It’s been a little while since I last rode my bike to work.  Before joining executive cabinet, I bike commuted at least 2-3 days each week, but the pace and demand of my job has made that increasingly difficult during the past couple of years.  Now, I typically drop off my oldest two kids at school on my way to work, and ride my bike only on rare occasions.

I miss it.  I love riding through Santa Ana on a school day.  Being at street level I get to see families and students making their way to school.  I ride past the tamale carts where students grab a last second chance for breakfast.  I see countless moms holding hands with their little people as they cross intersections, or pushing strollers with fussy babies inside.  Santa Ana is a walk to school kind of place, and the city is most alive as students and families make their way to and from campus.  It’s as predictable as the ocean tide, predictably filling up the streets with humanity each morning and afternoon, all in the name of education.

After all, Santa Ana really is all about school.  “Education First” was the city motto for nearly 20 years.  Amongst large urban school districts, Santa Ana boasts one of the highest daily attendance rates in the country.  Our schools are embedded and integrated into our daily life and consciousness.  Even in the summer our schools are kept busy with enrichment and intervention programs and activities across the city.  We have more students in summer school than the vast majority of districts have students.  We have Wellness Centers on every campus, connecting families with educational opportunities and resources from a wide variety of community partners and service-providers.  Food pantries set up shop each week in our parking lots, and many nights and weekends are filled with district sponsored arts and athletics events.  All of it happens in the small geographic footprint of Santa Ana that we call home.

But this morning, things were quiet.  Schools are closed.  We are still operating food distribution centers around the city to ensure our students have access to food, a critical service for our most vulnerable families.  We’ve rushed to print enrichment materials and distribute any available hotspots during the shutdown for the small percentage of students who do not have internet access of any kind at home.  Essentials functions at the district office continue.

But those operations are a far cry from a normal day in Santa Ana.  It felt a bit eerie riding through the city, practically by myself with exception to the light car traffic on the streets.  It was a sobering reminder of how central to life schools are in a place like Santa Ana.