He Speaks Their Language : Santa Ana Schools Chief Emphasizes Children’s Needs

Rudy Castruita was back in elementary school and having a great time.

He applauded a chorus of youngsters with speech handicaps who sang “This Land Is Your Land,” shook the hands of kindergartners learning to count and cheered on fifth-graders learning to read.

As a classroom of second-graders bid him farewell with a chorus of sweet-voiced bye-byes, the new Santa Ana Unified School District superintendent beamed.

“I love this. This is great!” Castruita said as he continued his tour of Edison Elementary School. “I’m used to high schools where kids say”--and here he affected a facetious swagger--”Hey, how’s it going?’ ”

No one can accuse Rudy Castruita of being blase. His enthusiasm is infectious.

“I have a great vision for Santa Ana Unified,” said the district’s first Latino superintendent and only the second Latino superintendent of an urban school district in the state. That vision includes marketing the district’s accomplishments--”I think we’re the best-kept secret in the state”--and instilling self-esteem in students.

“I want kids to be the best they can be,” said Castruita, 44, the first in his own family to graduate from high school. “I want them to know that when it comes to limits in life, there are none. They can do whatever they want to in life. But they’ve got to do it for themselves. . . .

“I think kids need to understand they can do so many more things with their life. They can’t even comprehend what they can do with their lives until they get out and try to do it.”

The new superintendent of the county’s largest school district--and the state’s ninth largest--is living proof of his own pep talk. And he appears to be particularly well-equipped to lead a district where English is a second language for 19,000 students--nearly half of the district’s total enrollment--who speak 40 different languages.

Raised by his grandparents in El Monte, Castruita barely spoke English himself when he entered elementary school.

“I remember going home and telling my grandmother, ‘Nobody speaks our language.’ ”

But he was encouraged by his teachers and by his grandparents, who learned English along with him.

“I was shaped by the efforts of a lot of fine people along the way, from my teachers, to administrators, to principals I worked for, to people in the community who saw me as someone who could maybe make it out of the barrio. I guess I was kind of the guy who was going to be able to make it.”

He recalled how his high school Spanish teacher took him aside in his sophomore year “and he was telling me, ‘Rudy, you have to start thinking about college.’ Well, college was the furthest thing from my mind. I mean, nobody in my family ever thought about college. My grandfa

ther had a second-grade education.” But Castruita began thinking about it because “teachers started telling me, ‘Hey, you can do it. You need to be self-confident because you can do it.’ ”

Helped by athletic scholarships, Castruita earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education from Utah State University in Logan. In 1981, he earned a doctorate in education administration from USC. He worked as a teacher and administrator in the El Monte School District before becoming principal of Los Alamitos High School. Three years ago, he joined the Santa Ana Unified School District as assistant superintendent of the secondary division. He lives in Hacienda Heights, 8 miles from where he grew up.

A teacher, he said, can be a tremendous influence in the life of a youngster, and he plans to encourage the teachers to “build on” the existing educational programs.

A lot of these youngsters come from broken homes, or from homes where the parents work long hours, and their teachers may be the most constant authority figures in their lives, he said.

“So the only model oftentimes these youngsters have is that classroom teacher or the principal or the assistant principal, someone they can look up to. A lot of our parents in this community work extremely hard, and they don’t have the wherewithal to help, so we in the field of education have to do a better job of setting the expectations for these youngsters and giving these youngsters the opportunities to get where they want to go.”

On his visit Tuesday to Edison Elementary School, where 97% of the 900 students are Latino, he put his words into action.

Walking down the hallway with Principal Helen Stainer, Castruita complimented her on a hallway display that showed off students’ best handwriting assignments.

“This is neat,” he said. “Things like this are important. I think kids like to see their work appreciated.” Chatting later in a third-grade class, he gave a verbal pat on the back to the instructor, who planned to have her students exchange letters with pen pals in Houston. And he joked in English and Spanish with a youngster in another classroom where students were being taught English.

The emphasis on reading and writing is very important, he said. Students must be able to speak English fluently “just to survive. . . . Otherwise, it hurts them when they get out in their job skills, in dealing with people.”

If Castruita feels good about the district’s teachers, the teachers appear to reciprocate the sentiment toward their new top administrator.

“He definitely is energetic. He’s a very hard-working individual,” said Rick Bryan, president of the Santa Ana Educators Assn. “From what I’ve read of his background, he’s really pulled himself up by his bootstraps, and that’s important. If he can continue working with all the groups, he has the potential to be an outstanding superintendent.”

Castruita succeeds Edward S. Krass, 58, who submitted his resignation last week for health reasons.

Castruita believes Santa Ana’s school district, with its mix of languages and nationalities, “is what education’s going to be like 10 years from now. We’re a microcosm of many cultures.”

There are challenges ahead, Castruita said, one being to improve the public’s perception of the district. Because of gangs, the mix of minorities and the large number of limited English-speaking students, Santa Ana’s schools do have an image problem, Castruita acknowledged. But much of the district’s good works are not known, he said.

For example, he said, the sole student representative to the state Board of Education is a Saddleback High School student, and for the past several years, students from the district have been finalists for the honor. He also pointed to achievements in athletic and academic competitions--such as pentathlons and spelling bees.

The district’s other big challenge, he said, will be to ease overcrowding by obtaining property to build more schools for the district’s burgeoning enrollment. One of the most difficult things he has done, he said, was watch the school board decide to condemn property--residents’ homes--for school sites. “But that’s a decision we have to make because it’s the best decision for the kids,” he said.

Castruita considers it a plus to be a Latino in his position.

“I can go to the Santa Ana Country Club and rub elbows with those people, and I can go to the barrio with the ‘home boys’ and talk to them about what’s going on in the barrio. That’s a real plus for me. I can communicate with the people of this community who are Spanish-speaking, and I can communicate with the Anglos as well.” And whether he wants to be or not, he said, he is a role model for Latino children.

“I think the little Hispanic kid I’ll go visit tomorrow in a classroom will see me walk in, and someone will tell him I’m the superintendent of schools, and that second- or third-grader will look at me like saying, ‘Gee, maybe I can do that someday too.’ ”

But Castruita also downplays his ethnic heritage when it comes to doing his job.

“The Board of Education entrusted me with the superintendency and gave me a great opportunity. I just happen to be Hispanic. All my life, as I’ve been in administration, I’ve always based all my decisions on what’s best for kids. Yes, I’m proud to be Hispanic, no question about that, but I think that people view me as a good educational leader.”

RUDY CASTRUITA Born in Monterey Park 44 years ago but raised in El Monte by his grandparents. Married and the father of two children, he now lives in Hacienda Heights. Received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education from Utah State University in Logan. Earned doctorate in education administration from USC in 1981. Previous experience: teacher and administrator in El Monte Union High School District; principal of Los Alamitos High School. After joining Santa Ana Unified School District, served as assistant superintendent of secondary division, then as associate superintendent. He is the first Latino superintendent of Santa Ana Unified under a 3-year contract with a salary of $85,000. He also is a member of the state superintendent’s Advisory Committee on Hispanic Affairs. Overriding goal: “I want kids to be the best they can be. I want them to know that when it comes to limits in life, there are none. They can do whatever they want to in life. But they’ve got to do it for themselves. . . .”