On July 14, the San Juan Aromas School District announced the appointment of Ethan Stocks, 41, as the new principal of San Juan School in San Juan Bautista. Stocks is a native of Gilroy and attended UCLA; University College London; and San Jose State University.
In an introductory message to the school community on Aug 1, Stocks said, “I have had the privilege to meet some of the amazing parents, teachers, and staff at San Juan School, while also learning about the school’s history and past successes. With each conversation, I have been struck by the immense enthusiasm and pride for our school.”
BenitoLink: Could you tell us about your background?
Stocks: I was born in Gilroy and went to all Gilroy schools. I started my career there, teaching eight years of English and Theater at Gilroy High School. Then I became an assistant principal in Milpitas. I met a girl in L.A. so, after two years of that job, I moved to the San Gabriel Valley and soon was hired as principal at Ralph Waldo Emerson Elementary in 2018. She got a job at the Monterey Bay Aquarium so we decided to come back here.
How did you come to apply for this position?
Whenever I thought about moving back to this area, I always thought about San Juan Bautista. And coming here as a kid, we would go to Jardines and see all the chickens running around. I was in the high school choir and we would perform at the mission. So I felt a lot of connections with the place. I had some lead time until I was expecting to move so I checked out listings and this is one that came up. It was my first application, my first interview, and that was it. It just felt good from the start. I would never in a million years think I would have taken the first job offered to me, but, as I said, I felt there was a connection here.
What are the biggest challenges facing educators today?
It is a crazy time to be in education. We are still recovering from the COVID closures and I think there was learning loss but also a tremendous social loss. I feel that some students are still relearning how to go to school and it’s worse for the little guys. We have second graders coming in that have only had half a year of Kindergarten and have not been back to the school itself since then.
We are also in the middle of a huge teacher shortage. We have uncovered teacher absences here every day and we still have positions to fill. Finding good, qualified people is tough and I think it speaks to how we view teachers in our society and how we do not value education enough. I don’t know what the solution is, but day to day those are the issues.
Do you find students are distracted by social media?
It is hard to say. This is my 17th year in education and in that time, kids have always had cell phones. I think their focus on social media has decreased because we have gotten better as educators in teaching the appropriate ways to enrich our instruction. There are tons of educational apps you can find for your phone and one of the silver linings to COVID is that we got a lot of devices like Chromebooks so every child has their own device they can use. We are learning how to engage them in this era of social media and I think the constant battle is how you use technology as an instructional tool as opposed to technology for technology’s sake. That is the line we are walking and I think we are getting better at figuring it out.
What is the biggest change you have seen in your 17 years in education?
Now that I said all that about social media not affecting the classroom, I do think that the social media aspect of a child’s life is the biggest change. When I started teaching, social media did not exist. When I was a kid and I was having a rough social time in middle school, I could go home and escape it. Now that stuff follows you into this whole virtual landscape and I have become aware of how those things impact a student’s experience at school.
We have to approach the issue in a number of different ways. There is a curriculum around the social emotional aspects, like anti-bullying programs that teachers and districts can adopt. We have a partnership with Harmony at Home, which provides counseling to us, and this year they will be doing an anti-bullying program with us. We also have digital citizenship lessons on how to protect yourself online and how to engage with people in a safe way. It is part of what we do and it is something we have to do.
Are there changes you plan to make as you take on the job?
It is a weird time to be doing any kind of assessment as we come out of COVID, because things were so disrupted and we put a lot of structures in place that are not needed any more. But I feel my role during this initial period is to be a sponge and try to figure out how the place works. Once I understand that, I will start workshopping some ideas and looking at what needs to change.
Having said that, there are obviously some big-ticket items that need to change right away. For example, the morning dropoff, everybody told me, was totally chaotic. We put a new system in place and it works better now. That is a simple thing but it is very impactful if you are a parent and this is your primary interaction with the school that day.
But I don’t see a need for radical change at all. The staff is pretty much in the mindset I would hope for them to be in already. They know how to do their jobs and they do them effectively.
How can the community help?
The generosity of the community is appreciated. If people have resources or are in a position where they can donate items or funds or whatever to the school district or to this school directly, obviously that is appreciated. In terms of the day-to-day operation, though, I feel we are doing well. We need the community to believe in the school and support the school as best they can.
With our athletic department, for example, we are always looking for coaches—these are volunteer positions. And if there are people with the time, like retired people, who want to volunteer in the classrooms, that would be great. Those are the kinds of resources that we do not have enough of now and it could be as simple as coming in one day a week and doing one-on-one reading with a student.
All I can say is that if you have the time, think about your skill set and what resources you have to offer and then give us a call. I think it is a great opportunity and I am sure we can put you to good use.
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