Willow Glen Resident

Cover Story

Photographs by Vicki Thompson

Ground Rules: The Canoas principal enjoys interacting with the students at her elementary school, which is part of the San Jose Unified School District. She walks in from recess with students (from left) Joseph Wilson, Sonny Ramirez, Javier Navarro and Luis Maciel.

From the Heart

Carol Garcia reopened Canoas Elementary 10 years ago

By Mayra Flores De Marcotte

A silver whistle hangs from her neck while her eyes look straight ahead. Canoas Elementary School principal Carol Garcia walks into a classroom and greets her students with a smile. It a familiar routine, one she has being doing for the last seven years. This is Garcia's house, her home, her world.

A kindergartner comes up and asks her to read a book. The two find a spot on the floor.

"It's the thrill of the day," she says. "I love my kids. All my decisions are based on my kids and what's best for them."

Garcia has been a principal for 21 years. Earlier, she worked as a teacher and administrator. It has amounted to 40 years with the San Jose Unified School District.

Now Garcia has to face the toughest decision of her educational career--retirement.

"It's a hard one to make," she says, "but it's time."

Garcia is a small-town girl, growing up in Jackson near the Sierra Nevada and graduating from high school as part of a class of 30.

"It's been an adventure," she says.

In 1967, just after high school, Garcia moved to San Jose. She found a program at the district that allowed her to go to school and work as a teacher's aide.

"I was on my own and trying to take care of myself," she says.

Her job, however, turned out to be the beginning of a long love affair with providing a good education to children.

"I loved working with the kids," Garcia says. "So I went back to school to get my teaching credentials and kept going from there."

After earning her teaching credential at San Jose State University, she got her first job as a certified teacher at Gardner Academy.

"I went from a teacher's aide to classroom teacher to resource teacher," Garcia says, "then worked at the district office as a program assistant and finally as a principal."

Through it all, there was one thing that kept Garcia going.

"The kids," she says. "I always thought I had all these ideas to help the kids, so I became a principal."

Garcia became the principal at Schallenberger Elementary in 1990, but when the district asked her to reopen Canoas 10 years later, Garcia couldn't refuse.

"Having an opportunity to open a school is a dream come true," she says. "You have nothing to start with, from the pencils to the carpets. It's just a shell. The process was stimulating and exciting."

The school had gone through ups and downs for decades, starting off as a K-5 in the district, before it was closed in 1982 due to declining enrollment, says district facility and property consultant Sonja Shurr. During that period the facility was leased to a private school, and when the private school moved out it remained unused for 10 years, Garcia says.

As enrollment in the district began to decline in specific neighborhoods, schools such as Schallenberger were affected. But as enrollment declined in one neighborhood, it increased in another. Housing construction began in earnest across the street from Canoas, Garcia says, and a new community was beginning to emerge.

Once again there was a need for an elementary school in the neighborhood.

Canoas opened in 2001 with 220 students enrolled, compared to her former school, Schallenberger, with 730 students.

"It was a lot smaller than Schallenberger," Garcia says.

Maurine Dudley, Garcia's secretary for 17 years, says the process was touch-and-go in the beginning.

"Carol and I walked the whole new development and passed out fliers to communicate with parents," Dudley says. "We would go about three times a week to get to know the parents."

But Dudley says all the effort paid off.

"It was a lot of fun and a learning experience," Dudley says. "It was a lot of hard work, but we knew it would get done because Carol was there cracking the whip."

Garcia and Dudley, along with a core group of Schallenberger teachers, all moved to Canoas to help reopen its doors. It was a logical fit since Schallenberger had previously served many of the students who enrolled from the surrounding neighborhood.

"It was like going home and starting over," Garcia says.

It was an easy sell for Garcia when she asked teachers to move into the new location. Those who followed her to Canoas cite her devotion to education and her students as motive.

"She just wants the best for her kids," Dudley says. "I think that was the biggest draw for us."

Starting Over

The reopening of the elementary school, however, was not without its obstacles, Garcia says.

"We are like a downtown school, just not in the downtown," she says. "We have a high percentage of low socioeconomic students."

These statistics, however, never discouraged Garcia.

"I believe that all children can learn and all can achieve high levels," she says. "As long as you have high expectations and set goals and targets, children will reach them."

Canoas was able to raise the school's Academic Performance Index scores quickly. It was honored as a California Distinguished School in 2004, just three years after it reopened.

Canoas is now up to 400 enrolled students and is striving to break the API 800 target this year.

"She's very dedicated," Dudley says. "Her kids come first, and don't mess with them. She looks out for them. She wants them to have the best education possible and pushes them."

Working with Garcia was one of the reasons some teachers chose to move to Canoas.

"She was the reason I did move," says first-grade teacher Nina Gill. "We were able to put into place a type of school that we wanted. We had all worked together before, so starting from scratch was OK."

The relationships Garcia developed with each of her teachers relied on open communication.

"When we first came here, we would have frequent meetings for goal-setting purposes," Gill says. "We worked really hard at bringing all our students up to a higher level. We were always in meetings to make sure everyone was on track. She kept us working."

Schools in the district have developed similar goal-setting tactics, but Gill says teachers at Canoas have been doing this since the beginning, thanks to Garcia's approach.

"She's involved with people's lives on and off campus," says Joan Okun, a regular substitute teacher at Canoas. "It's something that's slowly slipping away from society."

Canoas has come a long way since its initial closure and reopening; Garcia views it all as bittersweet with her imminent retirement this June.

"It takes drive and determination and a lot of hard work," Garcia says. "It's a caring from the heart."

Test scores are not Garcia's main concern. She wants her students to enjoy the learning experience and not place all the emphasis on standard test.

"It's great to see the kids get excited about their learning," she says. "They don't necessarily need prizes because there's an inner self-satisfaction, and boy, if you could instill that, you're set."

Even after she retires in June, Garcia says Canoas will always be part of her.

"I love my school," Garcia says. "My heart and soul is at Canoas."