Francis Cruz was attracted to the role of interim assistant principal at Columbus Elementary School because of its reputation as a community school.
“There’s something very charming and beautiful about standing on the sidewalk in the front of the school building and greeting all the parents walking their kids to school and dropping them off, getting to see the kids’ little siblings that’ll be joining the school when they get a little bit older,” says Cruz, nearly a month into the job after three years as House II Principal at New Rochelle High School.
Born and raised in Yonkers, Cruz brings 13 years of experience as an administrator, special education teacher and instructional coach. Trained in elementary education, Cruz has worked with high school students her entire career. She laughs, saying this is her first time back in an elementary school since she graduated in the 1990s.
While she appreciates Columbus’ “intimate setting” of 700 students compared to the 3,100 enrolled in the high school, she says it’s really one big family.
“I’m serving my students’ younger siblings now. The kids come up to me, ‘Ms. Cruz, do you know so-and-so, that’s my big sister at the high school,’ and I say ‘yes,’ and they send messages back and forth with their siblings. Once they tell me who their big siblings are, it’s impossible not to see it. You can see it in the eyes, the face, 'you’re a spitting image of your big sister or your big brother'.”
Cruz hopes to stay in Columbus to help foster some sort of new normalcy for them after the upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. “These kids have been heavily impacted by interrupted learning and it would be great to be here and support them.”