• 10 questions with Jim Franco

  • TRACY - Jim Franco has led the Tracy Unified School District as superintendent since 2002. He will be retiring at the end of June following a 41-year career in public education, the past 27 spent in Tracy.
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    Franco, 64, holds a doctorate in education from the University of San Francisco. He received his undergraduate degree in history from San Francisco State University and a master's in school administration from California State University, Sacramento.
    His first teaching job was in Vacaville beginning in 1973, where he remained for four years. He moved into administration as an assistant principal with Vacaville Unified in 1977 and became a principal two years later. In 1985, he moved north - way north - to become director of staff development for the Juneau Borough School District in Alaska.
    He began his career in Tracy as principal of Monte Vista Middle School in 1987 and went on to lead Tracy High in 1989. He moved into the district office in 1995 to become assistant superintendent of educational services.
    Before he leaves public life, Franco sat down with The Record to answer 10 questions:
    Question: What is your guiding principle?
    Answer: Treat others as you would like to be treated yourself, no matter where you are in the food chain. I just came back from a kindergarten graduation. It is never too early to learn the names of your students.
    Q: As an administrator, do you miss being around students all the time?
    A: I try to do something with the kids, visit a classroom or go to a ballgame, on a daily basis. I keep it simple, writing a card to one of them or saying hello to a group of kids I pass through.
    Q: What's been the most difficult part of your job?
    A: As superintendent, the most difficult part of the job has been to fund the proposed plans, to fund the actions necessary to get the job done. You have to deal with finances on multiple fronts, starting with the school board. The school board comes up with the plan that is facilitated by the superintendent, and now the ball bounces down court to the business department to make sure these things can be funded, and you know invariably these things can't be funded. But how it is to be funded is sometimes beyond the school district's means. Sometimes it doesn't make sense - the lack of funding, changing horses in midrace, personnel changes, community issues.
    Q: What about when things do work?
    A: That's the beauty of the superintendency. Someone has to put it all together. If you like that feeling of accomplishment, invariably some programs do get implemented.
    Q: Speaking of that, what is the most enjoyable part of your job?
    A: Here's a good example. One night while leaving the parking lot a little late and not checking the gas gauge, I ran out of gas around 10 o'clock. A policeman pulled up and it was one of our former students. "Mr. Franco, how are you doing?" He did what a good officer would do: got hold of night security, put out flares so my car wouldn't get smashed into. It was one of our students who did all those things. It makes you feel a little proud that he helped out his old principal. There are lots of examples like that.
    Q: What do you see as the challenges facing those graduating high school this year?
    A: The challenges are going to be the world economy's influence on our local area here. We all know now when we seek phone information we might be talking to someone in Calcutta. So I think the employability of the students in the future is going to require higher levels of reading comprehension, interpreting technical manuals, being able to write technical manuals, pursuing the whole STEM research fields, science and technology. I'll throw another one in there, the health field.
    Q: Looking back over your entire career, Is there some period you would like to revisit?
    A: When I was principal at the high school, we weren't always working to put our students in the most rigorous programs. Sometimes we put them in the college prep program when they could be an honor student. We expected an average workload; we considered average to be OK. But based on the previous question, average is not going to be OK on the global stage any longer.
    Q: What are you most proud of over the length of your career?
    A: We implemented an ag science pathway in the district. It was one of the first ones we were dealing with. Ag sciences coordinated the curriculum between the sciences and the English department and the social sciences and included a senior project where the students demonstrated their ability to do research for projects that emphasized the areas they were working in. They had to do a pre-write-up, develop the plan, implement the plan and use presentation skills. That was in 1992 - now it is called Core Curriculum.
    Q: Teachers are at the core of education. What can you say about your district's teachers?
    A: We are looking for world-class teachers. They can't just be successful in the subject they teach; they need to be able to apply their knowledge to advanced problems, apply mathematics to study the problem, apply English to write about the problem. We are looking for teachers who want to be involved at that level.
    Q: What does the future hold for Jim Franco?
    A: I would hope that I could still stay involved in some aspect of the educational process somewhere, somehow. Maybe help with a curriculum project. I went to Guatemala over spring break. It's a Third World country. I might get involved in the Peace Corps or some type of educational development. Of course I'll stay in shape, do some traveling and I'd like to see if I can get involved in some program internationally or nationally. My 95-year-old aunt - she is on top of it - she said, "What are you going to do now that you are retired? You need a job." I am still a citizen of the community and will do my share to help the educational programs develop and remain effective. So if there is anything that pops up to be of service, I will do it. My wife will appreciate it. I would hope I can still get in and out of the bullpen and throw a strike.
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