ST. PETERSBURG TIMES

December 2, 2005

Migrant educators face daily challenge

For two school district employees, better-paying jobs have been in the offing, but helping migrant families is a passion.

By SAUNDRA AMRHEIN, Times Staff Writer

SEFFNER - A light rain starts to fall as Rogelio Villanueva wipes his boots on the steps outside the mobile home and walks inside.

A bare incandescent bulb burns on a table in the living room, lined with a weathered blue rug, a leather couch and a TV. Until a few weeks ago, the only items in the room were rubber fruit buckets turned upside down for chairs. Villanueva found the donated furniture for the two families who live here.

But on a recent afternoon, he returns with another concern.

Villanueva, a recruiter for the Hillsborough County School District's migrant education department, worries that one couple's 15-year-old daughter, Silvia, isn't in school.

The tenants welcome him inside, ask him to sit down on the couch. Children walk in and out of the room as Villanueva speaks with their mother.

"I was talking with your husband about your daughter, that she has to work to help you guys," Villanueva says in Spanish.

Isabel Hernandez, sitting on a cooler, explains the family is still in debt.

Silvia, sitting on the other side of a table listening, works with them in the fields to help the family earn money, Hernandez says. They borrowed several thousand dollars from friends last year to cross the border after visiting relatives in Mexico.

Silvia will be back in school after Christmas, Hernandez says.

"She can go to a technical school and get a job that makes more money," Villanueva tells them. "They pay more money, but she needs her high school diploma."

His tone is polite but unwavering, almost fatherly.

"I know your situation," he tells them.

Villanueva has walked in their shoes. An industrial technician in Mexico, he and his wife moved to the United States to do farm work after his factory closed in 1975. He later obtained his green card and citizenship, and the couple stopped migrating so their children could attend schools without interruption.

His empathy, say co-workers, translates into a dogged pursuit of helping migrant working families and their children not only with educational services but community resources.

Villanueva, who has been with the program for almost two decades, is the 2005 state noninstructional employee of the year for his work with migrant families.

A co-worker, Juanita Cannon, won migrant educator of the year.

Cannon, an administrative resource teacher in the program for 31 years, helps students in migrant families get health care they need.

Both Cannon and Villanueva work well beyond their job descriptions, says their boss, Carmen Sorondo, the supervisor of the migrant education program.

"They not only do their job, they have a passion for what they do," Sorondo says.

The program serves between 4,000 and 5,000 students, a number constantly in flux depending on changes in agriculture jobs and effects of hurricanes and other natural disasters.

The program includes 21 school-based migrant advocates, 18 migrant aides and two social workers.

"Part of what we do is try to encourage parents to understand the educational opportunities, whether the children are in kindergarten through 12 or if the kids have dropped out," Sorondo said. "Our job is to give them options. Sometimes they take advantage of those options and sometimes, for a variety of reasons, they may not be able to take advantage of those options."

Children registered with the program are eligible for tutoring to keep them caught up with course work they might have missed while traveling with their families. They also can receive referrals to other services, including health care and housing.

Earlier this year, two Durant High School graduates - Emanuel Lucas and Erica Reynoso - were named the state's male and female Exemplary Migrant Scholars for 2005. Lucas is now a freshman at the University of South Florida, and Reynoso is in the Army Reserves.

Cannon, who has a social worker background, leaves the office some days feeling great and other days frustrated.

"Some weeks are just terrible because it's really hard finding services for our students," she said.

Villanueva has been offered other, better-paying jobs but turned them down.

"Every day is a challenge for me," he said. "We don't make a lot of money, but at least I'm happy with what I do."