Michael Matsuda has long believed in the power of public education. But the long-serving Anaheim Union High School District superintendent also knows, from his own family’s experience, how institutions can fail the marginalized.
In 1942, Matsuda’s mother, Ruth Ikeda, was a 14-year-old freshman at Anaheim High when she and her family were sent to a Japanese internment camp during World War II. There, she met Matsuda’s father, who had been forced to leave Huntington Beach High after also being detained by the U.S. government.
Decades later, Matsuda would go on to lead the district his mother was forced to leave behind, even using his family’s experiences to reach students.
Now, after more than 20 years in the district — including 11 as its superintendent — Matsuda is days from celebrating his last first day of school, having announced he’ll step down at the end of the year.
He hopes, he said, he’s leaving the district with a stronger foundation for equity and opportunity — one that meets students where they are and prepares them for the world beyond the classroom.
For Matsuda, that work is deeply personal. His push for equity stems from his family’s internment during World War II.
After the war, his parents tried to resettle in Orange County but were repeatedly denied housing because they were Japanese American, he said. Many landlords refused to rent to those returning from the camps, compounding a postwar housing shortage with discrimination.
Eventually, a family in Garden Grove agreed to rent to them, he said. Matsuda’s parents named their son Michael Bert Matsuda after that couple, Michael and Bertha Andres.
Life lessons in the classroom
He’s used his family’s internment story to shape lessons inside and outside the classroom.
In 2015, the district launched its first ethnic studies elective at Loara High School, a yearlong course examining how race, ethnicity, nationality and culture shape identity, covering topics such as immigration, the Civil Rights Movement, the treatment of Native Americans by European settlers and race relations in both Orange County and Anaheim.
Matsuda said at the time: “Ethnic studies is close to my heart because we should be able to tell our kids the entire American story.”
In 2019, Matsuda helped host “The Poston Experience, Paving the Way for the Next Generation,” a panel discussion at Anaheim High featuring Japanese Americans who had been incarcerated at the Colorado River Relocation Center in Yuma County, Arizona, commonly known as Poston, for more than three years during World War II. The event kicked off an exhibit at the nearby Muzeo Museum chronicling life before, during and after incarceration, featuring artifacts, photos and memorabilia from 13 local families.
Matsuda also took two busloads of the district’s students to Manzanar in 2017 for the 75th anniversary of Executive Order 9066, which authorized the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. He hoped the visit would offer a lesson in history — the students also taught him one.
Inside a reconstructed barrack, one student remarked that it looked “pretty nice.”
Matsuda asked what he meant.
“Mr. Matsuda, at least they had a place to sleep. I sleep with my brother on the garage floor,” Matsuda recalled the student replying.
“It was heartwrenching,” Matsuda said. “I mean, I knew that schools were sometimes the only safe places for our kids, right? So that was a wake-up for me.”
For Matsuda, the moment was a stark reminder of how institutions, when disconnected from the realities of students’ lives, can fail to serve those who need them most. He said it crystallized what he had already come to believe: that schools must do more than deliver traditional academics; they need to create real pathways to opportunity.
“That whole experience … What does it mean? Where we have this gap between the haves and have-nots growing, in this society, I think schools are still the way forward for so many kids, where they can see and dream and think bigger than where they’re from,” he said.
The Anaheim Union High School District sits in the “shadow of the Happiest Place on Earth,” Matsuda noted of the Disneyland theme park less than 4 miles from his office. Yet it has “kids that have never been to the beach,” and certainly, “a number of students who can never afford to go to Disneyland.”
Of the district’s roughly 27,000 students, most are low-income and Hispanic. Nearly 75% are considered socioeconomically disadvantaged — eligible for free or reduced-price meals or with parents who did not graduate from high school, according to the California School Dashboard.
And while the district is home to Oxford Academy, where Matsuda once taught honors English and which is consistently ranked one of the top high schools in California and even the country, there are multiple campuses where most students score below proficiency levels on state assessments.
Matsuda, a founding member of the Closing the Orange County Latino Achievement Gap initiative and a former advisor to the California Board of Education on English learner policy, also co-authored civil rights curriculum on Mendez v. Westminster. He said addressing that disparity starts with recognizing the barriers students face and building pathways that help them move forward, both in and beyond school.
“There’s certainly, I think, a growing mismatch between focusing on traditional academic metrics and the skills that are needed to succeed in college and careers,” Matsuda said. “We are focused on emotional and relational development … the ability to collaborate and communicate, think creatively, critical thinking and compassion. Those are arguably a lot harder to teach than traditional metrics.”
“I think we’ve been pretty consistent about our vision in this district, and it really comes down to preparing young people for meaningful jobs and careers based on their own purpose, right? Their calling,” Matsuda said. “I think that we have evolved as a district focused on meaningful, applied problem solving.”
In recent years, Matsuda led the district through the COVID-19 pandemic, navigating community concerns around returning to in-person instruction during early surges in cases. He also faced criticism for a letter of recommendation written for a Kennedy High School principal who, according to police, failed to report sexual misconduct allegations involving a water polo coach as required by law.
Matsuda said he is unable to comment on personnel matters, per district instructions.
He has also been guiding the district through declining enrollment, which he said could worsen at the start of the school year as some students stay home out of fear of immigration raids.
In 2024, the district considered but ultimately canceled more than 100 teacher layoffs in response to financial constraints and to right-size staffing in relation to current enrollment levels, also pressures behind a plan to consolidate Orangeview Junior High and Western High School into a new campus serving seventh through 12th grades. The newly merged school opens its doors this week.
Reimagining what school could be
The idea of widening the “aperture of possibility” for students, especially for those experiencing poverty, homelessness or struggling with traditional academics, became a driving force behind many of the district’s initiatives under Matsuda.
Under Matsuda’s leadership, the district developed a new educational approach known as the Career Preparedness Systems Framework, created in partnership with higher education institutions, private companies and nonprofits. One of the most notable programs to come out of that effort is AIME (Anaheim Innovative Mentoring Experience), which connects students with real-world mentors across government, nonprofit, and industry sectors.
Launched in response to student unrest over police shootings and limited opportunities in East Anaheim, AIME has since grown to offer paid internships and mentorships to thousands of students, with more than 120 businesses and organizations now participating.
“Students were really upset about the lack of jobs,” Matsuda said. “There were 10 generational gangs in East Anaheim. They felt they didn’t have that many options, and they wanted more options. And hence, that’s really what started the AIME program.”
Lorena Moreno, co-principal of the new Orangeview-Western campus and spouse of former Anaheim Councilmember Jose Moreno, said AIME and other district programs have made a real impact.
“For me, personally, Mr. Matsuda has really been a mentor and supporter of our work,” she said. “He definitely has an eye on equity for students and education. All of the programs that come in through our district is to support our marginalized students and our students of color and to provide all students access to resources and opportunities that are otherwise hard for them to have.”
She noted that 85% of students at Western High receive free or reduced-price lunch and said Matsuda’s leadership has helped align the district’s focus on “educating the whole child.”
“Two of our students that were part of our Simon Builders Program through our construction career pathway got hired in the construction business right after high school,” she said. “They received their OSHA certification and they were able to be hired right away.”
A cybersecurity pathway launched by the district in 2017 has also opened doors for students to land high-paying jobs right out of high school. Matsuda said some students whose parents worked as day laborers at Home Depot are now thinking about careers in cybersecurity or biotech, taking dual credit courses through community college and graduating into well-paying jobs.
“I think what we’re doing is sort of reverse engineering for jobs. I meet with HR directors, I meet with CEOs in Orange County, we bring in the community college folks and our high school folks, and we reverse engineer dual enrollment and pathways into that sector,” Matsuda said. “Our kids are getting jobs at Hulu with a high school diploma and dual credit from community colleges, and they’re starting at $65,000 to $75,000.”
“Of course, with the option of going to UCI, but I think it’s showing that we’re giving kids meaningful options where they can end up with meaningful jobs.”
Matsuda also led the district to launch the Anaheim Union Educational Pledge, a partnership that links AUHSD with local community colleges and universities. The pledge includes free tuition for district graduates who attend Cypress College or Fullerton College with plans to transfer to UCI. In return, UCI guarantees admission to those students who meet transfer requirements.
According to UCI, students from Anaheim Union High School District tend to stay in college longer and earn higher grades on average compared to students from other school districts.
During the pandemic, Matsuda also led the creation of the Magnolia Agriscience Community Center, a 2.5-acre urban agriculture project designed to address nutrition and food insecurity and provide outdoor learning opportunities.
“That farm is dedicated to solving food deserts in America,” Matsuda said. “Now we have kids with AI creating apps to identify organic food in your neighborhood. That’s learning how to monetize that problem. That’s the entrepreneurship that we want to open up with young people.”
Asked what’s next, Matsuda said he’s open to possibilities — maybe even politics — but plans to take time off first.
“I want to continue this work that I’m doing, but on a larger scale,” he said.
He offered this advice for his successor: Build trust, lean into innovation and always remember who schools are meant to serve.
“We have focused on making school work for the student and not the other way around,” Matsuda said. “Because I think too often it’s the other way around, where school is something done to students.”