Inside IUSD: Cyril Yu
Cyril Yu was elected to IUSD’s Board of Education in 2020. Photo credit IUSD.
Cyril Yu does not back down from a challenge. On the contrary, when difficulties arise, he heads right towards them. As the newest member of IUSD’s Board of Education, he recognized the immense uphill climb our school district was facing in 2020. Amid an unprecedented global pandemic, both as a community member and a school parent, he embraced the challenge.
“Having two kids in Irvine schools, one in hybrid for high school and then another in IVA [IUSD Virtual Academy], I had a pretty good handle on what our challenges were,” says Yu. “So I felt like it was a good time, based on the challenges that the district was facing, that I could contribute to IUSD in whatever way I could. That was really kind of the impetus for running.”
After being elected in November and sworn into office in December, Yu took it upon himself to gain deep insight into the district. He managed to visit every single Irvine school campus before the end of spring.
“I felt I needed to get a grip on what the district was like, because as a parent, you tend to only see your little slice of the district,” Yu says. “You know your elementary school, your junior high or high school and that little community, but you don't really get a bigger picture of the entire district. And so for me the important thing was really getting out to see every school. I managed to visit every campus.”
In addition to visiting each campus, Yu also delved into IUSD’s Central Kitchen and Maintenance and Operations in order to understand what our district needed most urgently. He also connected with IUSD’s Special Education Director. Immersing himself into every corner of the school district’s operations allowed Yu to understand IUSD’s most pressing needs.
“It was important to get a feel for what was happening across the entire district, especially seeing where some of those challenges were,” recalls Yu. “It gave me a ground-level perspective. When I share that perspective with board members and say, ‘This is what I'm hearing from the nurses or the students or the principals,’ I have credibility doing that because I've actually done the work.”
Reaching out to the district’s Central Kitchen helped Yu understand the importance of IUSD’s continual food service during the pandemic.
“In addition to producing thousands of meals that were served daily on IUSD’s campuses, the Central Kitchen produced over a thousand community meals for distribution to those students who were not on campus,” says Yu. “The Central Kitchen continued to prepare food for everybody, and that was a recognition of the unique challenges of the pandemic. It wasn't just affecting kids that were free and reduced lunch eligible. It was really affecting a broader swath of the community.”
This recognition of the community’s broader needs inspired the California state legislature to vote for all students in the state to be given free breakfast and lunch beginning with the 2022-23 school year (the Department of Agriculture is already paying for school meals for all students throughout the country for the 2021-22 school year). Yu feels this effort will help eliminate the issue of food insecurity among Irvine’s schools and across the country.
“It's a benefit to our students if they have full bellies and they're not worried about food, or having a hard time focusing in class,” explains Yu. “We don't want to have those problems.”
Yu recognizes that despite IUSD’s strengths, it faces many challenges for the coming year.
“The pandemic is evolving and changing, and so our highest priority is still providing a safe learning environment for our students, teachers and staff,” Yu explains. “We have tried to address learning loss through our summer recovery program. We also need to be mindful of the social and emotional issues. For example, for certain kids that have been just in a virtual environment, there's a lot of experiences that they haven’t had. Talking to principals and teachers, when they reopened last year, they saw some kids trying to figure out the rules of the playground.”
Yu sees a silver lining in those challenges.
“COVID had the ability to shine a spotlight on some of the challenges,” says Yu. “This is about continuing conversations about equity, not just equality, of what we provide but really equity in terms of making sure the kids that need a little more get the support that they need.”
As an optimistic Board of Ed member, Yu is positive about where IUSD is headed.
“Even though we live in a wonderful community, this pandemic hit our community in very different ways,” Yu says. “It’s important that we continue to identify where those gaps are. IUSD has done a really good job of trying to work on those issues. I think it’s important that we continue to do that.”
Yu believes IUSD’s strengths lie in its bright, resilient students and its dedicated, hardworking teachers and staff.
“I am just amazed by how our community rallied together to get through this year, despite all the ups and downs,” Yu says.
But, Yu adds, it was not just about Covid.
“I don't think I had a full appreciation of Irvine’s diversity until I moved here [from Pasadena],” says Yu. “People are so willing to share their cultures and experiences. It’s reflected in our classrooms and on our campuses, and how parents get involved. It’s really remarkable. That's what I love most about this particular community is the diversity and how this community comes together.”
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