Eliseo Dávalos, director of student services for Corona-Norco Unified School District, is one of education’s leading lights in reaching out to underrepresented groups of students and in promoting the cause of diversity. His efforts have resulted in ACSA naming him the 2008 recipient of the Valuing Diversity Award.

“I accept this award on behalf of my students and families,” Dávalos said at the 2008 Leadership Summit. “This work is something I’m blessed to do.”

Dávalos played a leading role in the development of his district’s Strategic Plan for Diversity and is directly responsible for diversity program implementation and in monitoring all aspects of the plan.

Dávalos said he worked collaboratively with his assistant superintendent to ensure curriculum and instruction and the human resources division came together over the development of the overall District Strategic Plan.

“I consider the Strategic Plan for Diversity to be important for the district because it provided us with the opportunity to take a critical look at our current status relative to issues of diversity,” Dávalos said. “The Strategic Plan also provided us with the opportunity to develop goals and specific action steps, a roadmap that will help us to meet the needs of our changing environment.”

In addition, Dávalos helped design cultural proficiency professional development trainings for Corona-Norco USD staff.

“The cultural proficiency training in CNUSD has affected the area of diversity in CNUSD in many positive ways,” Dávalos said. “Through cultural proficiency training, participants worked first to develop a cultural understanding of themselves by identifying themselves and their responses to difference on the cultural proficiency continuum. They could then begin to work toward understanding and responding effectively to people who differ from them.” 

This is certainly a key area in a district where 64 percent of the 52,000 students enrolled are non-Caucasian.

“It is important for all staff in CNUSD to be able to recognize and respond appropriately adequately and effectively to the needs of the diverse students and families we serve,” Dávalos said.

One of Dávalos’ most notable accomplishments is the district’s high school UNITY program. The program began about five years ago, and UNITY classes are held at all high schools and alternative campuses in the district. The establishment of UNITY classes on all district high school campuses was a part of the district Strategic Plan.

Dávalos said the purpose of UNITY classes is to promote the awareness, appreciation, understanding and acceptance of diversity on the campus through a series of formal and informal student led activities. The students in the class also act as a barometer, assessing the cultural climate of the school. They mobilize and get involved in assisting their classmates, teachers and administration whenever the school’s climate and cultural balance is threatened. It’s a student leadership class and operates under the California Leadership and Student Activities Standards.

In addition, Dávalos oversees the district’s UNITY Camp, in which educators and student leaders from all kinds of diverse groups come together for a three-day mountain retreat for brave and honest discussions about diversity issues. More than 1,300 students and 250 district staff have participated in this program, which has led to student awareness events on such issues as Darfur, the Holocaust, HIV-AIDS awareness and more.

“The icing on the cake is the participation of district staff in the camp,”  Dávalos said. “Teachers, school counselors, administrators and classified staff become the camp staff. We have also had the participation of school board members. Camp staff is trained to facilitate discussion groups and lead students through the various camp activities.

“Participation in the UNITY camps has affected our high school climate in many positive ways. Students, who before camp would not engage in conversations at school, continue to develop the friendships they initiated while at camp. This creates a new peer group for many students, who by example encourage others within their peer group to go outside of their group to get to know other students on the campus. Students return from camp energized and excited about using what they have learned and experienced to promote social justice. They come away with a more profound sense of identity and a sense of social justice.

A few years ago, we had a student who had a work study assignment in our office. His father, a veteran district teacher, happened to go to a UNITY camp. Upon his dad’s return, the student said, ‘I don’t know what you did with my dad up there...but we stayed up all night talking when he came back. We talked about things we’ve never talked about before. Thank you.’”

Dávalos said the UNITY program has made a significant difference to the positive climate at each school site.

“We have experienced a reduction in suspensions and expulsions throughout the district,” he said. “I believe that the UNITY program has contributed greatly to this reduction. In addition, all of our campuses have become places where students feel safe to be themselves. There is a ‘good feel’ to our campuses as a result of the work our students have done to bridge communication and promote respect for difference.”

Dávalos has been a leader in other areas as well, including directing Corona-Norco’s Medical Administrative Activities program, which has enrolled more than 3,400 children in the state Medi-Cal program. This led to him serving as president of the California MAA Coalition, which works to increase the number of insured children in California.

Now, he is being honored with ACSA’s statewide Valuing Diversity Award for all his hard work.

“The work I do is my ‘occupassion,’” Dávalos said. “It is always nice to be recognized for the work you do. It is especially nice when the recognition comes from your colleagues.

“The work I do in CNUSD would not be possible without the continued commitment to diversity demonstrated by our school board, past and present superintendents, administrators, teachers, classified staff and, of course, our students and their families. I am truly blessed.”