In any given year, the International Cultural Proficiency Institute takes its two-day seminars to big cities: Los Angeles, St. Louis, San Francisco. But this year, on June 18 and 19, one of those institutes is being held at Santa Maria High School.
“To get it here is almost like a miracle,” Santa Maria High Principal Joe Domingues said. “To bring it to Santa Maria, they took a risk, but they wanted us to share our story.”
That story starts with three years of turmoil between parents, teachers, and the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District administration and school board. Initially, a group of parents spoke out against the school district because of poor testing standards and what they perceived to be ineffective education. Teachers pushed back, the district tried to get involved, and parents didn’t feel like they were making any progress.
The tale continues with the steps Santa Maria High has taken to try to bring those stakeholders together. Groups of parents and teachers have traveled to the Museum of Tolerance in LA and participated in various cultural proficiency workshops, and the school community has regular meetings with Domingues through a group called Aspire.
The whole point of all of it is to try to bring the institutional culture of the school and the culture students come from—Latino—a sort of middle ground, a place where the two very different cultures can discuss how to better educate students.
“Everybody talks about who’s at fault, but not everyone’s at the table discussing how to fix things,” Domingues said about education issues. “We’ve got to stop looking at each other and say ‘you’ve got to do this.’”
This article appears in Jun 18-25, 2015.