Fostering Futures℠
The California Association of Health and Education Linked Professions is excited to introduce you to Fostering Futures℠ a podcast that brings you high-quality, research-based content designed to inspire and educate. Each episode is crafted with care, drawing on the knowledge of credible experts, parents, and community members to ensure both trustworthiness and depth.
Our mission is to engage and expand our audience by delivering thought-provoking material that focuses on key areas crucial to the development and well-being of all youth. Through our discussions, we aim to provide insights that are not only relevant but also transformative.
Join us as we explore innovative approaches in special education, Social Emotional Well-Being, and Community. Be ready to be apart of a community committed to making a positive impact.
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Fostering Futures℠
Episode 7 - The Superintendent’s Perspective: Serving Military Families with Care and Courage
In this inspiring, people-first episode, host Athena Cordero welcomes Jesse Nájera, Superintendent of Silver Valley Unified School District, for an open, practical conversation about leading a small, military-connected district with heart. Together they unpack how relationships, recognition, and student wellness—not just programs or test scores—drive real outcomes for kids.
Jesse traces his path from Spanish/ELD teacher to superintendent and shares what makes Silver Valley unique: high student mobility, deep partnerships with Fort Irwin, and a culture that refuses to hoard good news. He outlines the district’s two-track “North Star”—Future-Ready learning (critical thinking, collaboration, creativity) and Student Wellness (wraparound supports, community schools, a new school-based health center)—and shows how small schools can know every student by name and need.
With candid stories, shout-outs to staff and mentors, and even a playful truth-or-dare, Athena and Jesse spotlight a leadership style that’s humble, courageous, and relentlessly kid-centered.
🔑 Highlights & Takeaways
- Why relationships win: Culture beats programs—believing in people and recognizing excellence powers improvement and trust.
- Serving military-connected students: High mobility (40% yearly; ~80% every two years) demands world-class welcoming and transition supports.
- Future-Ready > test scores: A districtwide Learner Profile builds critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, and communication from K–12.
- Student Wellness, systemwide: Community schools, clothing drives, counseling, and a school-based health center support students and families.
- Recognition that sticks: “Managing up” letters (copied to the board and placed in personnel files) normalize public celebration of staff wins.
- Partnerships that matter: Close alignment with the school board, Fort Irwin leadership, and organizations like CAFIS/MISA/NAFIS.
- Small schools, big outcomes: 100% graduation, record AP participation/pass rates, and facility upgrades (e.g., Yermo’s new gym).
- Real talk on leadership: Be honest, courageous, and kid-first—even when choices are hard; mentors and a strong cabinet keep leaders grounded.
- Hire for community strength: Military-spouse educators bring global experience and mentorship that elevates teaching and leadership.
- Human moments: From 5th-grade mischief to rapping “Dear Mama,” Jesse’s stories model grace, growth, and not letting mistakes define you.
This episode is a must-listen for superintendents, site leaders, counselors, and teachers who want a concrete blueprint for leading with heart + rigor—where relationships, wellness, and future-ready skills come together to change student lives.
Thanks for listening! Follow us on Facebook and Instagram | www.cahelp.org | podcast@cahelp.org
00:00:09 Intro
The relentless pursuit of whatever works in the life of a child.
00:00:18 Athena Cordero
Welcome to Fostering Futures with CAHELP, a podcast dedicated to our relentless pursuit of whatever works in the life of a child.
00:00:26 Athena Cordero
I'm your host, Athena Cordero, inviting you to join me and countless others as we share our unique perspectives and expertise in the world of special education, behavioral health, social-emotional well-being, and community.
00:00:39 Athena Cordero
Follow us on Buzzsprout, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.
00:00:45 Athena Cordero
Okay, so today I have with me Jesse Najera.
00:00:50 Athena Cordero
Am I saying your last name right?
00:00:52 Jesse Najera
Almost.
00:00:52 Athena Cordero
Say it for me.
00:00:53 Jesse Najera
The way I say it is Najera.
00:00:55 Athena Cordero
Wow.
00:00:57 Jesse Najera
Najera works too.
00:00:58 Athena Cordero
Najera Najera.
00:00:59 Athena Cordero
Okay.
00:00:59 Athena Cordero
And I asked because I want people to hear the proper way to say it.
00:01:03 Athena Cordero
Okay, so perfect.
00:01:04 Athena Cordero
And you are a superintendent for Silver Valley Unified School District.
00:01:08 Athena Cordero
You've been superintendent there for just about nine years.
00:01:11 Jesse Najera
Yes, ma'am.
00:01:12 Jesse Najera
Starting my ninth year.
00:01:13 Athena Cordero
Okay.
00:01:13 Athena Cordero
And you, I know
00:01:15 Athena Cordero
You work with some very awesome folks, and I'm just I can't help myself.
00:01:19 Athena Cordero
I'm going to shout out two of them.
00:01:21 Athena Cordero
Please do.
00:01:22 Athena Cordero
Jeff Yuskovich and Cami Murphy.
00:01:25 Jesse Najera
Yeah, I sure do.
00:01:26 Jesse Najera
And a little bit about both of them.
00:01:29 Jesse Najera
I've been lucky enough to work with them.
00:01:31 Jesse Najera
Jeff, my career is about starting my 25th year.
00:01:35 Jesse Najera
Jeff was a co a colleague of mine as a teacher, and then I was his assistant principal when he was a principal.
00:01:41 Jesse Najera
Wow.
00:01:43 Jesse Najera
And I was kind and compassionate and compliant with him.
00:01:47 Jesse Najera
He doesn't show me that same respect.
00:01:48 Athena Cordero
Oh, of course not, no, yeah.
00:01:49 Jesse Najera
But then I got to bring him to Silver Valley with me.
00:01:51 Jesse Najera
So of my 25 years, 23 have been with Jeff, right, Mr.
00:01:55 Jesse Najera
Y.
00:01:55 Jesse Najera
And so he is a superstar, and I'm the lucky one that gets to work with him.
00:02:01 Jesse Najera
And then Cami was our counselor when we were at that school.
00:02:04 Jesse Najera
And so I've known Cami forever.
00:02:07 Jesse Najera
And a few years ago, I just couldn't believe that we would have an opportunity to bring Cami to our district.
00:02:12 Jesse Najera
So, blessed to work with both of them.
00:02:15 Jesse Najera
True superstars in our district.
00:02:17 Athena Cordero
They are.
00:02:17 Athena Cordero
I feel like if I had to give people like a visual, I feel like they wear
00:02:25 Athena Cordero
I love kids costume, like a uniform under their usual clothes, almost like Spider-Man, right?
00:02:31 Athena Cordero
Because you can see it just radiate off of them.
00:02:33 Athena Cordero
So a shout out to them.
00:02:35 Athena Cordero
And to, I mean, everybody, of course.
00:02:36 Jesse Najera
I was just going to say, Silver Valley's full of those people, right?
00:02:39 Jesse Najera
Which is why you just said I'm in my 9th year, 15 total in the district, right?
00:02:43 Jesse Najera
It's far from where I live and I stay there for a reason, right?
00:02:46 Jesse Najera
There's
00:02:48 Jesse Najera
Incredible people there that love kids, but you just named two of the leaders that wear that on their chest and make decisions always about kids.
00:02:55 Athena Cordero
Awesome, awesome.
00:02:56 Athena Cordero
Okay, so because it has been nine years, like you said, I go there, I stay there because of the love, right, for the community, the district.
00:03:06 Athena Cordero
Can you give us just an idea, you know, maybe summarize for us your background in education?
00:03:13 Jesse Najera
Yeah, of course.
00:03:14 Jesse Najera
So I started as a teacher in Atalanto, never dreaming of administration, right?
00:03:19 Jesse Najera
For me, it was about coaching and being around kids, something that I felt passionate about.
00:03:24 Jesse Najera
Started there teaching Spanish as a second language and some ELD as well, and just fell in love with working with kids.
00:03:32 Jesse Najera
Still never thinking of administration.
00:03:34 Jesse Najera
I had an assistant principal tap me on the shoulder and say, Hey, can you be a designee for a day?
00:03:38 Jesse Najera
Well, I had no idea what that even was.
00:03:40 Jesse Najera
And after one day, I was just hooked.
00:03:42 Jesse Najera
I thought, that's it.
00:03:44 Jesse Najera
That's what I want to do.
00:03:45 Jesse Najera
And so again, I was lucky enough that less than four years into my teaching career, they promoted me to assistant principal.
00:03:53 Jesse Najera
And that was bizarre, but I loved it and served a couple of years there, became a principal in Adelanto where, you know, we went to a school that was year four program improvement.
00:04:06 Jesse Najera
I want to say they were 11% proficient in language arts, the worst school achievement wise in math and language arts in the district.
00:04:15 Jesse Najera
Yeah.
00:04:15 Jesse Najera
And in two years, you know, we got out of program improvement, we grew like 170 API points.
00:04:21 Jesse Najera
And the biggest deal, the biggest thing I learned in that in that position was it wasn't some great program that I brought with me.
00:04:31 Jesse Najera
It was great people there that just needed somebody to come in and believe in them, right?
00:04:35 Jesse Najera
And to be a relationship person, to have their back, to support them.
00:04:39 Jesse Najera
And we did great things there, right?
00:04:42 Jesse Najera
And so from there, I moved on to Silver Valley, became the executive director of human resources, again, because relationships was at the top of my skill set, but things that I believed in.
00:04:55 Jesse Najera
how you treat people.
00:04:57 Jesse Najera
And so I came into Silver Valley doing HR in a very non-traditional way, which was, I'm here to help and I'm here to support.
00:05:04 Jesse Najera
And when you're screaming and yelling, that's just not the way I'm going to respond.
00:05:08 Jesse Najera
And very different probably from what they were used to.
00:05:11 Jesse Najera
And so that, I think, played really well in our district.
00:05:15 Jesse Najera
And I went to a place I had never heard of, Silver Valley.
00:05:19 Athena Cordero
Really?
00:05:20 Athena Cordero
You never heard of me?
00:05:20 Jesse Najera
I never heard of it until I applied.
00:05:22 Athena Cordero
So have the hustle and bustle and no.
00:05:25 Jesse Najera
Literally said, where is that when they told me about it, right?
00:05:28 Jesse Najera
But wow, what a community, right?
00:05:32 Jesse Najera
The idea of serving military families is so high on my list now of things that I'm passionate about.
00:05:39 Jesse Najera
But we have also four amazing little communities, right, down in what we call the Valley.
00:05:45 Jesse Najera
Just great people in Silver Valley, just doing their best for kids every day, right?
00:05:50 Jesse Najera
So
00:05:50 Jesse Najera
I fell in love within the military community.
00:05:53 Jesse Najera
I've been really involved as well.
00:05:55 Jesse Najera
I'm on, I have the privilege to serve as the president of what we call CAFIS, which is the California Association of Federally Impacted Schools, right?
00:06:02 Jesse Najera
It's basically every district that serves military kids or Native American kids.
00:06:07 Jesse Najera
And so I served as president there.
00:06:09 Jesse Najera
I serve on the board, on the executive board of MISA, which is the Military Impacted Schools Association.
00:06:16 Jesse Najera
And then NAFIS, which is the national conference, I serve as the California state chair.
00:06:21 Jesse Najera
And then have the opportunity to serve as the state superintendent appointed me to be the superintendent representative for what's called the compact, the military children compact.
00:06:32 Athena Cordero
Okay.
00:06:32 Jesse Najera
Which is a set of rights that comes with military kids 'cause they move every two years around the country.
00:06:37 Jesse Najera
So they get to a school and when that compact says you're gonna...
00:06:40 Jesse Najera
allow them to try out for teams.
00:06:41 Jesse Najera
You're gonna give them credit for the classes they've taken, just those kind of things.
00:06:45 Jesse Najera
So the state superintendent appoints one superintendent, and I was lucky enough to be-.
00:06:49 Athena Cordero
It reminds me of like a bill of rights for- Exactly right.
00:06:53 Athena Cordero
That's awesome.
00:06:53 Jesse Najera
Yeah, so yeah, really involved on the military side that way, right?
00:06:58 Jesse Najera
But I personally, I live pretty far from my district, hour and a half.
00:07:03 Jesse Najera
Yet again, I'm in my 15th year, it's just an amazing place from the school board down to every single person in that district.
00:07:10 Jesse Najera
There's just a pride that comes with the small town community and getting great results for kids, right?
00:07:15 Jesse Najera
And bringing great people there.
00:07:17 Jesse Najera
So yeah, really, really lucky.
00:07:19 Athena Cordero
That's awesome.
00:07:20 Athena Cordero
So I heard you say that there's four communities within this area.
00:07:24 Athena Cordero
What are these four communities?
00:07:26 Jesse Najera
I mean, the ones, they're probably more than four, right?
00:07:28 Jesse Najera
But the ones that I think of, right, Newbury Springs and Yermo and Daggett and Ludlow, just small communities there.
00:07:34 Jesse Najera
We have a lot of kids from Barstow as well that come to our district.
00:07:37 Jesse Najera
And then, of course, Fort Irwin and the Marine Corps logistics space, the military, probably 75% of our kids, 70, 75% are military.
00:07:45 Jesse Najera
So there's a beautiful thing that happens.
00:07:48 Jesse Najera
We have schools up at Fort Irwin, and then we have schools in the valley, but they come together in high school.
00:07:53 Jesse Najera
And they form bonds on football teams and on volleyball teams and clubs, and they learn so much from each other, right?
00:08:00 Jesse Najera
We have kids that in a 12-year school career, they move nine times, right?
00:08:07 Jesse Najera
Wow.
00:08:07 Jesse Najera
And so one of my favorite things to do in Silver Valley on the first day of school is go to Silver Valley High School.
00:08:13 Jesse Najera
And I've done it for 15 years in a row now, and I just go and seek out those kids that are sitting by themselves, and almost always they are military 'cause it's their first year there.
00:08:23 Jesse Najera
And I'm able to, hey, where have you been in school?
00:08:25 Jesse Najera
I know that superintendent, or those kind of talks.
00:08:28 Jesse Najera
And then just kind of tell them, you're going to love it here.
00:08:30 Jesse Najera
Within a week, you're going to be, you know, around friends.
00:08:33 Jesse Najera
You're going to have a chance to play, you know, sports.
00:08:36 Jesse Najera
And so Silver Valley High School's, you know, 400-ish kids, right?
00:08:40 Jesse Najera
So it's, you're seen.
00:08:41 Jesse Najera
You know, we know every kid by name.
00:08:43 Jesse Najera
You know, last year, just to throw this out there, we graduated 100% of our kids in Silver Valley in our two high schools, right?
00:08:49 Jesse Najera
Something we're really proud of.
00:08:50 Jesse Najera
And I think
00:08:52 Jesse Najera
The main reason why is because we're not a school of 2,500, 3,000 kids at the high school level, and we get to know these kids individually.
00:09:00 Jesse Najera
And all the schools at Sierra Valley are small that way, right?
00:09:03 Jesse Najera
So there's a lot of individual attention.
00:09:05 Jesse Najera
I had the commanding general from Fort Irwin in my office yesterday, and that doesn't happen every day.
00:09:10 Athena Cordero
I sat up straight when you said that.
00:09:13 Jesse Najera
It was a, I do too, believe me, I do too.
00:09:16 Jesse Najera
And it's like, sir, like, what an honor to have you here.
00:09:17 Jesse Najera
But
00:09:18 Jesse Najera
He was just there to tell me how much he brags about us at the Pentagon and just the partnership that we have.
00:09:24 Jesse Najera
So it was great to have him there.
00:09:27 Jesse Najera
But yeah, it's a great place.
00:09:29 Athena Cordero
Thank you for sharing that and putting
00:09:33 Athena Cordero
What I, and this is probably the worst way to say this, and I'm sorry, but more of a soft touch on what people might think initially when they hear military community, right?
00:09:44 Athena Cordero
It could sound intimidating to think that you're going to go serve within a military community.
00:09:50 Athena Cordero
I'll be honest, when I first started with CAHELP,
00:09:53 Athena Cordero
a trainer working with Cami, and I got to go to the base, to the fort to go train.
00:09:58 Athena Cordero
You are officially, driving onto a military base.
00:10:03 Athena Cordero
You check in.
00:10:05 Athena Cordero
They gave me a picture of me from back when I was 18, or something from military ID from my dad.
00:10:11 Athena Cordero
It was intimidating.
00:10:12 Athena Cordero
But when I tell you the very first training,
00:10:16 Athena Cordero
I that it just wiped that whole experience away because it is exactly everything that you're talking about.
00:10:22 Athena Cordero
And I did.
00:10:23 Athena Cordero
I appreciate the experience and I appreciate you sharing that with with us right now.
00:10:28 Athena Cordero
So because you didn't intend, you know, to go into these roles.
00:10:34 Jesse Najera
Yeah.
00:10:35 Athena Cordero
And it wasn't really the plan.
00:10:36 Athena Cordero
How do you how would you describe your leadership style now that you've that you've done all of those things?
00:10:44 Jesse Najera
You know,
00:10:46 Jesse Najera
I'll probably say it 100 times just in our talk today is relationships.
00:10:51 Jesse Najera
It's how you treat people, no matter what the title is, right?
00:10:53 Jesse Najera
It's Silver Valley has probably 400-ish employees.
00:10:59 Jesse Najera
Probably 80% of them have my cell phone.
00:11:01 Jesse Najera
It's a small community and it's, I try to emphasize recognizing excellence, right?
00:11:08 Jesse Najera
We do something called managing up in our district, which is,
00:11:12 Jesse Najera
somebody writes me an e-mail and says, I want to just thank so-and-so at my school for going above and beyond for these three reasons.
00:11:18 Jesse Najera
Yeah.
00:11:19 Jesse Najera
I write them a letter, I copy the school board, I copy cabinet, I copy the supervisor, and then I give it to them in an e-mail and then tell them this letter's been sent to your home address.
00:11:30 Jesse Najera
Keep up the great work.
00:11:32 Jesse Najera
We put that a copy of that letter in their personnel file, right?
00:11:35 Jesse Najera
We typically think personnel files will have some, negative things in.
00:11:39 Jesse Najera
We put that letter in there and tell them, keep up the good work.
00:11:42 Jesse Najera
But when you think of something like that, you get the school board chiming in, thank you for what you do, telling them right away.
00:11:50 Jesse Najera
That person who gets recognized can't believe everybody who CC'd there.
00:11:54 Jesse Najera
And then they're so grateful to their supervisor who put them forward to somebody like that, right?
00:11:59 Jesse Najera
It's just a culture of trying to
00:12:02 Jesse Najera
see the value in what everybody brings, right?
00:12:05 Jesse Najera
There's great things everywhere, right?
00:12:06 Jesse Najera
But so yeah, I'd say I hopefully it's a relationship strength that I would say with my leadership.
00:12:13 Jesse Najera
Certainly high expectations too.
00:12:16 Jesse Najera
I mean, we keep shooting for higher and higher for our kids, right?
00:12:20 Jesse Najera
And I have a school board that has super high expectations as well.
00:12:26 Jesse Najera
And maybe a lot of people would be intimidated by that, but I welcome it, right?
00:12:30 Jesse Najera
We're on the same team here.
00:12:31 Jesse Najera
So when
00:12:32 Jesse Najera
you want more, we're going to try to go out and deliver more or even exceed what you're asking for, right?
00:12:36 Jesse Najera
So it becomes a district where sites are just trying to take the next step always, and that's what we're asking, right?
00:12:44 Jesse Najera
And I'm not going to tell you how long your step needs to be.
00:12:47 Jesse Najera
I need you to take one, right?
00:12:48 Jesse Najera
And so I found a place.
00:12:50 Jesse Najera
I've been blessed to find a place where
00:12:53 Jesse Najera
where we work together to do unbelievable things for kids, right?
00:12:56 Jesse Najera
We're the highest achieving school district in the whole mountain desert region and have been for years.
00:13:02 Jesse Najera
Like I said, we graduated 100% of our kids.
00:13:05 Jesse Najera
This last year, Silver Valley High School gave the most AP test, had more kids taking AP tests than ever in their history, taking the most AP test they had ever taken in their history and the highest passage rate they've ever had, right?
00:13:17 Jesse Najera
That's awesome.
00:13:18 Jesse Najera
Those kind of things that get me fired up about helping kids make sure their future is bright, right?
00:13:25 Athena Cordero
And I can see it in the way you're describing it.
00:13:29 Athena Cordero
And again, I've known you to be the superintendent as long as I've been working here.
00:13:34 Athena Cordero
And I will say to describe your leadership style, I hear you, and there's also a really strong sense of pride in the community, in the district, and the folks that you work with.
00:13:44 Athena Cordero
families that you serve.
00:13:46 Athena Cordero
So thank you, of course, because that's awesome.
00:13:49 Athena Cordero
I also appreciate the reframe on the personnel file, because it does have negative connotation.
00:13:56 Athena Cordero
You know, when you think your personnel file, people are not ready to hear awesome things.
00:14:01 Athena Cordero
They're looking for something, and it's usually not a good something.
00:14:04 Athena Cordero
So I'm gonna go ahead and challenge all of our other local districts to reframe, you know, with the personnel file, because that's awesome.
00:14:11 Athena Cordero
I can't imagine the feeling for something that's,
00:14:14 Athena Cordero
I mean, it's a simple thing, but it's not.
00:14:16 Athena Cordero
It's huge to be able to be recognized like that.
00:14:19 Jesse Najera
We made it a staple of what we do, right?
00:14:21 Jesse Najera
And I'm trying to give credit to where I even got that idea from.
00:14:25 Jesse Najera
I wanna say I got it from one of my mentors in Ross Swearingen.
00:14:29 Jesse Najera
If it wasn't Ross, then I'd take it back 'cause I don't want him to get credit for just something he didn't give me, but I think it was him.
00:14:34 Jesse Najera
But it's become a
00:14:36 Jesse Najera
We put it in our LCAP.
00:14:37 Jesse Najera
How many times do we recognize excellence, right?
00:14:40 Jesse Najera
And so we count them at the end of the year to make sure that we're keeping that at the forefront of what we do, right.
00:14:46 Athena Cordero
That's important.
00:14:47 Athena Cordero
It made it in LCAP, that's important.
00:14:48 Jesse Najera
Yeah, yeah.
00:14:49 Jesse Najera
So I just think people, and I can fall into this trap, right?
00:14:53 Jesse Najera
You go home and you think of that one thing that went wrong or that one person who's not happy, where all day long you can look left and right and see great things happening and opportunities to
00:15:06 Jesse Najera
to lift somebody up, to encourage them, which honestly, I see as one of my biggest roles.
00:15:10 Jesse Najera
I know that if I leave my office and walk the entire district office complex, I have opportunities, every department I walk into to ask people how they're doing, how's life?
00:15:22 Jesse Najera
And that's what I love about a small district.
00:15:24 Jesse Najera
I literally know your kids' names, right?
00:15:26 Jesse Najera
And so we're talking that way.
00:15:28 Jesse Najera
And
00:15:29 Jesse Najera
I think that's what keeps me in a small district, right, is that closeness, that family type style?
00:15:34 Athena Cordero
Well, and that's not an easy thing.
00:15:36 Athena Cordero
I mean, I know you keep attributing it to being a small district, but it's not an easy thing to do, period.
00:15:43 Athena Cordero
You really have to train the eye to look for the good.
00:15:46 Jesse Najera
Yeah.
00:15:47 Athena Cordero
Because as humans, we naturally go for, what's that example?
00:15:51 Athena Cordero
I think we, I hear it every year, where a kid brings home, you know, four A's and a B,
00:15:58 Athena Cordero
And the first question is what?
00:16:00 Athena Cordero
What happened with the, yeah.
00:16:02 Jesse Najera
100%.
00:16:02 Jesse Najera
We go right to that, right?
00:16:03 Jesse Najera
My mom was the same way, right?
00:16:05 Jesse Najera
It could be an A minus, that minus was like- What happened?
00:16:08 Athena Cordero
Yeah, what happened?
00:16:09 Athena Cordero
And then we go to the, oh, but you got A's and all these other areas.
00:16:13 Athena Cordero
So you do have to train the I and the behavior in yourself to be able to do that first, and then go to maybe what needs to be corrected or done.
00:16:22 Athena Cordero
So again, kudos to you for that.
00:16:25 Athena Cordero
In how you explain that, though, now I'm curious, what do you think people most often misunderstand about the superintendent role?
00:16:36 Jesse Najera
You know, I'm not afraid to say the title doesn't bring any infallibility, right?
00:16:40 Jesse Najera
Like, we could be wrong.
00:16:42 Jesse Najera
And so I could have a parent who's upset in front of me, and I don't sit there and pretend that because I'm, you know, my title behind me means I have every answer or
00:16:51 Jesse Najera
or I'm 100% right, you have that situation that happens, right, where you have a conflict between kids.
00:16:57 Jesse Najera
And an administrator has to make a decision based on statements and based on interviews, right?
00:17:02 Jesse Najera
And it's, and I often tell parents, we weren't there.
00:17:05 Jesse Najera
This is what we believe happened based on the evidence we have.
00:17:08 Jesse Najera
And that's why this consequence or whatever was given.
00:17:12 Jesse Najera
And so I think people think,
00:17:16 Jesse Najera
I don't know, that maybe a superintendent thinks they've arrived type thing.
00:17:20 Jesse Najera
And that's the last thing I want people to think.
00:17:22 Jesse Najera
I want, I literally, especially when newer folks come into Silver Valley, I want to make them laugh.
00:17:28 Jesse Najera
I want them to see, you know, one of my favorite things to do is yell at Mr.
00:17:32 Jesse Najera
Y in front of a new employee, right?
00:17:34 Jesse Najera
And it's just, you know, I can hear everybody laughing because they all know.
00:17:37 Jesse Najera
But the new employee is like, oh my gosh, right?
00:17:39 Jesse Najera
And so it's just a way to say, hey, we're all people, right?
00:17:44 Jesse Najera
We all have important roles.
00:17:46 Jesse Najera
and each one is critical to what we're trying to get accomplished, right?
00:17:50 Jesse Najera
And being the superintendent means nothing other than I'm blessed with the opportunity to lead, you know, a district, you know.
00:17:57 Athena Cordero
That's awesome.
00:17:58 Athena Cordero
And remind me to send Mr.
00:18:00 Jesse Najera
Probably shouldn't said that, right?
00:18:01 Athena Cordero
Yeah, remember he probably deserves like a treat for him.
00:18:04 Jesse Najera
Because my wife randomly says, Are you being nice to Jeff?
00:18:06 Jesse Najera
I'm like, Yes, I'm being nice.
00:18:08 Athena Cordero
OK, so he does have no idea who's in his corner.
00:18:10 Jesse Najera
Oh, for sure.
00:18:10 Jesse Najera
Oh, the whole district's in his corner.
00:18:12 Athena Cordero
Yes, OK, so
00:18:15 Athena Cordero
So the way you describe that right now, now I'm also thinking, what is a, if I can even say typical day, what does a typical day look like for you from start to finish?
00:18:29 Jesse Najera
You know, that can be wildly different, right?
00:18:31 Jesse Najera
There are days where you have a financial report coming or something and you are literally between business and my office all day long and never left the district office, right?
00:18:42 Jesse Najera
And then there are days that your calendar, that you say, I'm gonna go and get out and make sure we're visible on sites, we're saying hello, we're meeting, we're high-fiving, we're watching, we're going into classrooms and just getting the vibe of what's going on the campuses, right?
00:19:02 Jesse Najera
As the superintendent for Silver Valley Unified, you're out.
00:19:06 Jesse Najera
doing a lot of Washington, D.C.
00:19:07 Jesse Najera
trips.
00:19:08 Athena Cordero
Okay.
00:19:09 Jesse Najera
And so have the privilege of meeting with our congressmen probably three or four times a year.
00:19:14 Athena Cordero
Wow.
00:19:16 Jesse Najera
Just a side little plug, we did an AI symposium this summer, which was unbelievable.
00:19:22 Jesse Najera
But our congressman came and did the keynote because he's big in AI, right?
00:19:26 Jesse Najera
So that comes from a relationship with him that we have.
00:19:28 Jesse Najera
And so
00:19:30 Jesse Najera
So, you may, like I said yesterday, the commanding general for Fort Irwin was in my office.
00:19:35 Jesse Najera
I may be working with leadership at the fort, you know, in their offices.
00:19:40 Jesse Najera
But so it's hard to say the typical day, right?
00:19:42 Jesse Najera
There's, you know, I have the privilege to serve as the chair here of a CAHELP, right?
00:19:46 Jesse Najera
And so there's meetings with Pam, or there's a big shout out to Pam Bander, who's I'm a big, big fan of the great job she's doing.
00:19:55 Jesse Najera
But there's, you know,
00:19:57 Jesse Najera
different boards that we sit on or meetings that we have sometimes at the County Office of Education.
00:20:03 Jesse Najera
But the best days are the days you get out into the school sites, right?
00:20:09 Jesse Najera
High 5 the principal, high 5 the teachers when we walk in.
00:20:13 Jesse Najera
We just started first day of school a few weeks ago and I love going in, especially our new teachers saying you're doing it right and look at your class, that looks beautiful.
00:20:22 Jesse Najera
And so those are some of my favorite things to do to go high 5 and
00:20:27 Jesse Najera
and just prop people up.
00:20:29 Jesse Najera
I literally, in my prayers, it's opened my eyes to people I can encourage, and so I think that's such a big role in the superintendency.
00:20:39 Jesse Najera
The last thing I want people to think is he's in that office and he's not approachable.
00:20:44 Athena Cordero
Right.
00:20:45 Jesse Najera
And that's the opposite.
00:20:47 Athena Cordero
So that's like a fear, like I don't want them to think that.
00:20:49 Athena Cordero
Don't, please don't think that.
00:20:51 Athena Cordero
I appreciate that.
00:20:52 Athena Cordero
And yeah, shout out, Pam.
00:20:54 Athena Cordero
She did, I asked her, you know,
00:20:57 Athena Cordero
him better than I do.
00:20:58 Athena Cordero
What is something you want me to ask so that everybody can hear?
00:21:01 Athena Cordero
And it was.
00:21:02 Athena Cordero
It was about the community, how you serve that community, specifically the fact that it's military families and what it's like going there and being there for nine years.
00:21:10 Athena Cordero
And you do choose to do it for all of the reasons that you just said.
00:21:13 Athena Cordero
That is something that she really wanted to make sure we got through to folks today.
00:21:18 Jesse Najera
We've been lucky in
00:21:21 Jesse Najera
The school board has been the same school board for over a decade, right?
00:21:26 Jesse Najera
Like, I know their values.
00:21:27 Jesse Najera
We put things in front of them that we know are aligned to their values.
00:21:31 Jesse Najera
They're encouraging, they're supportive.
00:21:33 Jesse Najera
They certainly have high expectations, right?
00:21:34 Jesse Najera
They hold that high, you would just do that, right?
00:21:37 Jesse Najera
But I know I can count on them for support.
00:21:40 Jesse Najera
And when you're a superintendent, sometimes there's tough times, right?
00:21:43 Jesse Najera
And so...
00:21:45 Jesse Najera
or mistakes right where you have to acknowledge them own them and then make sure we're going to get better you know from them so well.
00:21:52 Athena Cordero
Shout out to your board then too for sure the expectations I absolutely agree with you know working in education and as a parent but when they provide the support you need to to do that um as well you can't beat that.
00:22:06 Jesse Najera
Support resources right they have to believe in what we're doing you know starting with their vision but us
00:22:13 Jesse Najera
them trusting me as they're basically their CEO to make sure that I'm implementing what they want to see get done.
00:22:18 Athena Cordero
Right.
00:22:18 Jesse Najera
But that comes with asking for resources or, you know, personnel.
00:22:22 Jesse Najera
And it's always been a supportive environment that way.
00:22:25 Jesse Najera
Right.
00:22:25 Jesse Najera
And that to me, a district that that functions like Silver Valley does starts because of the leadership of the board and hopefully myself and my cabinet from there on.
00:22:35 Jesse Najera
Right.
00:22:35 Jesse Najera
One of the things I got a shout out to is the
00:22:38 Jesse Najera
the unbelievable leadership we have at the sites the principles are just next level and I'm feeling it oh man they're so good and you know I call it kind of the secret sauce right of a Silver Valley and I can't stop there right we got the best teachers we have the best support staff I know and.
00:22:56 Athena Cordero
We're gonna have to transcribe this to put in the personnel file.
00:22:59 Jesse Najera
Oh they're so really it's so good right so all reasons why I'm in Silver Valley for my 15th year right I just can't imagine being anywhere else.
00:23:06 Athena Cordero
So
00:23:08 Athena Cordero
I mean, I'm going to directly ask this question, only we've gotten a lot of this from you already, but just for the sake of making sure, what part of your day do you find most rewarding?
00:23:22 Jesse Najera
Part of my day.
00:23:22 Jesse Najera
I'm a big fan of the morning.
00:23:26 Athena Cordero
Okay.
00:23:27 Jesse Najera
Because again, opportunity to go say hi and check in with folks, right?
00:23:33 Jesse Najera
Because we have a culture of kind of sharing good news, one of the things I tell people, they are absolutely not allowed to hoard good news.
00:23:39 Jesse Najera
And so if I find out you knew something good yesterday and haven't told me yet, right, that's a big problem for me.
00:23:45 Jesse Najera
And so throughout the day, right, the principals know that too.
00:23:50 Jesse Najera
So when they see something that they, you know, an accomplishment or something that they're fired up about, they're putting out the text message to our...
00:23:58 Jesse Najera
group chat every principal sees it and the answer is like so good right or or Cami right Cami will we just served 260 families at our clothing drive this Saturday what like that's unbelievable right those kind of things and shout out to her right she's.
00:24:15 Athena Cordero
That's awesome and I can I can envision her doing it like I can see her actually.
00:24:20 Jesse Najera
Passionate about what she does and you know Silver Valley's on two tracks you know we're on one track we're
00:24:26 Jesse Najera
We're future ready, right?
00:24:27 Jesse Najera
What are we doing to make sure our kids are gonna be ready for this crazy world, you know, AI dominated world?
00:24:32 Athena Cordero
Right.
00:24:34 Jesse Najera
And that's so much more than test scores.
00:24:36 Jesse Najera
I mean, that's something that I have, my employees now have heard me say for three years straight now, I'm embarrassed at how much I used to live and breathe and go to sleep thinking and wake up thinking, test scores.
00:24:50 Jesse Najera
I'm sorry, that's just not where it's at anymore for me, for me, it's like,
00:24:54 Jesse Najera
I love, I still want to achieve, but for me, it's, are we, are we giving our kids those skills?
00:25:00 Jesse Najera
Are we developing them in what CEOs are saying they need?
00:25:03 Athena Cordero
Yeah.
00:25:03 Jesse Najera
And, and right now, ChatGPT can give you all the information.
00:25:07 Jesse Najera
They need people who can collaborate and critically think and be creative, right?
00:25:11 Jesse Najera
All those things.
00:25:12 Jesse Najera
Yeah.
00:25:13 Jesse Najera
That's where Silver Valley's going.
00:25:14 Jesse Najera
Not, not such a focus on test scores anymore.
00:25:17 Jesse Najera
That's not easy for, for.
00:25:19 Jesse Najera
for everybody.
00:25:19 Jesse Najera
Oh, I'm sure a lot of people are going to create.
00:25:22 Athena Cordero
Yeah, they're gonna tense up a little bit hearing that.
00:25:25 Jesse Najera
Three years in a row now where I'm telling my whole organization before school starts, I'm literally saying to you, that's not the most important thing anymore.
00:25:33 Jesse Najera
Right.
00:25:34 Jesse Najera
But the other track we're on is student wellness, right?
00:25:37 Jesse Najera
And we happen to have, you know, Cami and Jeff leading that effort and
00:25:44 Jesse Najera
We have more resources now than we've ever had at our sites in the area of student wellness.
00:25:49 Jesse Najera
Yet, I feel like it's the most, we have the most need we've ever had.
00:25:53 Athena Cordero
Right.
00:25:53 Jesse Najera
Post COVID, we just see real needs.
00:25:56 Jesse Najera
And I get a lot of, I feel a lot of purpose and fulfillment and bringing more and more resources to our kids that way.
00:26:06 Jesse Najera
And even to our families, right?
00:26:07 Jesse Najera
We're doing a lot with community schools that now involve bringing medical care and
00:26:12 Jesse Najera
clothing and every kind of service, wraparound services that we can.
00:26:18 Jesse Najera
We're opening up in the next two months our own school-based health center, a brand new building.
00:26:23 Athena Cordero
That's beautiful.
00:26:23 Jesse Najera
That's going to serve not just our kids, but our adults in the community as well.
00:26:27 Athena Cordero
Wow.
00:26:28 Jesse Najera
And so I just feel like those are our two tracks, right?
00:26:32 Jesse Najera
Future Ready and Student Wellness.
00:26:34 Jesse Najera
And it's really given us a kind of a North Star to
00:26:39 Jesse Najera
to work for.
00:26:39 Athena Cordero
That's very cool.
00:26:41 Athena Cordero
Very future, future minded, in planning and getting kids ready for things that we don't even know are going to happen yet.
00:26:48 Jesse Najera
Absolutely.
00:26:49 Athena Cordero
That's cool.
00:26:50 Athena Cordero
In that, though, of course, I have to ask, what's the most challenging part of your day?
00:26:56 Jesse Najera
You know, unfortunately, you get a lot of the upset parent or an upset employee or, you know, those kind of things, right?
00:27:07 Jesse Najera
And so
00:27:09 Jesse Najera
compared to a principal, right, where they take home those stresses for their site, right?
00:27:15 Jesse Najera
When you're at the cabinet level, you're taking home those stresses for all of your sites, right?
00:27:20 Jesse Najera
And so 99% of the things could have gone well that day, but you also hear about that 1% that didn't.
00:27:26 Athena Cordero
That A minus.
00:27:27 Jesse Najera
And so I need support system around me, right?
00:27:30 Jesse Najera
My wife's great at saying what went well today, right?
00:27:33 Jesse Najera
When I come home and say,
00:27:34 Jesse Najera
we had this or had that, right?
00:27:36 Jesse Najera
Or mentors, right, that can sit me down and remind me of the good things we're doing, you know, to make sure that we're not just focused on the challenges.
00:27:44 Jesse Najera
So yeah, getting bad news, you know, an altercation at a site, right, or our parent who's not happy about something, that's always challenging for me.
00:27:54 Jesse Najera
I want to please everybody, right?
00:27:57 Jesse Najera
Our board meetings are typically 99% positive.
00:28:00 Jesse Najera
I mean, truly is sharing the best things of what we do.
00:28:04 Jesse Najera
once in a while, you get a negative comment.
00:28:06 Jesse Najera
And to me, if I let it can ruin my day.
00:28:10 Jesse Najera
And so I also struggle a little bit with the, when things are great, still thinking, but what can go wrong, right?
00:28:19 Jesse Najera
And there's so many things that can go wrong that people have said to me, worry about those when they happen.
00:28:24 Jesse Najera
But when you're the superintendent, things could be great one second, and then you could have a crisis on your hand the very next second, right?
00:28:32 Jesse Najera
And so
00:28:33 Jesse Najera
learning to, with experience, no matter what comes, we'll meet that challenge.
00:28:40 Jesse Najera
I struggle with, but what if this goes wrong or what if that goes wrong?
00:28:44 Jesse Najera
Yeah.
00:28:44 Athena Cordero
Well, I mean, I would imagine a large part of the responsibility that you carry is to anticipate
00:28:52 Athena Cordero
what could happen?
00:28:53 Jesse Najera
Absolutely.
00:28:54 Athena Cordero
It does feel like that comes with the territory.
00:28:57 Athena Cordero
What you said though, what I appreciate is that try not to live there.
00:29:01 Jesse Najera
Yeah.
00:29:01 Athena Cordero
You know, like try not to live there.
00:29:03 Athena Cordero
So, what do you do to keep, I hear you say that your wife is awesome, so shout out wifey, and that you've got a great support system.
00:29:14 Athena Cordero
with your counterparts and your colleagues, your teachers and principals and all of that.
00:29:18 Athena Cordero
But what's like a guilty pleasure maybe to keep you grounded?
00:29:22 Athena Cordero
Do you like binge watch something or give us something that keeps you like, oh, this is my happy place.
00:29:28 Jesse Najera
Yeah.
00:29:29 Jesse Najera
So a couple of thoughts, right?
00:29:30 Jesse Najera
My cabinet is unbelievable.
00:29:32 Jesse Najera
And so I rely on their wisdom, right?
00:29:34 Jesse Najera
We talked a lot about Jess.
00:29:36 Jesse Najera
Mark Lacey's my assistant soup of admin services.
00:29:40 Jesse Najera
And
00:29:41 Jesse Najera
They're so good, Robin, my business manager, to remind me of who's in control, right?
00:29:47 Jesse Najera
We share the same faith and I wouldn't call it a guilty pleasure, but you know, getting in the Word every morning, that kind of stuff.
00:29:55 Jesse Najera
You know, we, one of my deepest passions with my wife and I, we go to Mexico probably 10 times a year to support an orphanage down there.
00:30:05 Jesse Najera
And these kids are, they've taken over our lives as far as what we're passionate about.
00:30:10 Jesse Najera
And so
00:30:11 Jesse Najera
that has helped me realize what's the most important thing, right?
00:30:15 Jesse Najera
I got the opportunity, we sponsored six siblings down there.
00:30:20 Jesse Najera
And last September, I danced the father-daughter dance at her quinceanera in Mexico.
00:30:27 Jesse Najera
And so those kind of things remind me of, you know, who's really in control and what's the most important thing, right?
00:30:35 Jesse Najera
But no doubt, I rely on my cabinet to say, boss,
00:30:39 Jesse Najera
this too shall pass, we'll be okay, you know, those kind of things.
00:30:42 Jesse Najera
And there's real wisdom there that I'm really grateful for, right?
00:30:47 Jesse Najera
People who can keep me grounded that way, even when things are really hard, right?
00:30:50 Jesse Najera
To say, hey, we're gonna be okay, keep going, you know?
00:30:54 Athena Cordero
That's awesome.
00:30:56 Athena Cordero
In thinking about that and just everything that you've shared, how to look at the good, how to not stay in the negative, you know, even when you have to plan for things that could happen,
00:31:07 Athena Cordero
the community that you work with, the kids that you get to serve, all of that.
00:31:12 Athena Cordero
What is maybe just a small nugget of advice you would give to someone who's thinking about going into, you know, a superintendent role, just district leadership in general, that you want to pass on to them?
00:31:27 Jesse Najera
You know, first and foremost, I'd say it doesn't matter what idea you're bringing with you or how smart you are, if people don't feel you care about them,
00:31:37 Jesse Najera
Like good luck trying to implement, right?
00:31:39 Jesse Najera
I wouldn't just say that to an up-and-coming superintendent.
00:31:43 Jesse Najera
I'd say that to a new administrator in my district.
00:31:46 Jesse Najera
If you don't win them with relationship first, you'll have plenty of time to go fix things or improve things, right?
00:31:56 Jesse Najera
But that's hard.
00:31:57 Jesse Najera
When you're a new leader, you see something, you want to improve it.
00:32:01 Jesse Najera
And it's a trap that
00:32:03 Jesse Najera
It almost doesn't matter how many times you try to warn somebody.
00:32:06 Jesse Najera
It's hard for them not to do that.
00:32:08 Jesse Najera
But the most important thing is how you treat people.
00:32:10 Jesse Najera
So, you know, be true to yourself.
00:32:13 Jesse Najera
Sometimes in this role, you're going to have a choice of two bad choices, the lesser of two evils.
00:32:20 Jesse Najera
And you can't make decisions based on what he might think or she might think, or, you know, what, you know, an association might think, or you do what's best for kids.
00:32:33 Jesse Najera
And you show courage in that, and then you stand by your decisions, right?
00:32:38 Jesse Najera
And over time, I think people realize, even if he's wrong on something, they can say, I know he did it thinking it was the right thing to do, right?
00:32:50 Jesse Najera
When I was, I did HR for a few years in Silver Valley before I became superintendent, right?
00:32:55 Jesse Najera
Quite a bit, a long time.
00:32:57 Jesse Najera
And I would hope that's what they even, like the union president would say, is that
00:33:02 Jesse Najera
He's not always right, but he's honest and he makes decisions that he thinks are best in that moment, right?
00:33:11 Jesse Najera
He doesn't lie to me.
00:33:12 Jesse Najera
If something turned out to be not that, it's because it was a different, he thought at the time that's what it was, right?
00:33:18 Jesse Najera
Because, man, especially in a small district, you start telling half-truths, they'll catch up to you real quick, right?
00:33:25 Jesse Najera
And so sometimes I'll talk too much, I'll say too much, right?
00:33:29 Jesse Najera
But I'm not going to lie.
00:33:29 Jesse Najera
And so
00:33:32 Jesse Najera
Yeah, I'd say be true to yourself, be courageous, have great mentors.
00:33:35 Jesse Najera
I mean, I can't, I'll shout out a few of them, right?
00:33:39 Jesse Najera
Jan Gonzalez, right?
00:33:40 Jesse Najera
Retired superintendent, just had breakfast with her last week.
00:33:43 Jesse Najera
She's still a mentor, right?
00:33:45 Jesse Najera
Wow.
00:33:46 Jesse Najera
Ross Warrington, just, he was at that breakfast too, and they don't know how much they've meant to my career, right?
00:33:54 Jesse Najera
Even when I don't call and ask for advice, I think what would they do or what would they say to me in this situation, right?
00:34:00 Jesse Najera
Darren Brawley, my
00:34:02 Jesse Najera
Superintendent in Adelanto, he's superintendent in Compton now.
00:34:06 Jesse Najera
To this day, I can think what would Darren say to me?
00:34:08 Jesse Najera
My cabinet will say to me, what would Darren say to you right now, right?
00:34:11 Jesse Najera
And then a mentor from years ago that I'll never forget is Dr.
00:34:14 Jesse Najera
Barnes, who was in Apple Valley, right?
00:34:20 Jesse Najera
he called my superintendent when I applied to be an assistant principal and said, if you don't hire him today, because I was interviewing, I will tomorrow.
00:34:26 Jesse Najera
Wow.
00:34:27 Jesse Najera
And then he was just there for me at every step of the way.
00:34:30 Jesse Najera
Right.
00:34:30 Athena Cordero
That's a huge compliment.
00:34:32 Jesse Najera
I mean, he was he's next level mentor for me.
00:34:36 Jesse Najera
And the last thing I'd say is don't not take a position.
00:34:39 Jesse Najera
Don't not take a jump because it's scary.
00:34:41 Athena Cordero
Got it.
00:34:42 Jesse Najera
Because all of us, no matter how confident we seem to be,
00:34:46 Jesse Najera
are scared to death.
00:34:47 Jesse Najera
I remember asking my superintendent, Darren Brawley, what do I do on the first day that I go to Silver Valley, right?
00:34:52 Jesse Najera
And he would just laugh, you know, I'm like, do I just sit at the desk, right?
00:34:55 Jesse Najera
It's scary to go into the next position, but it's one of those, you know, I guess fake it till you make it, but right.
00:35:02 Athena Cordero
Yeah.
00:35:03 Jesse Najera
But just go in and treat people well and then learn from there, right?
00:35:06 Jesse Najera
And so, yeah, don't let fear of a position stop you from going for it if in your heart you feel
00:35:13 Jesse Najera
I can go do that.
00:35:14 Athena Cordero
That's awesome.
00:35:15 Athena Cordero
It's very sincere in your advice.
00:35:18 Athena Cordero
And I'll say just in how you described what you're looking at for the future of kids for your district, AI cannot teach that.
00:35:27 Athena Cordero
And so that's huge advice, not just for someone looking to go into the superintendent role, but really just being a leader, period, in any role that you're in.
00:35:35 Athena Cordero
That's just great advice.
00:35:37 Athena Cordero
Okay, so
00:35:39 Athena Cordero
If you had to narrow it down, because I can tell that there's probably a lot of things, but if you had to narrow it down to one thing, what are you most excited about for the future of your district?
00:35:52 Jesse Najera
Oh gosh, man, I feel like I can go forever on this, right?
00:35:55 Jesse Najera
I'm so fired up about making sure our kids are future ready.
00:35:58 Jesse Najera
So we are doing things, you know, we just develop what we call a learner profile, right?
00:36:03 Jesse Najera
A lot of districts have maybe a graduate profile.
00:36:05 Jesse Najera
My military kids
00:36:06 Jesse Najera
are there for two years and they move on.
00:36:08 Jesse Najera
Right.
00:36:09 Jesse Najera
80% of my kids turn over every two years.
00:36:11 Jesse Najera
And so we didn't want, we didn't call it a graduate profile for that reason and for the district to think this is a high school thing.
00:36:19 Jesse Najera
No, this is a every single person thing, right?
00:36:21 Jesse Najera
And so we're, I'm excited to see what a student who gets exposed to being a critical thinker and great collaborator and creative and all the competencies that we've identified in kindergarten,
00:36:36 Jesse Najera
get to the high school level, right, and just be so well-rounded, right?
00:36:40 Jesse Najera
One of the examples I give, and sorry if my son hears this, my son graduated from Grand Canyon University last December.
00:36:47 Athena Cordero
Okay.
00:36:48 Jesse Najera
And in high school, he was all everything, right?
00:36:50 Jesse Najera
Varsity sports, AP tests, 4.6.
00:36:53 Jesse Najera
I mean, he's everything.
00:36:55 Jesse Najera
But, you know, heaven forbid I say to him, Go tell the hostess this is a party of five.
00:36:59 Jesse Najera
He's like, I have to talk to somebody, right?
00:37:01 Jesse Najera
And so I want well-rounded kids that, I want people to say this kid is different, right, 'cause he came from Silver Valley, whether they want to go to college or straight into industry, right, or military.
00:37:14 Jesse Najera
And so I want them, you know, I'm excited to develop that in our kids throughout their career.
00:37:21 Jesse Najera
And then I'm fired up.
00:37:22 Jesse Najera
And again, thanks a lot to what Cami's brought to our district, but there's so much need out there to make sure kids are well, right?
00:37:30 Jesse Najera
And I'm excited.
00:37:33 Jesse Najera
We're already doing things that I thought was never possible in this arena, helping our community in a way that I never thought was possible.
00:37:41 Jesse Najera
Big clothing drives, everything, every kind of service you could think of, we're bringing to our community.
00:37:48 Jesse Najera
And so
00:37:50 Jesse Najera
I'm excited about that.
00:37:51 Jesse Najera
One piece I haven't talked a lot about, but we have older buildings in Silver Valley, right?
00:37:55 Jesse Najera
We are in the final, maybe six weeks of a brand new gym for Yerma, that elementary that I'm that we don't get to build a lot in Silver Valley, but that's almost done.
00:38:07 Jesse Najera
Like I said, we're bringing the school-based health center.
00:38:10 Jesse Najera
Shout out to my director of facilities.
00:38:12 Jesse Najera
He is Robert Southwell.
00:38:14 Jesse Najera
Unbelievable.
00:38:15 Jesse Najera
And
00:38:16 Jesse Najera
Our sites have never looked as nice as they do right now, right?
00:38:19 Jesse Najera
And so, I'm excited about that part, too, is that we've been able to accomplish a lot on the student outcome piece, which is our mission, right?
00:38:26 Jesse Najera
But also, looking back, saying we've we've improved, or if one day I do leave Silver Valley to look back and say we, you know, left it a lot a lot better, right?
00:38:37 Jesse Najera
And that's all built on great people that came before me, too, so I'm not trying to take credit for that.
00:38:42 Jesse Najera
I'm, you know, we got to build on their on their foundation, and so
00:38:46 Jesse Najera
That's a lot to say, but just to keep serving at a high level and just seeing how we get better.
00:38:52 Jesse Najera
Every year I look back and go, like, that was awesome.
00:38:55 Jesse Najera
And then what are we doing next year, right?
00:38:57 Jesse Najera
And so, yeah, I failed horribly at the narrowing it down.
00:39:01 Athena Cordero
I knew what I was getting myself into when I asked it, so that's okay.
00:39:06 Athena Cordero
I do want to go back real quick, though.
00:39:08 Athena Cordero
Okay, so just so that folks really understand, you said that students come to you and are with you for how long before they leave?
00:39:16 Jesse Najera
So every year I lose 40% of my kids, right?
00:39:19 Jesse Najera
And then every two years then I lose 80% of my kids.
00:39:22 Athena Cordero
Right.
00:39:23 Jesse Najera
You know, that can give or take, right?
00:39:25 Jesse Najera
But that's about...
00:39:27 Jesse Najera
how it works with the military child.
00:39:29 Jesse Najera
They're there for two years.
00:39:30 Jesse Najera
Sometimes we get lucky.
00:39:30 Jesse Najera
We'll keep them for three.
00:39:32 Athena Cordero
Yeah.
00:39:32 Jesse Najera
It's hard for them.
00:39:33 Jesse Najera
You know, you have a student who maybe comes their sophomore and junior year.
00:39:36 Jesse Najera
They don't want to go to a brand new high school for their senior year, right?
00:39:39 Jesse Najera
So there's unique needs with that military population that we just need to be aware of.
00:39:45 Jesse Najera
We have something called anchor for life that
00:39:49 Jesse Najera
student leaders at every site specialize in taking in a brand new student and When they're leaving us to make sure they know they were there supported that transition That transition right and it happens a lot and honestly we have pretty good mobility to in the valley, right?
00:40:04 Jesse Najera
Sometimes low-income can bring a lot of that mobility to so It's something that we pride ourselves like let's receive them better than anybody and then when they're leaving Let's make sure they feel loved on the way out, right?
00:40:20 Jesse Najera
those are those are those are the dynamics of Silver Valley.
00:40:23 Jesse Najera
It's the tough part is, if you have 75% military kids, it's hard to start something in kindergarten and build and watch it build all the way to high school.
00:40:33 Jesse Najera
I do have that in the valley, and that's always fun.
00:40:35 Jesse Najera
One of the favorite days of the year when the high school seniors go back to Newberry Elementary, right, or Yerma, and they walk the halls.
00:40:41 Athena Cordero
That's cool.
00:40:41 Jesse Najera
All the kids come out and clap for them and stuff, but it's only 20, 25% of our kids, right?
00:40:45 Jesse Najera
The rest are coming from all over the world.
00:40:48 Jesse Najera
I will say another secret sauce thing with Silver Valley is we get the opportunity to hire military spouses as teachers.
00:40:56 Jesse Najera
And I'll never understand.
00:40:58 Jesse Najera
People are like, well, shake my hand, the general yesterday, thank you for all the hiring military spouses, as if we're doing them a favor.
00:41:04 Jesse Najera
They come with incredible skill from teaching all over the world.
00:41:07 Jesse Najera
You know, I taught in Germany, I taught in South Korea, all these military bases and all these states.
00:41:13 Jesse Najera
And then they come here and just, they mentor young teachers.
00:41:16 Jesse Najera
They're just
00:41:17 Jesse Najera
amazing assets to our program.
00:41:20 Jesse Najera
We have three site administrators that are military spouses who have chosen to come back and say this is going to be our home.
00:41:27 Jesse Najera
So that's another thing, another unique aspect of our district that we're lucky, we're lucky to have.
00:41:33 Athena Cordero
I think I've said wow 97 times, but it's not for, you know, anything.
00:41:39 Athena Cordero
I'm really, really impressed and happy for the families that you guys get to work with and serve.
00:41:48 Athena Cordero
To hear that you might have students or, you know, a large
00:41:52 Athena Cordero
portion of your students for a year or two and then they move on.
00:41:55 Athena Cordero
I see why it's so important for you to like make their attendance, at Silver Valley like a landmark, in their lives they can touch back to and make an impression, make an impression on them, which I wish everything we did can revolve around that kind of thing, right?
00:42:13 Athena Cordero
It's to really make an impression for the amount of time that you have.
00:42:16 Athena Cordero
Now, I will say though, I can't let you get away today without
00:42:22 Athena Cordero
giving a little something to the kids that you serve.
00:42:24 Athena Cordero
Okay.
00:42:25 Athena Cordero
So if you're okay with it, I'd like to play a little game of truth or dare.
00:42:30 Jesse Najera
Oh gosh.
00:42:32 Jesse Najera
Okay.
00:42:33 Athena Cordero
So we're just going to go 3 rounds.
00:42:36 Jesse Najera
All right.
00:42:36 Athena Cordero
If you make it that far, you'll see.
00:42:40 Athena Cordero
Okay.
00:42:40 Athena Cordero
So first round here, are you ready?
00:42:41 Jesse Najera
I'm ready.
00:42:42 Athena Cordero
Truth or dare?
00:42:44 Jesse Najera
We'll go truth.
00:42:45 Athena Cordero
Okay, truth.
00:42:47 Athena Cordero
Did you ever get in trouble at school?
00:42:50 Athena Cordero
And if you did, what was it mostly for?
00:42:52 Jesse Najera
Oh, man, I certainly did.
00:42:56 Athena Cordero
No, I don't believe it.
00:42:58 Jesse Najera
You know, I went to Victor Elementary as a child.
00:43:04 Jesse Najera
Shout out to Victor Elementary.
00:43:05 Jesse Najera
Big, big fans of them over there, too.
00:43:07 Athena Cordero
Okay.
00:43:08 Jesse Najera
I was in fifth grade, and I wrote some bad words on a piece of paper, and
00:43:17 Jesse Najera
I was told to sit on a bench at recess.
00:43:19 Jesse Najera
And I thought it was unfair to make me sit there.
00:43:23 Jesse Najera
So I went in and enjoyed recess.
00:43:24 Athena Cordero
Okay.
00:43:25 Jesse Najera
And the teacher came out and found me, right?
00:43:28 Jesse Najera
And I probably talked back and got sent home.
00:43:31 Jesse Najera
And when you get sent home in my household, that was not going to go well for me.
00:43:36 Jesse Najera
Wow.
00:43:37 Jesse Najera
So I called my dad's brother, my uncle, in LA and said-?
00:43:41 Athena Cordero
Was it like phone a friend, uncle?
00:43:43 Jesse Najera
Yeah, like I'm gonna die if you don't come up here.
00:43:46 Jesse Najera
He left his job and drove to Victorville.
00:43:48 Athena Cordero
From LA.
00:43:49 Jesse Najera
Yeah, and told my dad, because he did that today, you're not gonna, you know, kill him.
00:43:55 Jesse Najera
Right.
00:43:56 Jesse Najera
So that was great.
00:43:58 Jesse Najera
The next day, I got sent home again.
00:44:02 Jesse Najera
from, Mojave Vista Elementary in Victoria.
00:44:06 Jesse Najera
Then my dad was like, Are you to call him again?
00:44:08 Jesse Najera
And, well, let's just say that didn't end well for me that day.
00:44:12 Jesse Najera
So, yeah, certainly got in trouble in school, right?
00:44:16 Jesse Najera
I would think there's probably a lot of teachers and administrators, as I said, he does, you know, he does what now?
00:44:22 Jesse Najera
But, honestly, I think that helps in my career too, because there's promise in every kid, right?
00:44:27 Jesse Najera
There's potential in every kid.
00:44:28 Jesse Najera
And so some of those kids maybe that get in trouble.
00:44:32 Jesse Najera
our leaders and it's our job to bring out the greatness in them, right?
00:44:36 Athena Cordero
Well, and in that story, which is hilarious and I appreciate you sharing it, I'm also hearing, I mean, that was 5th grade and you're still thinking of, like it still comes to mind.
00:44:44 Jesse Najera
Yeah.
00:44:45 Athena Cordero
So that gives something.
00:44:46 Athena Cordero
for kids to think about too, like you absolutely will carry decisions with you, so make wise ones.
00:44:51 Jesse Najera
Absolutely.
00:44:52 Athena Cordero
And when mistakes happen, that doesn't mean it has to define who you are.
00:44:55 Athena Cordero
You can go on to do, you know, all of these things.
00:44:58 Jesse Najera
Own it, learn from it.
00:44:59 Athena Cordero
Yeah, exactly.
00:45:00 Athena Cordero
Okay, round two, you ready?
00:45:01 Jesse Najera
All right.
00:45:01 Athena Cordero
Truth or dare?
00:45:03 Jesse Najera
Let's go truth again.
00:45:04 Athena Cordero
Truth again.
00:45:05 Athena Cordero
Let's see.
00:45:06 Athena Cordero
What's a song you secretly love to sing alone in the car?
00:45:10 Jesse Najera
Oh man, this is gonna get me in trouble too.
00:45:14 Jesse Najera
So I'm a fan of Tupac.
00:45:19 Athena Cordero
Okay.
00:45:20 Jesse Najera
So am I.
00:45:20 Jesse Najera
So there's a song, Dear Mama, that I love.
00:45:24 Jesse Najera
And so in college, in an English class, I actually wrapped that song in college in an English class.
00:45:34 Jesse Najera
So yeah, every once in a while by myself, I'll put it on and just reminds me of my younger days.
00:45:39 Jesse Najera
But
00:45:40 Jesse Najera
Yeah, big fan there.
00:45:42 Athena Cordero
Do you, I mean, do you get into it?
00:45:44 Athena Cordero
Like, do you have that Tupac look?
00:45:46 Athena Cordero
Does it get on your face?
00:45:47 Jesse Najera
Oh, it'd be so embarrassed.
00:45:49 Jesse Najera
There's a video of that, right?
00:45:52 Jesse Najera
It just, you know, it's funny because it'll go years before I hear it or sing it or hear it again.
00:45:57 Jesse Najera
But you never forget the words, right?
00:45:58 Jesse Najera
It's just, it's great, right?
00:45:59 Jesse Najera
And I do have the best mom in the entire world.
00:46:02 Athena Cordero
Oh, shout out mom.
00:46:02 Jesse Najera
Yeah, for sure.
00:46:04 Jesse Najera
Shout out my parents right there.
00:46:07 Jesse Najera
Let me just say this, because I have to shout them out, right?
00:46:11 Jesse Najera
My dad got to 3rd grade, is the highest grade he ever got to.
00:46:14 Jesse Najera
My mom got to 5th.
00:46:17 Jesse Najera
Both came to America, early, early teens, right?
00:46:21 Jesse Najera
14, 15 years old.
00:46:22 Jesse Najera
And my three sisters and I are professionals and have master's degrees.
00:46:27 Jesse Najera
And it's all because they,
00:46:30 Jesse Najera
didn't give us a choice, right?
00:46:32 Jesse Najera
Like when people say good job going to college, I thought I had a choice.
00:46:34 Jesse Najera
Like, you know, that was how it was going.
00:46:37 Jesse Najera
Yeah.
00:46:37 Jesse Najera
So shout out to my parents.
00:46:39 Jesse Najera
I'm big fan.
00:46:40 Athena Cordero
Awesome.
00:46:41 Athena Cordero
Awesome.
00:46:41 Athena Cordero
All right.
00:46:42 Athena Cordero
Last round.
00:46:44 Athena Cordero
Okay.
00:46:45 Jesse Najera
All right.
00:46:45 Athena Cordero
You've done truth twice already.
00:46:46 Athena Cordero
Yeah.
00:46:47 Jesse Najera
All right.
00:46:47 Jesse Najera
Let's do a dare.
00:46:48 Athena Cordero
Okay.
00:46:48 Athena Cordero
Dare.
00:46:49 Athena Cordero
Wow.
00:46:50 Athena Cordero
Let's see.
00:46:50 Athena Cordero
How can I just really maximize the dare?
00:46:53 Athena Cordero
Let's do a lightning round.
00:46:55 Jesse Najera
Okay.
00:46:55 Athena Cordero
Okay.
00:46:56 Athena Cordero
I'm going to ask you
00:46:58 Athena Cordero
Three very quick questions like don't have time to think about it.
00:47:02 Athena Cordero
You just got to give me the answer.
00:47:03 Jesse Najera
Okay.
00:47:03 Athena Cordero
Okay.
00:47:04 Athena Cordero
You ready?
00:47:05 Jesse Najera
Let's do it.
00:47:06 Athena Cordero
How would your cabinet describe you?
00:47:09 Jesse Najera
Super patient.
00:47:10 Jesse Najera
Just the patient guy that.
00:47:11 Athena Cordero
All around patience.
00:47:12 Athena Cordero
Marvel for patience.
00:47:13 Jesse Najera
Yeah, puts up with excuses and no.
00:47:18 Athena Cordero
I'm going to leave it at that.
00:47:19 Jesse Najera
Yeah.
00:47:19 Jesse Najera
All right.
00:47:20 Athena Cordero
We'll let them correct that when you get back.
00:47:22 Jesse Najera
Yeah.
00:47:22 Athena Cordero
Okay.
00:47:23 Athena Cordero
What's your favorite meal to cook?
00:47:26 Jesse Najera
Gosh, cereal.
00:47:28 Jesse Najera
I don't know how to cook.
00:47:30 Jesse Najera
I am an awful cook, right?
00:47:31 Jesse Najera
Well, I don't know if I'm an awful cook.
00:47:33 Jesse Najera
Maybe if I tried it, I'd be good.
00:47:34 Jesse Najera
I've been babied my whole life in that area.
00:47:37 Jesse Najera
My wife is wonderful and my mom is next level cook.
00:47:40 Jesse Najera
So I'm lucky not to do that.
00:47:44 Athena Cordero
Gotcha.
00:47:44 Athena Cordero
Okay.
00:47:45 Athena Cordero
Last one.
00:47:45 Athena Cordero
What are you allergic to?
00:47:48 Jesse Najera
I'm allergic to pistachios.
00:47:50 Jesse Najera
Really?
00:47:51 Jesse Najera
Yeah.
00:47:51 Jesse Najera
And
00:47:53 Jesse Najera
A little while ago, I decided, it's been 10 years.
00:47:55 Jesse Najera
I think maybe I'll be okay.
00:47:57 Jesse Najera
So I tried it.
00:47:58 Athena Cordero
Oh.
00:47:59 Jesse Najera
And about an hour and a half later, I had a paramedic and firefighters at my house that they were like, so you didn't know you're allergic.
00:48:07 Jesse Najera
And I went, no, I knew.
00:48:08 Jesse Najera
And they just kind of looked at each other like this guy, you know.
00:48:12 Jesse Najera
So yeah, this tag.
00:48:13 Athena Cordero
It did not go away.
00:48:14 Jesse Najera
It did not go away.
00:48:16 Athena Cordero
It did not go away.
00:48:16 Athena Cordero
Okay.
00:48:17 Athena Cordero
I have really enjoyed talking to you.
00:48:21 Athena Cordero
I can't wait.
00:48:23 Athena Cordero
for you to get back to your district and talk about your patience with your cat.
00:48:26 Jesse Najera
That's right.
00:48:27 Jesse Najera
That's right.
00:48:27 Jesse Najera
That's known throughout my whole district.
00:48:29 Athena Cordero
Okay.
00:48:30 Athena Cordero
And I can't I can't let you go without asking you one more question.
00:48:34 Jesse Najera
Sure.
00:48:35 Athena Cordero
Our mission here at CAHELP is the relentless pursuit of whatever works in the life of a child.
00:48:40 Jesse Najera
Yeah.
00:48:41 Athena Cordero
What worked for you as a child?
00:48:45 Jesse Najera
Gosh, just people believing in you, right?
00:48:48 Jesse Najera
I was English was my second language.
00:48:53 Jesse Najera
It took education to teach me English and to make sure it's so easy to lower an expectation maybe because I'm learning that language and I had the exact opposite.
00:49:04 Jesse Najera
Again, shout out to Victor Elementary, right?
00:49:06 Jesse Najera
But just people believing in me and that goes for my personal home life, right?
00:49:13 Jesse Najera
I just talked about my parents, right?
00:49:14 Jesse Najera
My parents
00:49:15 Jesse Najera
not allowing that minus, right?
00:49:17 Jesse Najera
And that A minus, right?
00:49:19 Jesse Najera
Because that's close to a B, which means it could have been a C, right?
00:49:21 Jesse Najera
So that high expectation helped not letting me doubt myself.
00:49:27 Jesse Najera
I remember one time I wanted to drop Algebra 2 because it was too hard.
00:49:30 Jesse Najera
And my dad was like, absolutely not.
00:49:32 Jesse Najera
We don't run away from challenges, right?
00:49:34 Jesse Najera
And so that's something I've repeated to my kids.
00:49:36 Jesse Najera
We don't run away from challenges.
00:49:37 Jesse Najera
So
00:49:38 Jesse Najera
Yeah, just believing in me and then not letting mistakes define me, right?
00:49:43 Jesse Najera
That teacher, shout out to Ms.
00:49:44 Jesse Najera
Preston from Victor Elementary in 5th grade, she was ready to take me the next day, even though she sent me home two days in a row, right?
00:49:50 Jesse Najera
Yeah, that's what she did.
00:49:51 Jesse Najera
And so that's one of my pet peeves, right?
00:49:53 Jesse Najera
If a kid is stuck in the doghouse, or if an employee is stuck in the doghouse, right?
00:49:59 Jesse Najera
You start every day new.
00:50:00 Jesse Najera
And so
00:50:02 Jesse Najera
I think it took people believing in me and giving me some grace when I needed it, which was often.
00:50:08 Athena Cordero
Very cool.
00:50:09 Athena Cordero
Very cool.
00:50:09 Athena Cordero
Okay, well, Mr.
00:50:11 Athena Cordero
N, like the kids were playing, thank you so much for coming and talking to us today.
00:50:15 Athena Cordero
We appreciate it.
00:50:17 Athena Cordero
Maybe we can have you come back, maybe bring Cammy next time.
00:50:20 Athena Cordero
I don't know.
00:50:20 Jesse Najera
I would love it.
00:50:21 Jesse Najera
I would love it.
00:50:22 Jesse Najera
We would laugh a lot more if Cammy was here too.
00:50:24 Athena Cordero
I actually, I agree with that.
00:50:25 Jesse Najera
Can I shout out CAHELP real quick?
00:50:27 Athena Cordero
Yeah, sure.
00:50:28 Jesse Najera
Just
00:50:29 Jesse Najera
So grateful for your support out there.
00:50:32 Jesse Najera
Silver Valley is way out there, right?
00:50:34 Jesse Najera
And we can have parent trainings.
00:50:37 Jesse Najera
We can have, students who need, supports through counseling or PBIS or every family event.
00:50:45 Jesse Najera
I turn and there you guys are always at our site, right?
00:50:48 Jesse Najera
And so we couldn't do what we do without you guys.
00:50:52 Jesse Najera
You guys are just great people.
00:50:54 Jesse Najera
We were able to steal Cami and so grateful for that, right?
00:50:57 Jesse Najera
But
00:50:58 Jesse Najera
She, I mean, today she's like, you're going to go talk to my peeps, And so thank you to CAHELP for what you do.
00:51:06 Jesse Najera
I think it's a model for other SELPAs.
00:51:09 Jesse Najera
And I think we do it right here.
00:51:11 Jesse Najera
And shout out to your great leader too.
00:51:13 Athena Cordero
Thank you so much, so much for that.
00:51:16 Athena Cordero
So take a big old hug back from all of us to everybody there.
00:51:19 Athena Cordero
And we'll see you next time.
00:51:20 Jesse Najera
Awesome.
00:51:21 Jesse Najera
Thanks so much.
