Today we’d like to introduce you to Rachel Maldonado.
Hi Rachel, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
As the only child of a veteran with PTSD, a man of color, and a Jew, life couldn’t have been more confusing growing up in South Mississippi. My mother was White, and my father certainly was not, so looking White, I struggled with an identity crisis given the tumultuous racial tensions in the South. My parents raised me to value diversity and work through obstacles and challenges that they struggled with. I was born with the gift of song, and every Friday night in my little house in Gautier, Mississippi, I listened to the Met Opera Night broadcast on NPR. We were too poor for me to take lessons, and after my parents divorced, I was also homeless. However, I was determined to change my circumstances. During high school, I wrote every scholarship I was eligible for to go to school for music. I started college in the Fall of 1992 at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College for voice. I transferred to Delta State University on an academic scholarship, and under Dr. Francis Leach and Dr. Mary Buchanan, I began to hone my piano skills and vocal abilities. I won numerous operatic and vocal competitions, placing me at Indiana University for graduate school. However, I met my husband, who was in the Air Force and stationed in Indiana, and life took a different direction when we decided to have children early in our marriage.
As a music teacher, I started my teaching career in February 2002 in Duval County Public Schools at San Jose Elementary School. During my first three years teaching, I had two children who are also now DCPS graduates and attending college at FSCJ for Journalism and UNF for Political Science. During the first three years, I focused on learning as much as possible and earning my professional certification. In 2006, I moved to Indianapolis Public Schools from Florida and worked as a high school instructional coach under a Gates Grant. I returned to the classroom when the recession caught up with the school district. Due to all the upheaval in IPS and the seniority system the union supported, I ended up teaching for a charter school. During all this professional movement, raising two toddlers, and working as a full-time teacher, I earned two Master’s degrees in education. Given that my children were of mixed race and ethnicity, it became pivotal for me to explore and leverage my identity to be a better educator to navigate my children through the public school system.
A friend of my family reached out to me who had recently moved to Jacksonville and told me that a Principal position was available at a dropout recovery charter school in DCPS. The charter school I was currently at had already trained me for two years for leadership. I applied for reciprocity with the FLDOE and used it for the Principal position at Duval MYcroSchool. I started working here at the school on October 1st, 2012. It was extremely challenging with my family in Indiana and me trying to create a brand new school midyear that needed to be more funded and funded. In 2013, my husband was able to transfer back to Jacksonville from Indianapolis, and we were united.
The school thrived, and the staff worked tirelessly to ensure that we were financially solvent and solid in reputation, especially with how we service some of the most fragile students in the district. Having started my career in DCPS and seeing what happened with the charter controversy in IPS, I also knew the importance of making sure that DCPS saw our charter agreement as a partnership that benefitted them. I wanted the narrative related to school choice to be about improving the district instead of a force that hinders the district. My mission was to build relationships with people in the ranks while keeping my students, some of the poorest and least served in Jacksonville, out of the media. After all, Duval MYcroSchool services many young adults and students with felony records. Our main goal is to avoid the “School to Prison Pipeline,” as Dr. Nance of the University of Florida coined it. I did not want to expose any of my students to an unforgivable narrative in the media regarding their academic prowess. All people can learn at any age. My staff shared and supported that mission; we continued to push on with what was moral and just for our students so that they were prepared and equipped for life with a high school diploma as positive, productive citizens.
In 2015, the week before school started, I was swimming at Hanna Park with my children when I was pulled under by a rip current and nearly drowned. I dislocated both patellae, herniated all the discs in my lower spine, and fractured my vertebrae. I was told I was going to be disabled and I needed back surgery initially. I had to step away from the Principalship as I saw my health deteriorate in November 2015. I was not healing, and I kept returning to the orthopedist, begging for help for my excruciating pain. Doctors were puzzled that I could not function or hold a job. After all the painkillers, injections, therapy, and steroids didn’t work, I was referred to a rheumatologist, only to find out I had Psoriatic Arthritis presenting in my spine from the trauma. I never experienced pain that debilitating in my life. I was out of work until the following July, and the DCPS School Choice office was gracious enough to my situation to hire me. I requested and took a demotion as I was still rehabbing. I worked as an Assistant Principal for DCPS schools at the middle school level for two years and enjoyed it all. It was a heavy, task-driven position, but at least I didn’t weigh the school community on my shoulders so I could focus more on healing. I had never been an AP because I went from being a classroom teacher to running a high school.
In the summer of 2018, with district support from the ranks and the charter management company, I came back to Duval MYcroSchool as Principal again, fully intending to finish the mission I started. I am so thankful to all the stakeholders involved for the opportunity. In December 2020, before the vaccine was available to immunosuppressed people, my family caught COVID. I was the last to catch it as we tried so hard to avoid that. My family rushed me to Baptist South, and there were no beds available–even after the hospital called other hospitals. I needed to be intubated. I had collapsed in the lobby. My husband did not want me to die in the hospital alone, so he got the doctors to agree to send a nurse and equipment to my home. It took six months for me to go back to work full-time. I am so proud of my teachers and staff for keeping it all together during that time. I am incredibly fortunate to have such outstanding educators at every level. During my time at home recovering from severe COVID-19, I was able to cross over as a proud member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, INC. It was a massive milestone for me even though it was on Zoom, and to those amazing women in that organization, I say Zzzzzz-phi! I credit my family and the precious members of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, INC. for helping with my recovery process, keeping me positive, and looking out for my family, especially the ladies of Tau Zeta and Delta Alpha Delta Zeta chapters.
Life has been an amazing journey, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I have found that there are always lessons in our pain and that the Almighty–no matter what you believe–always puts you where you are supposed to be. And, even through the COVID era, Duval MYcroSchool still needs to graduate approximately 600 students who wouldn’t have graduated in a traditional school. We have one of Florida’s highest dropout recovery grad rates at 47.7%, and we’re still climbing. We are relentless when it comes to helping students and families. It is important to note that I only did some of this. Along the way, I have had numerous support systems that have enriched me, making my life more positive so that I can contribute positively to society.
I appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
As a high school Principal specializing in dropout recovery, I enjoy helping educators grow their skill sets. I am known for high accountability among struggling students and for working incessantly for students and their families. I am most proud of my determination to overcome adversity to understand better the racism, ethnocentrism, colorism, and classism that permeate American society and its institutions. My willingness to have the hard conversations sets me apart from others. Just because giving feedback is hard and uncomfortable does not mean it has to be unkind and angry. Growth doesn’t happen when you’re comfortable.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
Right now, public education is being galvanized as an agenda for politicians. This political movement makes children an easy target because some of Gen Z are not yet of voting age and are easily manipulated. They cannot civically defend themselves. During my time at Delta State University, I had the opportunity to visit Europe. I was able to visit Dachau and find where my ancestors died. I stood in the gas oven where they were murdered. It was sobering enough to convince me I would never be on the side of the oppressor. I posit that young people can find their own identity and are acutely aware of the erosion of their rights; having said that, the pendulum will eventually swing the other way, but only after the damage has been done. We are well beyond the question of tolerance in the conversation. We need to be conversing about acceptance and neutrality out of respect for the diverse society that America has grown to become. I believe in the power of youth to accomplish what previous generations failed to do. I highly recommend reading Gary Marx’s 16 Trends to begin thinking about how to make diversity our strength instead of our weakness. Even though the book was written in 2006, it is still a relevant literary piece–particularly Trend 6, regarding public education and how high-stakes testing has contributed to the need for individualism and individualized instruction.
Pricing:
- Duval MYcroSchool is a tuition-free public charter school.
Image Credits
Cyrus Tookes Photography
