Introducing Dr. Jesus Gonzalez, Ivanhoe Elementary’s New Principal

Dr. Jesus Gonzalez. Photo: Redwood High School

By: Mayra Becerra, Ivanhoe Sol

On July 17th, the Ivanhoe Sol had the opportunity to interview Ivanhoe Elementary new principal, Dr. Jesus Gonzalez. Members of Ivanhoe Youth Advisory Committee submitted their questions for the Ivanhoe Sol to ask Dr. Gonzalez via phone interview. 

Previous to this position, Gonzalez had served as assistant principal for curriculum and instruction for Redwood High. He was raised in Woodlake and will be taking over for Principal Rodriguez.  

What made you want to be a principal?

Oh great. So, my journey to education began obviously many years ago, growing up, in the community of Woodlake, with some fantastic teachers I had growing up. They were really good role models to me. I always thought that I wanted to be in education. As I began teaching,  I taught for many years. I saw that the principal is responsible for many things and one is leading a school. I always felt that I would be a leader in that aspect. I wanted to be able to lead a school, teachers, staff, and students. That’s what really made me want to be a principal is to be able to lead, and also to be a servant leader. Being a  principal comes with a lot of responsibility, being a servant leader making sure you’re listening to your students, your staff, your parents, your community. I definitely feel I have that.  I want to use what I have.

How would you make Ivanhoe a better and safer place for your students?

I would definitely want to listen to the community, the student voices are important to me. As they share about being a safer community I would want to know more about the community, so I could work with community members like yourself,  the Ivanhoe Community Council, County Supervisors, the Sheriff Department and others, to ensure that we could continue to make Ivanhoe a great and safe community for all. So it’s good, it takes a team effort, it takes a village as they say. I think that’s going to be the responsibility of all of us communicating clearly and working together to build that, the student population has a lot to do with that. Because they’re the ones that kind of feel the community.

How do you feel about Student Resource Officers on campus?

I don’t know enough about this topic to provide a comment on it. I need to gather more information before addressing the question, but I would reiterate that a strong partnership with the school, community and officers is needed to continue to provide a safe environment for all.

How do you feel about the lack of counselors at our schools, in general but especially with students dealing with the lingering social and emotional effects of the pandemic, for this upcoming year?

 I definitely feel that counselors play an important role in students’ lives, academically and in  social emotional learning. They are something that we need to work on to bring to Ivanhoe for students that are moving on to middle school, and especially high school, that they’re getting that academic counseling necessary, so they know how to navigate their high school world. So that’s one aspect of it.

The other one role of counselors is obviously with the pandemic and other things that have happened prior to the pandemic where students sometimes have social issues that they are working through that you have a professional counselor there for the students to be able to go and rely on. To share issues that they may be facing, and having an adult to kind of help them work through those and then they build a partnership with the parents or families to help assist through.

I would like to mention the dedicated Ivanhoe Elementary school staff that have worked tirelessly to provide an education that focuses on preparing students for academic success. They have been doing this for years and will continue to do this as they are clearly educators with dedication and heart.

What are the resources that the school can offer our community and if you could bring in more resources, what would those be? 

Currently I know we’re working on a couple of things. I know we already have an after school program for the elementary, and the junior high, the Heart Program.  I think that’s a great program to be a part of. 

Now that we have middle school or junior high we have sports programs I really believe, they keep  kids connected and engaged to the site. Looking forward, we will look for more resources and more programs for kids to be connected with, and work with community and  County leaders, where we can have kids take field trips, taking them outside of Ivanhoe to be part of things that go on in their county and outside the county. 

Looking for funding, of course, that could provide that. I know there’s bus transportations, time is an issue but we could partner with Tulare County, TCAT  transportation where kids could go to different events that are occurring,  at no charge, because we don’t want  finance to be an issue. We want to remove any of those types of challenges or barriers that students may face, so they can  be able to participate. So it’s definitely getting them to see other parts of Tulare County and other counties, and what they offer. We’re looking at  partnering with some of the industry partners in this area where kids are growing out of being part of the elementary,  junior high, but still providing them with connections with businesses that can actually help them, by being  mentors to these youth. 

I’m realizing how important the school is to the community, especially the school facilities. That’s something that we have to keep in mind as we partner with people. Ivanhoe School seems to be the hub of our community, I want to continue to strengthen our partnerships with any and all organizations that would like to partner with us to provide those opportunities to the youth.

I would like to add  bringing guest speakers from various professional backgrounds to speak and motivate students, especially the upper grades which would begin to open the possibilities for students’ career paths. 

Valley Oak started a food and clothing pantry in 2019-2020 is that a possibility for Ivanhoe Elementary, K-8 in the near future?

Yes, so a food and clothing pantry. Yes, that is definitely something that we could discuss and do. I’m open to that and I believe the whole staff would be open to help  along with that. To create a food and clothing pantry for our neediest of community members. That way we ensure that the children do not come to school hungry, and do not come to school, cold or any clothing necessities that they need. We can always partner to get donations from the bigger organizations and have that handy for parents and students. So yes I would be open to that.

Principal Gonzalez can be contacted at: [email protected]