They specifically wanted the acronym RCA.” Since they were losing and Spurgeon and Romero Cruz names, it was through collaboration that they came up with Romero Cruz Academy. When asked about the background of the naming process, district spokesman Fermin Leal replied that “when the schools merged at the old Spurgeon campus, the faculty and parents were asked for naming recommendations. I found it amazing that in just a few short years there could be so much confusion about how a school got its name. Now, when I asked school district officials about the status of the school – as I promised Sam I would do as a member of the local press corps - I got a strange mix of different stories. There was also blowback from local historians about taking the family name, Spurgeon – named after the founders of Santa Ana – off the school and the lack of dialogue around the process. If not, Sam said he would have never agreed to the merger. Yet flash forward about 20 years, the elementary school ended up getting merged with the troubled Spurgeon Intermediate in 2019, creating a dual-immersion pre-kindergarten through eighth grade school with an emphasis on science, technology, engineering, arts and math.Īt the time, Sam and others like Santa Ana Unified School District Board Member John Palacio both said they understood the Academy would carry Lydia’s name. “I don’t know any huge words, words to describe how I feel.” “Now here is a school being named for my daughter,” he said. “Lydia knew that it’s OK to be Latina, to speak Spanish as well as English,” said then-congresswoman Loretta Sanchez at the ceremony celebrating the renaming.Īt the time of the school’s naming, Sam told reporters that as a kid who attended segregated schools in Santa Ana during the 40s and 50s, it felt unreal to see one named after his daughter. Lydia died suddenly from a brain aneurysm in April 1996 at the age of 35 and four years later, a host of dignitaries from across the county gathered at a small elementary school on Santa Ana Boulevard and named a school after her – the Lydia Romero Cruz Elementary School. “To see that name,” Sam said, his voice cracking a bit as he referenced the signs outside Romero-Cruz Academy “without her … I’m fighting that too.” Sal Flores arrives at the 2021 Logan Barrio reunion taking place in Chepa’s Park in Santa Ana Saturday, Sept 25, 2021. He wants the school named after Lydia to carry her first name.
This time it’s an intimately personal crusade for the memory of his daughter, Lydia – a pioneer in Santa Ana’s early adoption of Spanish immersion education. “You gotta be persistent,” added Romero - pivoting abruptly last week during our conversation about lead in Santa Ana to tell me about another injustice he’s determined to change. Yet those kinds of fights take strong legs. He and others successfully challenged how Santa Ana city leaders wanted to implement a local business improvement district for the downtown.ĭuring that fight, Sam was a strong voice for the small shop owner, his usual place advocating for the individual resident up against the government machine. I first met Romero while walking the beat and bumping into him at his Catholic gift shop on Main Street a decade ago. “I’ve been in a lot of fights,” recalled the 87-year old legendary Santa Ana civic activist and former Marine last week just before we connected over a Voice of OC video town hall with the environmental news nonprofit, Grist, discussing an effort Romero’s involved with studying lead contamination in Santa Ana neighborhoods. Sam Romero can tell you a lot about civic street fighting. Subscribe now to receive his latest columns by email. Santana has established Voice of OC as Orange County’s civic news leader, uncovered truths across Southern California governments for more than two decades and reported on Congress and Latin America.
Santana: School Renaming for Local Education Pioneer Fumbled by Santa Ana District Officials CloseĪ pioneering leader in the nation’s rising nonprofit news movement and an award-winning journalist.