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Franco remembers growing up in Ivanhoe, and later coming home<\/p>\n
By Esmeralda Garcia, Ivanhoe Sol<\/span><\/p>\n This month, the Ivanhoe Sol\u2019s community spotlight is of Ivanhoe resident, Jose M. Franco, who deserves recognition for being a positive part of our community.<\/span><\/p>\n Mr. Franco, originally from Tepatitlan, Jalisco, came to Ivanhoe at the age of nine. Franco\u2019s grandfather \u201cPapa Nacho\u201d arrived in Ivanhoe in the late 1970\u2019s with 11 children, one of them Franco\u2019s father. Franco has a twin brother and two younger sisters. Some of his earliest memories include playing soccer and basketball at Ivanhoe Elementary School, which was better known as \u201cla escuelita\u201d. He also remembers the day it snowed in the late 1990s, a very uncommon event for this area.<\/span><\/p>\n Franco shared how gangs had a great influence and negative effect during his younger years, but he thanks those experiences he is the person he is today.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Franco\u2019s teaching career started out in South Central Los Angeles. His passion has been working with people who have similar needs to the community he grew up with and went to school with in Ivanhoe. He has also worked with schools in Tulare, Goshen and Ridgeview.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n He describes becoming the principal at Valley Oak Middle School this year as \u201ccoming home.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n He continued, \u201cSome challenges that we face (being from Ivanhoe) is the misperception of being labeled, which brings negative light. What fuels me is knowing we have great people, positive and negative. We shouldn\u2019t judge kids because they dress a certain way because it’s just boys who crave that attention.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n When asked what he would like to see in Ivanhoe in the future, Franco said, \u201cI would like to see it more developed like neighboring cities of Woodlake or Farmersville, bring more community events similar to the \u201cjamaicas\u201d that were formerly held at San Felipe De Jesus, the Catholic church. Bringing positivity to young kids, I want to see positivity.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe have people in Ivanhoe doing good things such as the Ivanhoe Sol, which helps us take a step forward. But then there\u2019s shootings and it makes us take three steps back, but we gotta keep pushing and be seen in a positive light.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Franco remembers growing up in Ivanhoe, and later coming home By Esmeralda Garcia, Ivanhoe Sol This month, the Ivanhoe Sol\u2019s community spotlight is of Ivanhoe resident, Jose M. Franco, who deserves recognition for being a positive part of our community. Mr. Franco, originally from Tepatitlan, Jalisco, came to Ivanhoe at the age of nine. Franco\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2791,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[80],"class_list":["post-2787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-valley-oak-middle-school"],"yoast_head":"\n