Clutching a notebook and three sharpened pencils, Principal Coralia Barraza smoothly zigzags around the piles of books and huddles of students in the halls of the Orozco Fine Arts & Sciences Elementary. It’s not quite 9 a.m., but she has already held one meeting some 90 minutes ago and her day is in high gear.
Barraza stands just 4 feet 9 inches tall, but her voice carries over the banging locker doors as middle-grades students rush to their first class: “Good morning. How are you? Don’t leave anything on the floor.” She strides down the corridor, speaking to the students in a mix of English and Spanish common in the school’s Pilsen neighborhood: “Rapidito! Vamonos!” (Quickly! Let’s go!) In between, she greets teachers. She walks up to one woman, rubs her pregnant belly and shares a laugh; she tells another teacher that she is happy to meet with her later in the week; she picks up a pencil that an instructor has accidentally dropped...