CHAMPAIGN— Geovanny Ponce knows what it’s like to get a perfect score after years of failing grades.
Ponce is the new superintendent of the Champaign Unit 4 School District.
The Unit 4 Board of Education hired him after pushing out the previous superintendent. Ponce began his term this summer, with the controversies that preceded him still on the minds of parents and community members attending school board meetings.
He started his career in education as a bilingual teacher. He went on to become a principal and assistant superintendent in Houston. Ponce then moved to Fairfax, Virginia to become a top administrator there before Unit 4’s hiring consultants recruited him.
But before that long resume began, he was a fourth grader from a poor neighborhood in Tegucigalpa, Honduras’ capital city, and he was thinking about dropping out of school.
Ponce sat down with IPM education reporter Emily Hays to discuss what led up to him choosing a career in education. The interview has been excerpted and edited for length and clarity.
Ponce’s fourth grade teacher made him feel like he didn’t belong.
“The teacher didn’t understand my background and was not supportive. It was a big challenge. It made me feel like I didn’t belong to that class and that she didn’t care. Every day I was being punished because I was sometimes late. But I was late because I had to do something at home first. Carrying water was one task. I had things to do, tasks to accomplish before going to class. She didn’t care about that.”
He had to repeat the grade but didn’t want to go back – until he met his new fourth grade teacher.
“She had expectations for me and how I should do regardless of my background. She told me … ‘Jonathan, I know you have challenges. I know you are poor. And that’s why I’m going to help you. But I have expectations: I am expecting that you’re going to do homework. I am expecting that you’re going to behave in my class. I am expecting that you are going to be responsive. That you’re going to respect your classmate, that you’re going to respect yourself, and that you’re going to respect me. And I’m expecting that if you don’t understand, you will ask for help.”
She knew he probably did not have a desk at home and offered to stay after school so he could do his homework there. Ponce saw his grades skyrocket from failing grades to perfect scores.
“I was so good in fractions. I didn’t need to open my book to do fractions, addition, subtraction. I did it in my mind. And the multiplication tables, I could do everything. I felt so good. You can’t even imagine. That’s why I know that when children are learning, they feel happy. They feel accomplished. And they keep advancing and are eager to learn because of that feeling, and this is exactly what I want to bring to every single child in Champaign.”
Ponce trained to become a mechanical engineer but eventually realized that he needed to learn English to advance. He moved to Houston to study English, and in the process, heard about bilingual teacher openings there.
“At the same time, I met someone who is my wife now. She’s from Venezuela. We went to the same school. That’s another story for another day. And we got married, so I needed a job. The only way to provide for her and for myself and for future kids was by getting a job. And the only option that I had by the time was becoming a teacher. Because the government was allowing you to work on a permit, H1B visa, if you met that requirement to become a bilingual teacher.
And so I studied that process, studied teaching. I was a kindergarten teacher at the beginning. Very challenging, very hard, very difficult. Later on, I had an opportunity to go to middle school as a Spanish teacher. I thought that was my best option. However, the Spanish teacher position that they offered me, it was only one section – and five sections of history.
I said, “I thought you needed a Spanish teacher.” “Yeah, but it’s only for one group. And you have five groups for history, US history, Texas history, and sixth grade history.” I didn’t know anything about US history or Texas history. I was new in the country. Challenge accepted.”
His principal liked how successful he was in teaching history and offered him a job helping students struggling with math. Ponce added photography teaching to his resume, an assistant principal role, and then he was offered a spot at a school flagged to close, Jones High School.
“In Jones High School, the students that were in ninth grade receiving algebra, when I walked by, I saw that they didn’t even know how to do simple addition. They were struggling. That really hit me…
You have this student that wants to pass, I believe. But I also saw his behavior. He was trying to cover that he didn’t know anything in math. And he was very disruptive. So I called him out to say, “Son, do you like math?” “No.” “What about if I have someone who’s going to be giving you class one-on-one, small group intervention?” I hired someone to do interventions. And I saw how he grew and his love for math. And he started behaving because the majority of the problem that we have, misbehavior and everything is because the children don’t know. And so the only way for them to cover that they don’t know is by misbehaving…
I remember bringing a group of students from the university to help them with math. They were academic tutors. That was a big success. They started changing their attitude toward math and behavior as well toward the school. It really changed. So this is something that I’m planning to [bring here] also. We have the university and we have students. I actually have been having several meetings with several people from the university and trying to establish that relationship and partnership where the students will go from the university and support our kids as well. I think that that’s going to be successful if we do it.”
Critics of Unit 4’s previous superintendent said she did not communicate effectively with the community, and the board ended up voting her out. More recently as Ponce started in his new role this year, some parents were upset when they ended up having to wait in long lines to register their kids for school.
The district said it had sent 10 emails, texts and calls to parents about the process. Ponce said he has learned that it is better to reach out to affected families directly.
“Something that we are looking at in the future for something this magnitude is if we have to do something like this is to plan first and make sure that we address [families directly] rather than by mass, because parents didn’t know. If I say, live in Savoy, ‘Why do I have to go? Maybe it’s not for me.’ So I think that was not effective…
Another thing that I’m learning is to have a good relationship with the different entities that help to communicate, like a radio station, TV station, magazine, newspapers. So in the event that we need to have that, we send it with different outlets, radio, TV, multimedia, social media, churches as well. Go and be very planned. So at that point, nobody will say, ‘I didn’t even know.”
Supporters of the previous superintendent say she was targeted for being a Black woman and for trying to further desegregate Champaign schools. Many are still very concerned that schools might lose recent gains towards racial equity under her and past school boards.
“I don’t like labels, because I have also been someone that people label. Because when you see a child, you see a child, but when they’re Black or brown, we say a Black child or a brown child. So I really am not necessarily a big fan of that. I believe we have misinterpreted equity. And so equity is when we are not serving the children in the right way and we are not teaching them in the right way. I think that this is inequity.
I just hired my chief of schools, Dr. Alecia Bell, who is an expert as an instructional leader and in turnaround. I am a turnaround principal as well more than anything else. I have done an amazing job with schools as a principal, as a teacher. But I know that as a superintendent, I have to do so many other things, I will not have that time. So Dr. Bell will be leading the effort to make sure that every child [gets a good education]. At low-performing schools especially, when you see subgroups, students that are academically below average, you will see African American, but also Hispanic and Special Education. So we are being very intentional about what we are going to put in front of the children.”
Ponce said he has been meeting with the teacher’s union.
“Definitely making sure that professional development is going to happen for the teachers. Then the curriculum that is going to be in front of the children will be high-quality instructional materials that my team will revise to make sure that that’s going to be accordance to what they need. And the other one is the instructional delivery, how that’s going to be. I think that all of those three need to be at the same level.
And something that I’m trying to do is wraparound services. I believe that parents are partners in education. And we have a number of families who really need support. And in many ways, we have economically disadvantaged families that don’t have the means to support their children like some others. So we want to support them as well, regardless of the ethnicity. It’s different to educate a child who did not have dinner or did not have breakfast or didn’t see their mom because in single parent families, the mom has to work and work hard. So we have to address that need as well.”
Ponce has been in Champaign for a month and has discovered that he does like one type of fast food.
“I’m not a burger eater, but I love Culver’s. I can go almost every day. Trust me, I don’t like burgers. I’m not a fast food eater, but that is amazing. I’ve been several times.
I like Dos Reales on the north side, and there is Hacienda Agave. Delicious.”
At Hacienda Agave, he loves the rice and beans.
“I grew up with rice and beans. I believe that food has a psychological effect. When you eat, that food will bring you memories. When I eat rice and beans, it reminds me every day of my reason and my purpose.”