- Welcome to Inland Edition, where we have community conversations that matter.

My name is Joe Richardson, and I'm a community member and attorney.

And today, we're going to chat with the two term, San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools.

An Air Force lieutenant colonel, [background music] having served over 18 years with the Reserve's 701st Combat Operations Squadron, father of three and over 33 years of experience in the San Bernardino County school system as a teacher, a vice principal, and principal, Ted Alejandre was elected to his second term as superintendent in 2019.

He's hardworking, engaged and dedicated, and we're excited to get you to meet him.

[gentle upbeat music] ♪ ♪ ♪ - [Joe] I am so honored to be here with San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools, Ted Alejandre.

Mr.

Superintendent, thank you for being here on Inland Edition.

- Thank you.

It's wonderful to be here today to have this conversation.

Looking forward to it.

- Now we've got a lot to talk about, but I gotta start here.

We were off-camera and you are literally-- we're sitting here at the local college, San Bernardino Valley College, in the studio, and you have incredible ties with this very area.

Talk about that a little bit because I think it really speaks to how this native son kind of rises up to be superintendent of county schools.

I mean, this is amazing.

- Sure, I'd be happy to!

You know, I'm a lifelong resident of San Bernardino County.

In fact, I grew up right behind San Bernardino Valley College on K Street up until the time I was in fourth grade.

And, San Bernardino Valley College was an amazing place for me to visit, to come watch the baseball games, come watch the archery competition, come swim at the swimming pools.

You know, in the summertime it would get very hot, as we all know.

- Sure.

- And, you could come to this institution and swim in these incredible two pools for 10 cents a day.

- Oh!

(laughter) - And, they would have Parks and Recs just down the block at Lytle Creek Park.

But, for the youth in this area, there was opportunities for people to get involved.

So, they weren't doing things they shouldn't do.

They were actually doing positive things.

And, I have very fond memories.

And, when I was in fourth grade, my parents moved up to the north end of San Bernardino and continued there, but always have been a resident in San Bernardino County.

- That's really amazing.

So, tell me what happens and how you get to- if there is some such thing as an aha moment for you- that gets you on your path of public service or when you became conscious of the schools, you grew up in these schools.

When did you start to get on that path in terms of what it is that you ultimately ended up becoming?

- Absolutely.

When I was 18, 19, I started to go to college right after high school.

I had a scholarship.

Actually, I delivered newspapers for seven years.

- [Joe] Wow.

- And, had a newspaper scholarship that was given to me and started at Cal State, but realized I needed to get some more in-depth training.

- [Joe] Right.

- I needed to get focused on how I can really discipline myself for studying in college and those kinds of things.

So, I enlisted into the Air Force and I was stationed right here at Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino.

- Wow.

- I did four years of active duty and continued on; had 34 years total before I retired.

- Oh, my gosh.

- In 2019.

- Thank you for your service.

- Thank you.

- Wow.

- But, when I decided to come out of active duty, I started looking for a job and I was very fortunate to start my career in education.

Then, it was in Rialto Unified School District, and I was actually in the business office doing budget development and fiscal responsibilities.

And, I was encouraged by my mother-in-law, by other educators, "you should become a teacher.

You'd be a good teacher."

- Wow.

- So, I looked into it and felt that was an area that I wanted to go into.

And, I began my student teaching in Rialto and absolutely loved it; did third grade.

- Wow.

- And, decided that was the route I was gonna go.

And, that next quarter I went to San Bernardino City Unified, taught fourth and fifth grade classes, and started my education career.

It's my 35th year in education and I've loved every bit of it.

- That's amazing.

So, that's interesting that you actually started off in the office, then you go to be a teacher, but all of these different things.

You've been a teacher.

You've been a principal.

You had several different roles in district leadership.

- Yes.

- And, you know, for school district.

And then-?

And, I think it was San Bernardino School District, right?

- Yes.

- And then, on to the superintendent's office, even though you weren't superintendent right away.

But, how do all of these roles that you've had and the parent of children-- - Right.

- that went to school, public school.

- Right.

- How do all of these roles kind of inform what you do now?

- They've all been incredibly helpful for me in my current position, really understanding the county.

But, when I became a teacher, one of the things that I understood is that we have limited resources.

So, it's really important to work together in a collaborative way, and then also use your resources effectively.

And, I think my business experience in Rialto helped me because I was able to really look at the priorities that we had when I became a school principal.

How do we use those priorities the best way possible?

And, the district office liked the way I did that and brought me into the central office as the director of business services in San Bernardino.

And, I was helping other principals really develop plans that were focused on student achievement, utilizing those resources effectively.

Then, I went to actually Yucaipa-Calimesa to become the assistant superintendent of business services, where I did that districtwide there.

That's where I currently live.

And, when you're in a district office as an assistant superintendent, you interact closely with the county office.

- Right.

- And, I did so then.

And, was very fortunate that when Gary Thomas became the superintendent, I became the assistant superintendent of business in San Bernardino County Office of Education.

And, that was 15 years ago.

And, I've enjoyed it ever since.

I was elected in 2014, and this is my ninth year serving as county superintendent.

So, those different roles have helped prepare me for the job I have now interacting with 33 school districts across San Bernardino County, over 400,000 students that we serve.

And, also, 51 charter schools throughout this region.

- Oh, wow.

So, tell me more about that.

So, you're the superintendent now.

What does it mean to be superintendent?

Talk to us about your responsibilities.

- Many different responsibilities in our office, many are state-required.

For example, we have to approve all the budgets for all of our 33 school districts.

We don't really tell them how to use their money, but we have to make sure they meet fiscal solvency requirements.

We also have to improve their local control accountability plans.

We have to make sure teachers have all their credentials.

We have to visit 150 schools during the first four weeks of school to make sure they're clean, safe, and functional; they have instructional materials for students to use in the classroom and to take home.

So, those are many of the state requirements, but we don't do that as an authority type of organization.

We really do it in collaboration with our school districts.

I feel my-- one of my most important responsibilities is to develop relationships and trust with our 33 school districts so we can serve them, so we can support their students to make sure their students are successful.

- Are there anything in particular, we're talking about categories.

Like, things that are unique and tell me about the evolution of education as it pertains to, say, preschool age.

There's been a lot of talk in the state of California about how really-- how important it is to get things started early on.

How have you seen education evolve, particularly for the youngest of us to get them off to the right start?

- [Ted] Absolutely.

And, this is my 35th year as I mentioned, and I haven't seen as much collaboration as I see now with educational leaders, with government leaders, with our legislators; everybody working through collective impact to make a difference for students.

Our county, a little over 10 years ago, started a countywide vision to make San Bernardino County the best place to live, work, and play.

And, one of the key elements was education.

So, we worked closely with Dr. Morales at Cal State University San Bernardino to develop our Cradle-to-Career roadmap.

That's been adopted by all of our school districts.

And, it's really the guiding document that has the key success indicators for zero to five, K-12, and postsecondary for academics, but also for personal growth and social emotional issues that students need.

And, working in that zero to five, we've developed such close partnerships with First 5, with Preschool Services; it's run through San Bernardino County; Children's Fund.

All of our part-- all of our partners really working together so that students in those first five years are ready to transition into TK and K programs.

And, it's been beautiful to have this collaboration because all of us want what's best for our students.

- So, if there is some such a thing, Mr.

Superintendent, tell us what a typical day is like for you.

Or, maybe it needs to be a typical week so that everything gets put in!

But, you know?

Talk-- go with us as we look over your shoulder in terms of what you do on a day-to-day basis.

- Absolutely.

In county schools we have almost 2,400 employees.

So, we have many different responsibilities.

I shared some earlier.

But, we also run our own programs.

You know, most people are familiar with school districts where there's elementary schools and middle schools and high schools.

At county schools, we serve basically two populations.

Our largest population are students with special needs.

And, these are students that are in what's referred to as "mod-severe" classrooms, "severe-profound" classrooms.

So, many of these young girls and boys can't speak.

They can't move.

They have very difficult circumstances because of their disabilities.

But, we make an effort to make sure all students reach their maximum potentials.

You know, I share a story of Ethan.

He's a 12-year-old boy out in Hesperia.

Now, the young man can't move; he can't speak.

And so, many times we try to use technology to get them to communicate.

But, it's difficult because he didn't have the movement.

But, through eye gazing, we discovered a device.

It was called a Tobii Dynavox.

And, through eye gazing, we were able to get him to focus on the computer to match his gazing into language symbols on the computer to start to communicate.

- Wow.

- We configured it to an iPad, sent it home to his mom.

His mom came back in tears saying that for the very first time, her 12-year-old boy told her that he loved her.

- Oh, my God!

Wow!

(Ted chuckles) - So, we have incredible teachers and paraprofessionals that really work to make sure our students receive the best program possible based on their individual needs.

Because their goals are so much different than what you may see in a typical fourth grade class.

And then, the other population that we serve are students in our alternative ed programs.

And, these are students that we are required to serve by the state.

These are students that are on probation.

They're referred to probation.

They're expelled from school.

Or, they're in our juvenile hall facilities.

So, certainly some of the most challenging students.

Many have been through difficult backgrounds, lifestyles, challenges that many have- not even because of their own faults- but they're just in these circumstances where they make decisions that put them in these programs.

And so, once they come into our programs, we got a team that really understands the needs that they have, and really work above and beyond to make sure they connect with the students so they can start moving towards a life that's much more productive and positive.

You know, when I came in as superintendent, I was asking the question to our leaders is, "why don't we have a graduation program for these young men and women?"

And I go, "I know it's authorized."

And, my staff would tell me, "well, you have to get state certification.

You have to meet all the requirements."

And I said, "well, let's do that.

'Cause I think if we "have a graduation program, it'll give something our students to look forward to."

'Cause many times students just met their credits so they could potentially go back to their school.

But then, when they back into their environments where they had some of the challenges, they would come back into our county programs.

And so, our teachers and principals got excited about that graduation program.

Our first one, we were hoping just to get 10 to meet the requirements, to make sure a register was in place, to certify the coursework, et cetera.

And, that 10 turned into 36!

- Wow.

- And, we had our first graduation ceremony at Sturges Auditorium in San Bernardino; full house of parents!

These students were the first in their families to graduate from high school.

And, the best dressed were the students from juvenile hall!

- Wow.

- 'Cause probation officers made sure they had shirts and ties, and coats.

It's phenomenal!

Next year, 180 students graduated.

- Oh, my God.

- Every year since then, we've had 150-plus students graduate from alternative ed programs.

And, we're just so proud to see that they've changed what they were having so many difficulties with to now become individuals that were looking forward to bright careers.

- Tell me about some of the things that you do in your department when we're talking about connecting to the future, right?

We're talking about particular jobs and industries that we think will be available in this region, you know, in terms of where we're going.

So, I would imagine there would be some kind of partnerships with business, with other departments and organization that says, "here's where we're going in the future.

"And so, let's collaborate; "do some programming that allows students "to be just that much more prepared.

"Not only to get information about those careers, but actually to take solid steps toward them."

So, tell me about any connections you guys have, collaborations like with the business community or whatever else that allows you to kind of see ahead in terms of what may be available for potential opportunities and helping prepare students for them.

- Absolutely.

That's been a huge priority across all of our 33 school districts.

You know, one of the early priorities when I first became superintendent is districts were really working towards increasing their graduation rate.

Used to be in the 70th percentiles in many districts.

Now that's increased to 90%, high 80s, 90s percents in most districts.

They've done tremendous job.

But, where they needed to continue to improve was what's referred to as the "A through G requirements," those 15 courses in high school.

So, that if they pass those courses, they're now eligible to go to Cal State or UCR.

- Mm!

- Many districts weren't successful with their numbers, but they realized that one of the biggest reasons why students weren't passing those courses is 'cause they had difficulty with math and science.

So, as a result, the acceleration of what's referred to as "career pathways" started to emerge in all of our high schools.

And, that took a partnership with businesses and others.

So, for example, if you wanna have a health pathway at your high school, you need to have a partnership with your medical providers-- - Mm.

- and your physicians and other health individuals that can support that pathway.

We have some in advanced manufacturing and engineering, in cyber; in many different fields where the jobs for the future are expanding rapidly.

And so, students are becoming prepared because they have these experiences that are supported by our partners.

And, oh!

By the way?

Those math and science courses are tied to those pathway courses.

So now, that information's more relevant for students.

And, we've seen that increase in "A through G" just start to accelerate because districts have really focused on it.

And, I can't help but say that our higher institutions and our community colleges are all part of that collaboration because they've also developed programs that really focus on preparing students for college and career.

- I want you to tell me what you find the most difficult or some of the most difficult things about your job, and connect it for us to the things that make you the most passionate.

So, you know?

"Here's what's really hard about what I do, but this is "why we're encouraged because it allows us to connect the dots and be hopeful and move towards the future."

Connect what's difficult to really what makes you passionate and what really makes your engine move as it pertains to your job.

- You know, I'm surrounded by incredible professionals and we all understand the key elements for student success.

And, one challenge early on was in community engagement.

We know that to really support students, it doesn't just come with teachers in the classroom.

It comes with the entire community.

Our business partners, faith-based partners, and others to really connect to the key ingredients to make educational programs successful.

And so, their input was critical.

And, I commend our legislatures and our governors when local control came into place about 10 years ago.

Because, one of the key requirements was to have community stakeholder engagement.

That's a mandate in their plan.

And, we knew through our collective impact work that we could be a model, not just for our county, but the entire state.

So, when the state started a statewide community engagement initiative, they selected one county out of the 58 to lead that effort.

And, that was San Bernardino County.

- Oh, wow.

- So, we had not only shared and replicated best practices in our county, we did it through districts across the state.

Again, it took that effort from all of us working together.

And, when I go out to speak to groups and especially parent groups, I tell them, all of you I know have input into your programs.

And you have, maybe not your children, but maybe your nieces or nephews or grandchildren, but make an effort to give your voice, give your input.

Districts have opened the doors to really receive that input.

But, it takes all of us giving our thoughts and ideas.

Educators have incredible experience and they have great ideas, but so do parents.

And, so do our labor partners and so do our business partners and churches.

So, all of us working together for the big impact in student achievement have to provide that input.

And, I'll tell ya!

Across 33 school districts, the priorities are very different.

What's a priority in San Bernardino may be a little bit different than Upland, than Colton, than Big Bear, than Needles, than Trona or Morongo.

They all have unique priorities based on their community priorities.

But, what's similar in every single district is that everybody's passionate about education and student success.

So, working together we can continue to make that get stronger and stronger.

- [Joe] How does the person who is busy dealing with life-- you know, their kids may go to the schools and-- but they don't know a whole lot necessarily about the new look of education, recent developments, the things how the district, how the superintendent's office and county Department of Education is forward thinking.

How do people find out when they're just so busy dealing with their day-to-day that, really, there's some special things going on in county education.

- That's key because one of the things that we do in our county is we have a close relationship with our district superintendents.

Every summer we get together to develop our roadmap of priorities.

And then, throughout the year, we focus on that every single month.

And, we share communication strategies.

We have a tremendous communications teams in our county office, but districts also have communication experts.

So, we're aligned with our messaging out to the public to make sure they're aware of the programs and services that we offer and what they can get for school districts.

And, we take advantage of technology.

For example, this past summer, you know, during the time when schools were closed, nutrition doesn't shut down.

Children are still hungry, but they don't have their meals from their school.

So, we have summer meals programs throughout the entire county-- - Wow.

- but how do parents know about 'em?

So, we utilized a platform on our county website to where all you have to do is look at your address and right away you'll see a map of all the facilities close to your residence of where you can get a lunch and breakfast for your children.

- Wow.

- And, many families utilize that.

So, we're taking advantage of those kinds of strategies and platforms to inform our public to make sure they're aware of the things that are taking place, and also of new developments.

I tell ya!

One of the key new in developments and not just in education but everywhere is AI.

And, our superintendents are aware of it.

They're in the forefront of it to make sure that we understand the capabilities of AI, and how to include it in a way that's productive and positive for students they serve.

And, to make sure that parents and the community are aware of what they're doing so we can all, again, work together for the common purpose of supporting students.

- You have a job that is as difficult, I imagine, as it is important as superintendent, as community member- and, of course, I've seen you in the community- as father, as husband, all these different roles.

How do you deal with difficult moments?

- [Ted] You know, I think my faith helps me and certainly my wife.

She's been an incredible partner.

Today is our anniversary.

- Ooh, happy anniversary.

Wow, congratulations!

- 38 years today- - 38 years.

- That we've been married.

And, I'll tell you, she's been my partner from day one.

And so- - Wonderful.

- When both of us have had challenges, we've been able to work together to solve those challenges.

And, we both have a strong faith.

But in our organization, and this is what I think is so important for wellness.

You know, we just came-- last week, we had our Southern Region Wellness Conference that our office provides; thousand individuals that come to learn strategies and techniques from professionals.

Not just educational professionals like counselors, but also therapists, social workers, law enforcement, probation, others that really deal with students and others that need that support.

So, when you really have strategy technique to improve your wellness, that's critical.

We want our educators to be top levels of wellness so they can then support the children that need that support, as well.

So, that's a huge impact for us, a huge priority for us.

But, personally I go back to my family, to my wife especially, and to our faith.

And, that-- it helps me tremendously get through the tough days.

- What would be your biggest lessons learned in this job and in educa-?

I mean, really, this really is like a continuum for you because you've done so many things in education.

So, you've been in education for 34 years now.

Tell me about your biggest lessons learned as an educator.

- Yeah, that's a great question.

'Cause what I'd be as a teacher, I thought I was a good teacher.

My principal said I was a good teacher.

But, when I became a principal, I was walking through classes every single day and I realized, "gosh, "I could've been doing this in my class if I'd known about it."

And, I started to become much more aware of the strengths and opportunities.

And so, coming in as county superintendent, you know, coming from a district, you know your district well, but coming in the county superintendent, I started to know all 33 school districts really well.

I knew the superintendents really well.

I knew the school board members really well.

And, when you engage in conversations and you build relationships and you build trust, people open up and you start to realize, you know, there's some key priorities here, here, and here.

How can we leverage and broker resources to match the needs of individual districts?

We have what's referred to as systems of support that come from professionals in our county office that we meet with individual districts to find out "how can we help support your needs on the state accountability dashboard?"

It may be with reading professional development, may be with math professional development.

Sometimes it's attendance issues through child welfare and attendance or special ed.

So, we work with our partners.

We broker the resources.

We provide 'em directly.

But, we understand that what we do has to be of value and support the individual needs of our school districts.

And, I think that's one thing I've learned is that we're not all the same; we're very different.

But, once we build the relationships, we can make that work in such tremendous and positive ways.

- Well, this is fantastic and I'm gonna ask you to do us one more favor.

Educators understand homework.

- Mm hm.

- I don't know how much you-- you got quite a bit of staff here today.

I don't know how much homework you give them!

(Ted chuckles) But, I know back in the day when you were a teacher, you were givin' folks homework.

Give us some homework.

Look.

We're lookin' and what we see-- we see this interview for someone that's watching and wants to follow up.

"Hey, I wanna know more about what the county "Department of Education is doing.

Where can I go get information?"

I know that you have offices, et cetera.

Give us some homework as to where we look next.

- Oh, absolutely.

You know, I would first recommend our county website 'cause our county websites has links to the resources and services, and programs that we provide.

I talked about that Cradle-to-Career roadmap, those key success indicators from zero to five, K-12, and postsecondary.

Well, on our website we have that interactive.

- Wow.

- So, if you look at our third grade reading objective as a parent and you have a third grade student, go to the website and connected to that third grade indicator is a bank of vetted resources to talk about.

"What are the best books to read at third grade?

"What is the best things you can do as a parent"- - Mm!

- to support your children with literacy?"

What if you have a 10th grader who's starting to become exposed to substances?

Go to our website to find out where are the providers and where are the services-- - Oh, yes.

- that can help me with my children?

So, across that Cradle-to-Career, we have the resources to support not just teachers and principals, but parents and business members and community members.

So, that's of tremendous value.

And, what's also on there is something that I didn't share.

But, as a county office, we facilitate student events throughout the year.

So, while-- I love athletics!

I used to play football.

So, I liked football and basketball.

You know?

Our academic decathlon, our mock trial, our science and engineering fair, our performing arts showcase, those should get just as much of attention.

We have those throughout the county.

And, I'll tell you!

One of my favorites is our County honor band.

- Mm.

- It's a performance once a year in February at the University of Redlands; school you went to, (chuckles) in the chapel!

- Hey!

- That's a beautiful facility.

- Yeah.

- And, if you see the best musicians in our high school perform, you'll just be amazed.

You'll just leave saying, "my gosh, those students are absolutely incredible."

We do our honor orchestra there, too.

So, many events to really give you the inspiration to know that our youth have so much potential moving forward.

And, our events are all on our website.

So, our website is hugely important.

But, I also recommend let your local school, have that website visited, as well.

Because local districts also include their calendars, their programs, their services on their websites.

Once you become more informed, then you can start to understand what's taking place.

And, going back to that local control accountability plan, a key element: stakeholder engagement.

Share your voice!

I tell parents, "share your voice; share your thoughts."

What is your school doing or not doing?

Find out if it's maybe there you're not aware of it.

And, but if it's not, maybe it's something they could implement.

And, I think most district leaders listen to our parents.

And, when good ideas come up, they include them in their budget planning.

And so, all of us working together in that collaborative spirit can make tremendous things happen in our schools.

- County Superintendent of Schools, San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools, Ted Alejandre, thank you very, very much for joining us.

- Thank you so much.

It's been a pleasure to be here today!

- And, I wanna thank you all for joining us on Inland Edition.

Keep joining us as we walk down the road of better understanding of our government and civic leaders, one conversation at a time.

Until then, see ya.

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