By Daniel Wilson

May 06, 2025

“Smell the cookies,” a student-leader instructs, prompting the students gathered on the Washington Elementary School blacktop to inhale during a morning yoga pose.

“Blow out the candles,” the leader instructs as the group exhales and transitions to a new pose.

After yoga comes light exercise, with kids running to the fence and back or wiggling and dancing. Then it’s time for community circles, where students and teachers gather to check in with each other. One student shares that she cleaned her room the night before, while others mention a recent accomplishment in class or share something they’re excited to do over the weekend.

The morning routine at the school in Sacramento’s Alkali Flat neighborhood prepares TK-6 students for the day as part of a focus on social and emotional learning, said principal Gema Godina ’99 (Sociology); MA ’07 (Multicultural Education); Ed.D. ’10.

“I knew we wanted to do yoga because you see how kids come in and yoga is so settling,” said Godina, who also earned teaching credentials from Sacramento State in 2001 and 2006.

Godina was brought in to reopen – and reimagine – Washington Elementary in 2016, just three years after it was closed due to budget issues. Under her leadership, the campus is thriving.

Sac State, she said, prepared her well for her career.

“It's where my mentors were. It's where the professors that I knew and loved were,” said Godina, who added that education is always present for her as she spends time away from work participating in activities with her high school-age son. “Where else would I go but Sac State? That's home.”

Godina, who grew up in the region, has deep ties to the area's education system. She taught and served as vice principal during an 18-year tenure at C.K. McClatchy High School, from which she is also an alum.

“I feel like I'm a product of our community, and I work in the community that I grew up in,” she said.

Her ties to education in Sacramento go even deeper. From a young age, Godina knew she wanted to be an educator. Her mom taught elementary school and her father, Frank Godina, was a professor at Sac State.

“He was the first director of Chicano Studies at Sac State in the 1970s and so when I think about the legacy at Sac State with the founding members of the Royal Chicano Air Force, it's my history, it's Chicano history,” she said. “I think that played a very big part as to why I went to Sac State.”

The Royal Chicano Air Force (RCAF) was an art collective founded in 1969 by Sac State faculty and students, including Jose Montoya, Ricardo Favela and Esteban Villa. Based in Sacramento, the group advocated through art for Chicano rights and the labor movement of the United Farm Workers.

“With the community that I work in now at Washington Elementary School and the Washington Neighborhood Center, it's this full circle story, and legacy that I get to be a part of in my generation.”

A distinct feature of Washington Elementary, which shares a space with a well-maintained city park and neighbors historic Victorian-style homes, are the large, colorful murals that cover most of the campus’ walls and illustrate the school’s diverse cultures. They include several painted by the school’s students in partnership with Sac State’s Barrio Art in the Community class.

“I was looking for partnerships, and when I reached out to Gema, unknowing of her own history with Sac State, she welcomed the idea,” said Luis Garcia, assistant professor of Art Education at Sac State.

Garcia relaunched Barrio Art, which was created by Montoya, in 2022 after it lay dormant for more than a decade. Garcia and Godina connected over their shared histories.

In addition to the “La Lotería del Barrio” mural at the front of campus, the partnership has included art workshops, teacher professional development and various visits to both campuses by Sac State and Washington Elementary students, as well as field trips to local art venues.

“Although Gema is not necessarily an artist, she continues the work to support artists,” Garcia said. “For me this is why I say she continues that legacy that her father was a part of. She chooses to focus on the very same community that she came out of, and that's something that I admire about her. (She) advocates and dedicates so much time to making sure that new generations have other forms of accessibility that previous generations didn't have.”

The murals are an example of how Godina and her staff are creating an equitable, diverse environment to instill a sense of leadership, community and culture in the students.

“It’s a vibe. It’s still school, it’s elementary school … we’re doing it a different way. We're bringing in our authentic selves and our backgrounds, I think that's why we have something that's unique.” -- Gema Godina, Washington Elementary School principal and Sac State alumna

While Godina emphasizes she works hard for all of her students, she is especially motivated to find ways to improve learning conditions, particularly for students from underserved communities.

One way Washington achieves that, she said, is through its partnership with the University’s College of Education. Sac State Child Development students participate in internships, working in classrooms at Washington to gain hands-on experience.

“We’re creating that pool of future educators that will come back into our community and giving them that insight into what it's like to be in a classroom,” said Godina, who was named a Sacramento Bee Latino Change Maker in 2023.

Godina’s transformation of Washington is nearly a decade in the making. She reopened the school in 2016 after it was shuttered along with six other campuses in 2013 as a result of budget issues and decreased enrollment in the Sacramento City Unified School District.

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“I remember getting the keys of the school when I was hired to come here after it had been closed for three years,” she said. “Just looking through the windows and just feeling like, ‘oh, man, my career is over. What did I do?’ ”

Godina was given about a year to reopen the school and worked with district officials to renovate, remodel and reimagine it as a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) school with a railroad theme.

The nontraditional classrooms are designed to be stimulating, comforting and welcoming. Each is named after a railroad car, tying them back to the school mascot: the locomotive, a play on the school’s STEAM focus.

Washington uses a project-based learning model, where students develop solutions to real-world problems in their communities. Past projects have included arcade games that were donated to Shriner’s Hospital, sustainable housing for the homeless, fundraising for a well in Nigeria and reimagining a stadium for the Sacramento Republic FC soccer team. Students present their projects each May at a community event featuring food trucks, student performances and more.

Godina said the biggest challenge to relaunching the school was getting the community back after it was split between two other campuses following Washington’s closure.

“It’s a vibe,” Godina said, describing the feeling one gets when walking the campus. “It’s still school, it’s elementary school … we’re doing it a different way. We're bringing in our authentic selves and our backgrounds, I think that's why we have something that's unique.”

Godina’s approach has been a success. As other schools have faced teacher shortages, the disruptions of the pandemic and other issues, Washington Elementary has quietly grown. The campus is almost at full capacity with 415 students.

At the end of the day, her passion is what shines through as she discusses her work with a constant smile on her face.

“I'm in a really good space here,” Godina said. “I love our community events; I love being with our families and just getting to joke with anybody. You have to have a really big sense of humor when you're working around kids every day. This is a beautiful community.”