14-A Success Story_ From Cleaner to Leader

Reyes Guana, a son of Mexican immigrants, proves the saying:"Where there's a will, there's a way." In other words, if you wantsomething badly enough, and work hard enough, you can make it happen.

In Guana's case, he went from cleaning classrooms to leading aCalifornia school system – that is, from being a custodian to superintendent.In the middle, he earned a high-level university education and achieved adoctorate.

Now he is in his first year leading the Byron Union School Districtin rural northern California.

How did Guana do it?

"Divine intervention at every level. I always remember when Iwanted to give up, someone would put their hand on my shoulder and say, ‘Lookkid, you have potential. Don't give up.'"

"Divine intervention" means that Guana believes that God –or someone God directed – helped him stay focused on his goals. One was thecustodian at his school when he was a boy. He called her "Nike"because she wore Nike shoes. Guana wanted those kinds of shoes, too, but hisparents could not afford them.

Young Gauna liked how Nike made everything so clean. He told her hewanted to be a custodian, too.

"She goes, well it's good if you want to be a custodian, butmake sure that you go to college and make this as one of your stepsthere."

Guana also looked up to the principal, the leader at his school. Hewas a tall, friendly and good-looking man who wore nice clothes. He told Guanaabout his job helping students and teachers.

"I said, ‘Wow, when I grow up I want to do what you're doing.'

And he says, ‘Well if you don't give up you'll get there.'"

Guana did get there, and two men remain friends. His former principalis now almost 90 years old.

A long road

But before Guana became a school principal, he followed in Nike'sfootsteps and become a custodian. He worked for three schools in Lodi,California. His work cleaning the schools earned the money he needed to pay forthe first two years of college.

Then he worked as a campus safety officer, teacher, counselor,administrator, and now superintendent.

It was a long distance to travel for a boy who grew up without muchmoney and seven . Guana says he was a "very shy"child who was "very quiet" in school. He did not like wearing usedclothes and inexpensive shoes. But his parents struggled to pay for basicexpenses. They always had two jobs to make ends meet. On the weekends, thewhole family went to the fields to work. When the children were young theystayed in the car. As they got bigger, they worked too.

Guana says his parents wanted their children, who were born in theU.S., to give back to their country. They also wanted their children to stay inschool. His mother ended her education when she was around eight and his fatherthirteen.

Now, Guana tells his own three children how important an educationis for their lives.

He never forgets where he came from, or how he felt

The superintendent says that even though he has had a successfulcareer, he never forgets where he came from, or how he felt. He uses his lifeexperiences to guide him as a leader.

For example, Guana's younger sister needs a wheelchair to getaround. To this day, her disability helps him as a school administrator."You know I learned about advocacy for special ed. children as a siblingbecause my sister was born after me. And I remember crying all the time becausepeople would make fun of her."

From a young age, Guana was a translator for his parents, whose nativelanguage was Spanish. Helping them made Guana understand the need for adults tolearn English. And so, for many years Gauna taught English classes for adultsin the community.

In addition, as a child he suffered from bullying—other studentswere unkind to him. This experience makes him watch out for the quiet children.

And being a cleaner at a school made him think about how to showrespect for everyone in an organization.

"When I was a custodian you were like a ghost. No one reallysaw you. Yeah, the principals talked to you, and they said hi to you, butnobody else cared about you."

In Guana's school system today, everyone is invited to parties andevents. Everyone is important -- from the people who clean the floors, drivethe buses, teach the students, lead the schools, and direct the entireoperation.