As the 2021-22 school year concludes, Assistant Principal Juan Flores, as well as academic counselors Elin Cervantes and Steven Allekotte, are leaving the school staff.
Since taking on the assistant principal role in the 2019-20 school year, Flores has overseen security, attendance, athletics, the Latino Parent Group, the Polynesian Parent Group, cultural festivities and disciplinary measures.
“I’m bilingual, so I got to connect with the [Latino Parent Group’s] community a little deeper,” Flores said. “When the pandemic hit, I would make calls, trying to get students connected, making sure students graduated [and] pushing them across the finish line. I would [also] do home visits with face masks because I knew students needed to see a leader that would help them out.”
Academic counselors advocate for students by preparing them for college, planning summer activities, offering mental help support, helping with course selection and writing college recommendation letters. Cervantes supports students whose surnames start with “Ros” to “Z,” while Allekotte helps those with “Fig” to “Le” last names.
It’s the best [feeling] when [students] come back and tell you how they’re doing
Allekotte has worked at Aragon since 1992 and will retire on June 6. From mid-November to early February, he stayed at home to treat his knee replacement surgery and decided on retirement based on the tediousness of his three-hour commute.
“I try to see the best in students and encourage them to do even greater things, kind of like [being] their cheerleader, since kids [often] have doubts about themselves,” Allekotte said. “I enjoy writing college recommendation letters for students. That’s probably the most fulfilling part of my job, to sit down and talk about what their goals are. It’s the best [feeling] when they come back and tell you how they’re doing.”
Flores took time off on paternity leave so that he and his wife could take care of their new second daughter.
“I have two babies now, who I’m very proud of, and I want to spend more time [parenting],” Flores said. “When I got back from Thanksgiving with my family and my closest friends, I guess [there was] something inside of me that missed Southern California.”
In addition to hosting individual meetings with students and families, Cervantes resurrected the La Raza student club, speaks as a panelist for the American School Counselor Association and leads Professional Learning Community meetings catered toward Aragon’s counseling department.
“In our PLC [meetings], [Cervantes] leads us in some very mindful discussions,” said Academic Counselor Josephine Ho. “If she didn’t create that space safe for us to speak openly about how we can be better, there would be no way for us to learn and grow.”
I like getting my fingerprints on helping students reach their full potential holistically and not just behavior-wise
In the future, Cervantes is planning to branch out beyond counseling and into the education administration career path. The current counselors are hoping to maintain her equitable and holistic approach.
“[For] any decision that people make, I will support them 100%, but of course, it is a great loss,” Ho said. “There was a lot of work that she started, and now we have to figure out how we’re going to continue it.”
Having experienced a variety of roles, Flores is now more keen on building closer relationships with students and families. When he changed roles from 9th and 10th grade counselor to assistant principal, Flores noticed a shift in connectivity with students.
“I missed [being a 9th and 10th grade counselor] because I wanted to have more access to students, not only on a disciplinary level, but more on the academic piece as well,” Flores said. “I like getting my fingerprints on helping students reach their full potential holistically and not just behavior-wise.”
During their time off, Allekotte and Flores want to connect more with family.
“I’m going to have more time with my wife and we have a lot of family on the East Coast, [so] we’ll probably be doing a little bit of traveling to the East Coast,” Allekotte said.
Hillsdale High School counselor Wendy Avina and Coliseum College Prep Academy counselor Javier Magana will join the counseling team in the 2022-23 school year, while the board will approve Hillsdale High School English teacher Andrew Hartig as Assistant Principal during the May 19 board meeting.
