Appreciative feelings are mutual between Eliot students and
their classroom volunteer Francis Saldate
Gilroy – Francis Saldate’s iron level is low; her kidneys are failing.
Early Wednesday, she spent the morning at the doctor’s office, receiving that necessary iron through a needle. But as soon as her medical needs were met, Saldate headed over to her grandson’s classroom at Eliot Elementary School, where she can be found every week, regardless of her physical condition.
“I don’t think about that stuff,” she said. “I just come here and work.”
That “stuff” is the many afflictions Saldate, “Nana” to the second graders and their teacher Cheri Foster, suffers as a result of diabetes. She often gets tired, is confined to a wheelchair after losing one of her legs to the disease and because of her cataracts has to use a magnifying glass to read.
“Christopher tells me, ‘you better rest, we have to go to work tomorrow,'” Saldate said.
It was last year, at Eliot’s open house – when Foster said she could always use extra help in the classroom – that Saldate’s ears perked up. The grandmother offered her time and Foster took her up on it.
And the teacher, who emphasized that she’s super picky about who works with her students, said she was ecstatic to quickly see that Saldate’s demeanor is calm, collected and kind.
Those characteristics were definitely on display recently as the Gilroy native helped three students with math.
“Where is the bar graph, Milly?” she asked one pony-tailed girl.
When Milly pointed to the page with some uncertainty Saldate said, “You need to be very specific and focus, dear.”
The classroom volunteer explained that students learn best through repetition and patience. Saldate and her grandson show up together every Wednesday. First thing in the morning she files student work and parent letters into the children’s little cubbies.
The rest of the day she usually spends working with small groups of students who need extra help in reading, writing or math. And it’s obvious the students love the 63-year-old’s visits.
“I think she really loves being here and it’s contagious,” Foster said. “We love her.”
The tots refer to Wednesdays as “Happy Nana Day.” A poster secured to the wall in the front of the classroom labeled “Nana’s Gift,” details how the class has spent the $90 cash donation she made.
“So for us that’s like a million,” Foster said.
The kids have bought hot cocoa, calculators and books, it reveals. They have $51 left which the kids plan to use on their upcoming trip to Children’s Discovery Museum in San Jose.
Although Saldate is a novelty in Foster’s classroom, she isn’t a novice to education.
While living in Modesto she worked in the special education department and in Gilroy as a classroom aide at Rucker Elementary School. And as the mother of four and grandmother of eight, she’s seen her fair share of classroom interiors.
Saldate and her husband are raising Christopher, a fourth-generation Eliot student. For Christopher, a cheery student who both Saldate and Foster said excels in the classroom, seeing his grandma every at school ever Wednesday, is quite the treat.
“I like my Nana because she has pride in all of us,” the 8-year-old said.
Kimberly Torres Cortes, 7, appreciates Saldate’s dedication, despite her disability.
“I like Nana because she helps a lot and even though she’s in a wheelchair she still comes to school to help us,” she said.
To Clara Cortez, a talkative and energetic 7-year-old wearing a playful T-shirt with the words ‘blah, blah, blah,’ on the back, Saldate is the classroom benefactor.
“Well, every time Miss Foster goes out Nana keeps us company and she even gives us nice things like this sticker,” Clara Cortez said pointing to the small green heart she affixed to her face.
For Saldate it’s pretty simple and straightforward. During the years she spent outside of the classroom she missed seeing the children’s smiles, the happiness they elicit when they manage to figure out a math problem or correctly pronounce a word.
“Just to see their faces when they get a problem they have worked on for a half hour,” she said.
