a list of priorities and asked to determine which are most important to them. From there, the school can determine what kind of academic support a student might need.

Dill-Varga said she has a natural affinity for those who want greater opportunities in America but do not necessarily have the necessary building blocks to learn a new language because her mother, who was born to Greek immigrants, had to learn English in this country.

She said she gained insight into the experience of the English-learning community when she attended a school meeting conducted mostly in Spanish.

“I was one of the few English speakers there,” she said. “I didn’t know what was going on. I felt ignored; I felt uninformed. It was really eye-opening. We want people to preserve their heritage and language but also help them learn how to navigate in a country where English is primarily spoken.”

Dill-Varga said she intends to become more present at school functions and will keep riding the buses when she can to personally engage with the parents and students.

“You reach out, and that’s the first step,” she said. “And then your heart speaks to their heart. I have a saying: ‘Emotion drives attention, which drives learning.’ If you can grab people emotionally, then they’re going to pay attention to you. And then they’re ready to learn.”

Each ASJUSD school will host four ELAC meetings this academic year. San Juan School’s first meeting will be on Sept. 10, starting at 6 p.m. Aromas School’s first meeting will be on Sept. 25, starting at 5:30. Anzar High’s meeting date is pending. The District ELAC meeting will be held at the district office on Oct. 8, starting at 6 p.m. Contact the district office by phone at 831-623-4500 or 831-623-4907 or by emailing msoto@asjusd.org.

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