Final DeKalb School District 428 superintendent finalist forum: Minerva Garcia-Sanchez

DeKALB – Minerva Garcia-Sanchez said that if one thing stood out about DeKalb School District 428, it was the district’s diversity plan.

Garcia-Sanchez was the fourth and final candidate for the superintendent position to hold a community forum this week.

She said one of the things she would like to see is students being advocates for themselves.

“I’d like to develop an advisory of students that can really give me feedback,” Garcia-Sanchez said. “Advisory might be a little broken up based on grade levels, but it would be inclusive of all our students, so I’m hearing all of them, and they can speak with the advocacy voice and empathy to reach people that make the decisions.”

Garcia-Sanchez currently serves as the Pilsen/Little Village chief of schools, a position she has held since 2015. Although it is a majority-minority district, she said she’s had to tackle problems with personal biases among teachers.

“One of the things that really resonated with me as a chief in Network 7 5 1/2 years ago, about 95% of the population is Latino, looks like me,” Garcia-Sanchez said. “Sixty percent of the staff actually looks like me, Latina or Latino. But what I found troubling was that they were the ones who had the most prejudice against the students. They felt, ‘I grew up in the same neighborhood, so if I could come out on top, so could you.’ ”

She said that attitude put up a wall around the students.

“Students felt like teachers weren’t hearing them, weren’t understanding,” Garcia-Sanchez said. “Life is different now than it was 20 years ago – that they’re looking at them, not what they think they’re looking at. What resonated with me [is] we were able to overcome a lot of those prejudices and biases. Those same people are really helping us help others to remove those biases.

“Just because they are Latino, or just because they are Black, we shouldn’t generalize about them,” Garcia-Sanchez said. “Children don’t appreciate it when adults do that. What they need is someone to connect to them, where they’re coming from, who they are.”

Garcia-Sanchez followed Lorenzo Russell, Marcey Sorensen and Johnetta Miller in interviewing for the position, which became available when Jaime Craven stepped down in April. Griff Powell and Ray Lechner have served as interim superintendents.

Garcia-Sanchez said she feels her beliefs and those of the district align well.

“I feel from having heard from your board, having heard from individuals, it just strengthened my belief that I am a good fit for your district,” Garcia-Sanchez said. “I believe I’m a good fit for it because my beliefs and my values truly resembles those of yours from what I’ve heard.”

One thing she said she would look to keep intact is a quality of life plan.

“There’s a lot of people going through a lot of things,” Garcia-Sanchez said. “Mentally, physically, there has to be a way to cope with this. ... I want to make sure we’re thinking about trauma, or we’re just able to vent, or being able to get something off our chest, [that] there are opportunities for people to access that.”

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