Dan Minnie head custodian Hassani Craft says boys' mentoring program helped students gain independence

Hassani Craft, head custodian at Dan Minnie Elementary School, described how coaching a boys' mentoring program called Let Me Run has helped students build independence and social skills.

Craft said he has worked at the school for 13 years and that his connection to the campus runs deep: he attended the same school as a child and was encouraged into his current role by a former principal. "This is my thirteenth year, being a head custodian," he said. "I tie shoes. I walk kids to class. I sit down with kids, during lunch. I just I do it because I want to, because I like to is what I do."

The program, Craft said, is in its third season at the school. "It's 18 of us, and out of the 18 that we have, 10 of them are returns, from the previous 2 seasons," he told attendees, noting that a student (identified in his remarks as Dat Nguyen) prompted the school's boys' program after asking why he could not participate. Craft described Let Me Run as "the equivalent to Girls on the Run."

Craft offered a concrete example of the program's effects: a student he referred to as Jazz who previously needed one-on-one support and would become physically ill when anxious. "When he would get uptight, he would, get nauseous," Craft said. Over time, Craft said, the student progressed to the point where "now Jazz catches the bus school by himself. He gets home by himself. He tells his mom, 'don't worry. I got it.'" Craft presented the example as evidence of the mentoring program's contribution to students' self-sufficiency.

Beyond practice sessions, Craft described day-to-day mentoring that he said matters: noticing students who seem to be having a hard day, offering small gestures—"I get fist bumps"—and being a consistent presence so children "feel seen." He also described volunteering at the Special Olympics (which he referred to as the Bristol Olympics), helping pass out food and programs and maintaining long-term contact with participants and their families. "The Special Olympics was everything for her and her son," he quoted a parent as saying about the event's impact.

Craft framed his work as rooted in community reciprocity: he said he was "born and raised" locally and feels he "owe[s] the community who raised me just to give back some." He closed by urging listeners to value the district's schools and staff: "Look a little deeper into a Vallejo School District. Think VCUSD first, because we think about your kids first," he said.

No formal action or vote was reported in the transcript; Craft's remarks were a first-hand account of mentoring work and did not include proposals for district policy or funding. The program numbers he provided (third season, 18 participants, 10 returning) were cited by Craft and not corroborated elsewhere in the transcript.