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“Principal Rafael Santiago is retiring. To anyone attending, working at, or residing anywhere near Dale Junior High School in Anaheim, California, this is heartbreaking news. Because Santiago hasn’t only focused on students’ academics at Dale, his 聽and team have leveraged hope and connection to transform Dale’s students聽补苍诲听their community.
I had the good fortune of working under Santiago decades ago when I was a junior high school English teacher, and I have wanted to interview him for you readers for as long as I have been writing for聽Psychology Today. Deciding which topic to interview Santiago about, however, has always been a challenge, because Dale is one of those schools involved in聽many聽tradition-transcending endeavors. With the countdown clock ticking on Santiago’s聽, we picked one of the most novel and powerful: Dale’s function as a ‘community school.'”