damian trudel valle."o, and welcome to "comunidad i'm damian trujillo, and merry christmas. we he you' enjoying your christmas morning here on "comunidad del valle." we have a very spectacular show on your "comunidad del valle." male announcer: nbc bay area presents "comunidad del valle" with damian trujillo. damian: we begin today with dr. hilaria bauer. she's the superintendent of the alum rock school district in san jose. she's joined us here to talk about some very specific topics and important issues on "comunidad del valle." welcome to the show, merry christmas. hilaria bauer: merry christmas to you, damian. damian: it's so great for you to be here. so, you've been on holiday vacation over at alum rock for about a week now. but you haven't sat at home and done nothing, like a lot of us do on vacation. you're doing something.

tell us what you've been doing as the superintendent of alum rock here over the holidays. hilaria: well, my primary goal, whatever it is, whether we're on or off, right, is to make sure that our families are being served. that's the number one goal. and regretfully, these last couple of weeks, you know, have been very rough for our families. they have a number of things that they have had to face. one, and the most important one, has been the destabilization of, you know, are we going to be okay here or not? and we have a number of families whose parents are not documented, and they are wondering what is their future in the city, what is the future in this country. damian: everybody became worried after the election. hilaria: absolutely, absolutely. so, that is what is in the minds of a lot of our students. and i need to make sure that we work with them so that they calm

down, right, and to say, "it's going to be okay," right? we have to give people hope. we need to make sure that in the middle of whatever political environment we find ourselves in, because that we cannot control, what we can control is our attitude about times and places. so, i have made sure that i let our community know if you have questions, if you have concerns, reach out to me. and i have been very fortunate that our families feel the trust, la confianza to say, "dr. bauer, can you come over and talk to us about this?" damian: because it's easy, or it might be easy to have workshops or seminars or meetings at school, where parents can come and learn more, [speaking in foreign language], or even afraid to show up to school for immigration related issues. hilaria: exactly. and we have all of that, right?

we have workshops, we have lessons. we've done everything we can possibly do. but more needs to be done, and i felt that we needed to have also a more personal connection with that part of our community. i wanted them to feel that we care sincerely, have an intention of being with them. the board approved two resolutions making alum rock a safe place. and i wanted them--i wanted to carry that message to the families in their homes. and they opened their hearts and their homes, right? we had a fantastic visit with one of the ladies who opened her house, and she asked other people to join us. and we had about between 12 and 15 families represented there.

damian: that's a lot. hilaria: yes, yes, yes, who felt that they wanted to ask questions, they wanted to connect with us, they wanted more information. they taught me about some of their concerns that i hadn't even thought about it, right? and which are--that's the kind of information we want to hear that may connect us as a district not only with our immediate community, but with the city and the county. for example, one of their questions was, "what is going to be the role of the police in all of this?" and luckily enough, i had a visit, you know, a couple of days before my meeting with them. one of the officers came by my office, officer juan tovar came over and said, "you know, alum rock, dr. bauer, we're here in solidarity. we want to make sure that you know the police department is

going to support the kind of safe place that you are trying to create in alum rock." and it was fantastic, you know? it was wonderful, the timing, because then i was able to share with them firsthand, right, the police department is with us, they're going to help us, they're going to protect us. and you could see the faces and the body language, you know, immediately just kind of relaxing and saying, "thank god, gracias a dios." so, the other example of that, one of my staff members went through this type of environment when he was a young person in the 70s. and that was news to me because in the '70s, you know, i was in texas, so i didn't experience the raids and things like that. so, as a result of his experience as a young man, right, and he is a us citizen, but he--the primos and the

neighbors and all of that, he says, "you know, we need to be prepared in a more systematic way. how do we prepare the system to be supportive to our families?" so, tomorrow, we're going to have our first planning meeting, so there's some staff that is coming out from vacation. damian: i was going to say you're on vacation, but you're working, and that is such an important topic, again, to put those families at ease. it's happening at the alum rock school district in san jose. there is the address, web address, and telephone number for more information. we'll be back with dr. bauer after this message, stay with us.

the alum rock school district. a quick story, quick anecdote, that we were picking garlic in soledad, i was probably 8, 9 years old, families everywhere, it's a summer vacation. and then everybody started running, and i had no idea why they were running. and then, lo and behold, the border patrol is coming from down the hill, and i asked my mom, "should we run?"

i had no ideawhat we were, but she said, "no, mijo, [speakg in foreign language]." but that's just the fear that--it's not happening anymore that i know over in the fields, but this is a fear that your families live with on a daily basis in alum rock. hilaria: yes, and that is--you know, it's just like here, right? we kind of wonder what--how does it feel to have that fear? how can we function in any way, right, when we know that our future is questionable, right? one of our basic needs as humans is the sense of security, right? it's what grounds us and what allows us to achieve. and so, if we as adults have, you know, those concerns, you can imagine a 7-year-old, an 8-year-old having those thoughts in the middle of class, right?

and even though we don't--you know, we are not experiencing yet all of those things, we have members in our community who have. i mean, you have experienced that, and you have seen it firsthand. some of my staff, the same thing, you know, and thinking, "how can we help the system be ready for that?" and for me, learning about what do you mean by that, right? what does that look like, you know, what a raid looks like, for example. you know, where do they go, where do they show up, and how do we need to react? we're the professionals in the operation, so how do we as professional educators respond to the authorities? how do we respond to the needs of our families? one of the mothers, another mother asked us, "dr. bauer,

what would happen if our landlord begins to evict us if we are undocumented?" and i didn't even think about that, right? so, those are the kinds of things that is very important for us to be aware. and how do we answer that, right? and to me, that's where the city and the county comes in, right, to be ready in a real way beyond the resolutions. because it's important to have the policy, it's very important to have the effort, saying we're going to become safe places, we're going to become refugee places. but we also need to be very pragmatic in thinking, what does that look like? so, if ice shows up, and they are at our door and they're asking, how do we respond? damian: and u can't be reactive at this point,

you have to be proactive. i think that's what you're doing with your meeting scheduled, meeting with the folks. hilaria: absolutely, and it is part of that being very mindful that we have to walk the talk, right? one thing is making promises, and another one is implementing them. and my job is to implement those promises. so, in order for me to really support my board, and to really execute their will because that's--to me, that was an amazing thing they did. but how do i support it in a real way, beyond the paper, right? how do we--how do we tell the system, staff, secretaries, "this is the way you're going to react, this is the way we're going to offer--" our counselors, how do we connect families with real help when we give phone numbers that are going to work, that are not going to be on, "leave us your information, we'll call you back"?

those are the kinds of things that we're trying to do. damian: and then you have little boys and girls in your district who maybe are living with that fear, but a lot of them don't use that as an excuse. they're still studying the common core, and they're trying to excel, and make their teachers and parents proud. hilaria: they are our heroes, right? they are the reason that we get up every morning because if they, in those circumstances, are able to shine, we have no excuse, right? damian: that's very beautiful. but academically, anything coming up down the pipe for alum rock? what are the kids out there to look forward to? hilaria: we're very excited. we're becoming a district-wide stem hub in so many ways. so, we've finished redesigning every middle school with a college and career pathway. and we have george middle school with a visual and performing arts cluster. they had a fantastic program 2 weeks ago on tuesday, where

we had the mexican heritage plaza standing room only. you know, it was fantastic to see five schools, everybody participating, and the parents were, the audience. and it was just magic, right, when we see our students performing, when exhibiting their works of art, and in all kinds of ways. and then ocala middle school has a stem academy and elementary cluster following the same pathway, and creating amazing things in their maker spaces. fisher, in the process of becoming, they are a business focused middle school, and becoming part of the new tech network. damian: you have to start early. hilaria: yes, absolutely, absolutely. and the last, but not least, you know,

when you're talking about starting early, we are about to offer preschool in every single one of our elementary campuses by august 2017. and we opened our first family resource center at chavez elementary. and that is so that every family has support from birth through five. damian: wow. well, that's--i mean, you're giving them the tools and you know, the kids are challenged, but they're standing up to that challenge. if you'd like more information on the alum rock school district, there's a web address and number for more information. any final thoughts before we let you go, dr. bauer? hilaria: well, i want everybody to have a safe holiday season. we are going to be ready to go january the 2 back to school. we want everybody bright and early because school starts then. damian: all right, thank you so much for working with the kids, gracias. thank you, you too and up next here on "comunidad del valle," a special christmas song by little joe. stay with us.

joe earlier this weekend. he sent me a fabulous video that they just produced. it's a kind of a background on la familia and what they do behind the scenes here, so here is "white christmas" with little joe y la familia. [music] [music] [music] ♪ i'm dreaming of a ♪ white christmas, just like ♪

♪ the ones i used to know. ♪ ♪ where the treetops glisten ♪ ♪ and children listen to hear sleigh ♪ ♪ bells in the snow. ♪ i'm dreaming of a white ♪ christmas with every ♪ christmas card i write. ♪ may your days be merry ♪

♪ and bright, and may all your ♪ ♪ christmases be white. [music] [music] [music]

[music] ♪ i'm dreaming of a white ♪ christmas with every ♪ christmas card i write. ♪ may your days be merry ♪ ♪ and bright, ♪ and may all your ♪ christmases be white.

comunidad on que pasa. [music] [music] [music] [music] damian: and now, saludos to those celebrating a special day, felicidades. [music]

[music] damian: and here is our contact information. you can follow me on twitter, my handle is @newsdamian. you can also pick up a copy of el observador newspaper and support your bilingual weeklies all across the bay area. great partnership there with hilbert morales and the entire staff there at el observador. thank you for all your help throughout the years here on "comunidad del valle." you can also watch us every sunday about 1 hour from now, every sunday at 11:00 a.m. on telemundo channel 48, your "comunidad del valle" in espanol. that's every sunday right after this show, actually now after this show, we're at 11:00 a.m. on telemundo channel 48, your "comunidad del valle." we're going to leave you now with more of little joe and flaco jimenez.

wishing you all a very merry cistm. buenos dias. male: [speaking in foreign language] [music] [music] [music] [singing in foreign language] [music] [singing in foreign language] [music]

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