Each year, Franklin-McKinley School District Superintendent Juan Cruz visits a sixth-grade classroom to do a reading from “Breaking Through,” author Francisco Jiménez’s memoir about growing up in a family of migrant farmworkers.

When the students are done reading, Cruz returns to the class with some pizzas and they discuss their connection to the book over lunch.

That’s when Cruz shares his story — and some of the students begin to realize that they have something in common with their superintendent.

“Some of the students that are in those classes then recognize that I was not born in the U.S. I was born in Mexico,” he said. “It just creates a different connection, a different conversation when they know that I’m from the same area that they or their parents came from.”

Cruz’s ability to relate with students and value their unique experiences while ensuring that each and every one of them have equal opportunities to succeed has earned him ACSA’s 2025 Valuing Diversity Award.

“Juan is a true advocate for diversity, both in the policies he champions and the way he actively engages with students, educators and communities,” said Dr. Roxane Fuentes, superintendent of Berryessa Union School District and ACSA vice president. “Whether working with school leadership teams, supporting district or county initiatives, or providing professional development for administrators, Juan has made diversity a cornerstone of his work.”

Cruz credits his parents with instilling in him the belief that everybody is important and deserving of respect.

He grew up in the agricultural community of Watsonville. His parents worked at a mushroom plant, and for a few summers as a young teen, Cruz tried his hand at picking strawberries and garlic to earn some extra money.

“I knew that education was the way I needed to go because the hard labor was not going to be for me,” he said.

Cruz was studying to be a teacher at San Jose State University when he got connected with the California Mini-Corps, a program that recruits college students to tutor the children of migrant farmworkers. Cruz would go to farm workers’ camps in the afternoon to tutor children. The experience influenced him deeply and showed him the hope these parents have for their children.

“After students had already worked a whole day out in the fields, they still came for tutoring. They still did their work,” he recalled. “So that just reinforces the value of education and the importance of opening doors for students and making sure that they have access and opportunities.”

Following his graduation from San Jose State University, he became a teacher with the Migrant Education Program at the Santa Clara County Office of Education. He then taught high school at East Side Union High School District for seven years before becoming a vice principal, principal and associate superintendent in the district. In 2015, he was appointed superintendent of Franklin-McKinley School District.

At Franklin-McKinley, Cruz has fostered a positive climate by championing diversity through strategic initiatives and inclusive leadership.

At the direction of the school board, Cruz assembled the Diversity Equity Inclusion Belonging Committee, a diverse group of staff, students, families, board members, and community partners tasked with creating an equity framework for the district. Cruz said it was important that the framework was created not for stakeholders, but with them. During discussions with the committee, Cruz said family members and students in 6th and 7th grade were driving conversations about safety and belonging.

“One of the things that we learned from students is, they’re not shy in just telling you how it is. They don’t sugarcoat it,” Cruz said. “We were really trying to make sure we were listening to those who were being impacted by decisions that we make.”

As a leader of a TK-8 district, Cruz is cognizant of the important role the district plays in laying a foundation for learning as well as preparing students for lifelong success. Cruz has been adamant about having early learning programs that focus on a developmentally appropriate, play-based curriculum, as well as academic interventions that prepare students to read at grade level before they are promoted to high school.

“We’ve been doing a lot of work around the science of reading and the foundational skills that students need in order to be successful, and we’ve seen some incremental growth,” he said.

Cruz’s leadership has extended beyond his district, too. As a board member on the Silicon Valley Education Foundation and a commissioner on the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, he has carried students’ stories with him when making decisions that impact education locally and across the state. Since 2015, he has also served on Santa Clara County’s Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council, which seeks to combat racism by addressing the disproportionate representation of communities of color in the juvenile justice system.

His connections and community partnerships have greatly enhanced experiences for students in his district. For example, his ongoing collaboration with Catholic Charities has secured Community Schools grants for six schools serving the highest-need populations and ensured consistent, high-quality after-school programs across the district.

Recognizing inequities within the education system, Cruz has championed professional development that empowers educators to challenge exclusionary practices.

“One of the commitments we made was that, at minimum, every single adult in the school district was going to go through an introductory training around implicit bias,” he said. “Every year as new teachers and staff come in, we start them with that. That’s the first experience they have with us.”

Other employee trainings cover topics such as integrating ethnic studies into the core curriculum and restorative practices to ensure educators “respond to behavior in a way that is culturally responsive and community-based,” he said.

Franklin-McKinley’s dedication to diversity, equity and inclusion has drawn the attention of groups with different opinions on DEI. This has led to book ban attempts, protestors, counter-protestors and increased security at school board meetings.

Cruz’s message to detractors is simple.

“What I tell folks is, this is not about my personal belief of one thing or the other. My job is to make sure that every single family, every single child that we serve feels like this is a place for them,” he said. “It’s our job as adults in schools to show and model that we can respect each other, for the differences and for the commonalities that we have.”

“By staying on that platform, there’s less that they can attack us on,” he added.

Cruz speaks proudly about the San Jose community, where he has been an educator for 25 years. He has seen former students become employees in the district and bring their own children to these schools.

“It’s a special thing that I’ve been able to serve in one community in various capacities,” he said, before acknowledging his ACSA award. “I’m just humbled that my colleagues would feel that I would be worthy of such an award, because I do this work not for the awards, but for the community that we serve, and that already is rewarding.”