McClatchy students may have noticed some new faces on our campus this year, since two of our former assistant principals left McClatchy. Assistant Principal Schlager, who is now the principal of Earl Warren Elementary school, was replaced by Assistant Principal Jessica Martin. Leise Martinez, who was transferred to the District’s Hearing and Placement Center, was replaced by Assistant Principal Ilesha Graham.
Students became aware of Ms. Martin before the school year started, as she introduced herself in a robocall before orientation. Ms. Graham’s position was not official at that point, so she was not introduced to the teachers or students until mid-September.
Ms. Martin, who was born and raised in Sacramento and attended Hiram Johnson West Campus, started her career as an elementary school teacher, with a focus on special education students. After 15 years of teaching, Martin decided to become an administrator.
Her decision to pivot to administration was sparked by encouragement from an administrator she met while working at Florin High School.
“He really inspired me to reach out and help more students instead of just the students who come through my classroom,” said Martin.
Ms. Graham, who grew up near the Bay Area and has worked in education for about 23 years, also started as a teacher for special education students. Similarly to Martin, Graham made the switch from teaching to administration because she “felt like there was an opportunity to have a larger impact on what was happening on campus and impacting school culture and really to in some ways shape the education experience for students on campus more than just in my classroom, but on a broader scale.”
After “semi-retiring,” as she puts it, for a couple of years, Graham found herself missing working in education. “I wanted to come back. I really missed schools, I really missed K-12, I missed the energy, working with students. I was really sad the year I was off on the first day of school and I wasn’t at a school campus anymore, so I began looking at where some opportunities might be to come back,” said Graham.
“I really had heard McClatchy was really the flagship school for SCUSD. I had heard really positive things about a lot of the traditions, activities, folks who’ve gone on to do great things from this campus, and that it was really kind of a unique and special place to be able to work, so I had my eye on it,” she added.
Ms. Martin also spoke highly of McClatchy’s reputation.
“I’ve always heard it was a great school, lots of kids go to college from here, there’s a huge success rate, lots of kids want to come here, and parents want to send their kids here, so overall, historically, it’s been a really great school.”
“There’s historical monuments all over the place—I love that stuff,” said Martin, in reference to McClatchy’s 81-year-old campus.
“There’s something special about traditions and in some ways being like a landmark in your community,” agreed Graham.
While they admire our school, both Martin and Graham acknowledged that they will have no shortage of problems to help solve at McClatchy. As students know, McClatchy has made national news multiple times in the past year for issues involving racism and sexual harassment culture.
“I’m coming in with fresh eyes—and some experience—so hopefully I can bring in some ideas. I just want to try to unify—if students don’t feel comfortable coming up to administration, I wanna fix that. If there’s conflict between teachers and administration, I’m gonna try to fix that. I believe that there’s a solution to every problem,” said Martin.
“I guess when I look at problems, I always go to like, ‘why?’ What’s the history of this? Because that’s how we understand behavior, and my background is in behavior,” she added.
Graham had a similar notion, saying “I really hope to be able to use my 10 to 12 years of administration, and 20 plus years of working in education, just that experience of working with lots of different communities and families, working through a lot of different student’s issues, bring some wisdom and perspective and support here on the campus, and I think a lot has to do with building relationships and having open communication and common vision, so I’m hoping I can lend a hand in helping shape that.”
“My goal is to just come in and support where I can, to see where I can be of most help and just keep great traditions alive, and if there’s some areas for growth to be able to support that too,” said Graham.
On top of those challenges, being an administrator at such a large school is never easy.
“This is the largest student body that I’ve had to deal with. It’s double the size of anything that I’ve ever been a part of,” said Martin.
“For me, I love to get to know kids and I want to get to know as many kids as possible, but now I’ve doubled the number of kids that I need to get to know. And I know I probably won’t get to know everybody, but I will certainly strive to. I just love working with students,” she added.
“I think [McClatchy’s] got some challenges that I’d like to be a part of fixing. I’m looking forward to getting involved with the culture and climate of the school pretty deeply,” said Martin.
As far as how to accomplish that, Martin said that she would like to see McClatchy become more unified. “I see some divisions here, of course you read about them, as well, so I think I would like to create a space where there’s more unity here,” said Martin.
She added that she’s also been reading a lot of books on racial equality, not necessarily because of what has happened at McClatchy, but because of what’s going on in the United States in general.
“I do like to study. I like to understand where everyone’s coming from, so I like to have conversations about it,” she said.
She recommended the book Why Are All the Black Kids Still Sitting in The Cafeteria Together? by Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum.
“She kind of makes you sit down and see some really different views about things you might not have thought of before,” added Martin.
As far as personal career goals go, neither Martin nor Graham see themselves working their way up the District ladder. Graham has already worked as a Principal at Helen Carr Castello Elementary in Elk Grove, so she feels that she’s already hit that mark in her career.
“I know I love working with students, I know I love working with school culture and so I’ll just see where it takes me,” said Graham.
Martin said that when she first became an administrator, she saw herself wanting to be a superintendent one day.
“But the closer you get to being a superintendent, the further you get from working with students,” said Martin. She said that she definitely wants to be a principal someday, but she doesn’t see herself going any farther than that.
In their free time, both Martin and Graham enjoy working out and reading books. Martin plays and coaches softball, while Graham said she loves going to the beach and spending time with her family.
Both of the new administrators have a positive attitude going into this school year.
“I hope to be out and about a lot, getting to know students by name and actually say hello to students by name, I feel like that really helps making that personal connection,” said Graham.
“What I want students to know about me is I’m here for you. So even though I’m severely outnumbered, I’m gonna do my best. I don’t want anyone to ever feel like they can’t approach me, and I want to help and if I can help I will and if I can’t then I’ll get you to the person that can. I just want to be a resource to students,” said Martin.
“You’ll see me out there, I try to talk to as many kids as possible. Some of them look at me like ‘why are you talking to me?’ But I just keep going,” said Martin
“I’m really excited to be here, I’m looking forward to getting to know students, and please come up and say hello, introduce yourself, and let’s just make it a really good year,” said Graham. “I’ve been feeling really welcome.”