Aligning a Justice Goal to Her Actions

Profile: Minerva Garcia-Sanchez

Chicago native Minerva Garcia-Sanchez loved being a school administrator in the community where she was raised. But when the opportunity to lead a school district in DeKalb, Ill., opened in 2021, she never looked back.

With corporate distribution centers for Meta and Amazon in DeKalb, the area — and the 6,900-student school district — were changing and growing. In response, DeKalb Community Unified School District 428 wanted to be deliberate about diversity, equity and inclusivity going forward. Plus, the leadership wanted to align certain diversity actions to the district’s strategic plan.

Those goals were aligned already with Garcia-Sanchez’s interests and experience. Her philosophy is that equity in action leads to justice.

“People can talk about equity,” she says. “They can write about it and say they’re trying to get there. But we’re not just talking the talk. We’re walking the walk. We’re running to it.”

Samantha McDavid, a parent with three biracial children who attend school in DeKalb, believes one of Garcia-Sanchez’s biggest strengths is a passion for getting to know her community.

Garcia-Sanchez seeks out feedback and finds new ways to celebrate the array of cultures and identities in the district, which is located about 75 miles due west of Chicago. She held one-on-one sessions with every principal, assistant principal and school board member before she started. Her careful listening and respectful responses caught others’ ears.

“She really does care about building the community and including diverse perspectives,” McDavid says.

The district created a transition center for young adults with special needs who had recently completed their formal education. But before building the center where the young people could gather and acquire life skills, the district surveyed them to get their input.

“We removed the obstacle and gave them access to something they didn’t have, and that, to me, is equity,” says Garcia-Sanchez. “Now they can be more successful.”

During Garcia-Sanchez’s 3½-year tenure as superintendent, DeKalb also has been working to increase diversity among the staff to better mirror the demographics of students. She is developing pipelines for faculty and others to work their way up the career ladder.

Deyci Ramirez, president of the board of education, notes that Garcia-Sanchez introduced several initiatives that have improved academic performance and student engagement through staff training programs tied to closing traditional achievement gaps.

District statistics on the percentage of Black students finishing 9th grade on track, which is a good predictor of high school graduation, increased from 44 percent in 2022 to 64 percent a year later. Among Hispanic 9th graders, the on-track measure went from 71 to 75 percent over the year.

Even when she encountered resistance to some proposed changes, the superintendent has remained focused in her mission, Ramirez says. “Her ability to navigate through pushback with grace and determination has earned her respect and admiration from many.

Garcia-Sanchez is future-oriented in her leadership, deliberately mentoring people to become leaders who will be able to advocate for students long after she retires. She loves to identify the spark and passion in people and then nurture that spark until people recognize the light in themselves.

“I see the good in people first,” she says. “The glass is always full. Not half full. Full.”

Jennifer Larson is a freelance writer in Nashville, Tenn.