AHSAA Mentoring Latino educators; Nosotras program trains leaders
A group of Latino educators founded the Arizona Hispanic School Administrators Association (AHSAA) in 1989. Since then, the statewide organization has led the way in developing aspiring Latino school administrators. Through its Nosotras program it prepares Latinas to lead districts as superintendents.
According to Dr. Jose Leyba, one of the original core of founders, AHSAA was created because some “Latino superintendents felt that the Arizona Administrators Association was not developing or meeting the needs of current and future Latino administrators, specifically principals and superintendents.”
“AHSAA was a safe place where Latino(a) leaders could network, support each other, share best practices, and build advocates for improving the quality of education for Latino students,” said Leyba, a former superintendent of the Isaac Elementary School District in Phoenix.
Although the organization had a serious mission, the way in which the fledgling nonprofit collected initial funding for scholarships was humorous. However, the fundraising reflected the Sí se puede attitude of these highly educated – most had Ph.Ds – Latinos.
“We were brainstorming on how to raise $5,000 in funds for the Dr. Alejandro Perez annual scholarship, so my father, Jacob ‘Buddy’ Chavez, donated a steer from his rancho,” recalled Dr. Jacob A. Chavez, superintendent of the Cartwright Elementary School District in Phoenix. “Then the person who won the raffle donated the steer back to the organization to get more startup money,” Chavez said. “What was really humorous was that the people started naming the steer, and started wanting to keep it as a pet, not for beef as carne asada. That was funny. Usually on a ranch you never name your beef cattle.”
AHSAA’s membership has continued to grow and its active fundraising has allowed it to hire its first part-time executive director, Dr. Rene Diaz, the retired former superintendent of the Phoenix Union High School District. Under Diaz’s leadership the organization is developing the next generation of Latinos who aspire to be school administrators.
Nosotras: Advocating for Latina superintendents
Another area that AHSAA wanted to make a difference was the lack of Latina school district superintendents. In 1989, when AHSAA was formed, there were about 20 Latino superintendents in Arizona, and only one was Latina,
Dr. Juliet Carrion, a principal at J.B. Sutton Elementary School in the Isaac Elementary School District in Phoenix, created a program titled Nosotras in 2009 to empower Latinas in higher education to aspire to become superintendents. In partnership with AHSAA, she facilitates a unique and on-going professional development program for Latina administrators through a series of workshops at which they receive training in personal and professional development.
In 2013, the workshop training dates are Mondays on Feb. 4, March 4, April 8, May 6, and June 3. Workshop hours are 4:45-6:45 p.m. The location is the J.B. Sutton Elementary School at 1001 N. 31st Ave., Phoenix. To register for Nosotras, contact Dr. Rene Diaz at 480.286.6825, or email him at rene.diaz@azhsaa.org. The Website at www.azhsaa.org also has information.
“Providing the Nosotras leadership workshops over the past three years to women school leaders …has provided us female leaders with a safe networking environment, as well as to further develop our leadership skills,” Carrion said.
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