5C Founders: Leader and Challenge-Seeker Alton Nelson

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Alton Nelson, Jr. is the CEO of Making Waves, now in his 12th year at the school. His many accomplishments in education include founding a charter school in Sacramento, serving as the founding principal of the Making Waves Academy upper school, and being named the California Charter School Association (CCSA) 2022 School Leader of the Year for Northern California.

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Now he’s helping launch a new organization called 5C: Contra Costa County Charter Coalition, which is working to uplift family voice in education and civic decision-making processes, and unite the county charter community.

“We really want parents to be central to these discussions about what happens to charter schools – and how to support charter schools – because parents are the ones who are making the decision to send their children to our schools,” Alton said. “They should be included.”

While he has now worked in charter schools for over 20 years, Alton didn’t always know he wanted to dedicate his life to education. That all changed when he was a college student at UCLA working at an outdoors summer camp with underserved kids from South Central and East LA.

“It was a camp started by UCLA students during the Great Depression, where you take a group of kids to go up to the mountains, camp for a week and just get away from the city so they can be kids,” Alton said. “I think a lot of us (camp counselors) ended up going into education in some way, shape, or form.”

Alton was a co-counselor for a group of rambunctious, tough, awkward 6th graders who were having difficulty following the rules. They complained about being at the camp and how much they hated it. But every night, Alton read African folktales to his campers. “It was the only time they were quiet,” Alton remembered. He could tell that something was resonating with them. By the time the week ended, the students were crying because they didn’t want to go home, and Alton had found his calling.

“I remember having a moment when I was like, ‘This feels like the right amount of everything I want,’” he said. “It’s fulfilling, it’s service, it’s challenging. It’s not something I can master overnight. And I just really like the energy of being with young people.”

After college, Alton worked for some education non-profits and an independent school, and went to grad school. While living in Chicago with his wife in the early 2000s, he heard about a year-long residency program started by KIPP where he would learn how to start a school. He chose South Sacramento because there were no schools of choice there at the time. He had his work cut out for him.  

“Charter schools were not as popular yet, and not as well known,” Alton said. “I had to do a lot of recruiting, going door-to-door, to supermarkets, street fairs, neighborhood block parties, just to get the word out about choice.”

By starting a school, Alton fulfilled a goal and a dream, while also seeing what was possible when you introduced the idea of “school choice” to a community.

“It was very rewarding to bring a school to a community that wanted something more, before it even knew it could have something more,” Alton said.

What initially attracted Alton to a career in education was the challenge – how can he help provide students with opportunities to improve their lives through education? “And I wanted more kids to be able to see leaders and teachers who look like me, in their classrooms, in their schools,” he said.

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“We know that access to education is a pretty good predictor of how kids can do in life. Any limitations on our ability to operate good and successful schools means there is less opportunity for students, families, and communities that are underserved.”

‍-Alton Nelson, Jr

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Alton continued to seek out challenges, and was drawn to Richmond where he became the founding principal of the Making Waves Academy upper school in 2011. He enjoyed the start-up feel of building something new, something that will last.

“I have always believed that great schools are the anchors of communities,” Alton said. “And in order for that to be true for more families, it is important that they have a school in the community where they live.”

In his time working in charter schools, Alton watched as charters went from unknown to “politicized” by detractors who want to preserve the status quo even if it means Black and Brown students don’t get a quality education. He said charter school families often don’t know that public officials make political decisions that greatly impact their school, including keeping it open or shutting it down. Not knowing excludes them from the conversation about their child’s education.

“Many of us who are leaders in West Contra Costa agreed and thought it was important that family voice be a part of that conversation,” Alton said.

Alton said the five founding organizations of 5C have been collaborating for years, building community with one another and building momentum to work on something collectively. He hopes that 5C will be able to unite all Contra Costa County charter schools to support one another and not be isolated, while amplifying parent voice and their power. “Making sure parents are able to participate in this process is the focal point,” he said.

Protecting school choice for Contra Costa County families is vital, Alton said. Just as with the students he worked with at the summer camp in his UCLA days, Alton knows how important a good education is to a person’s life trajectory.

“We know that access to education is a pretty good predictor of how kids can do in life,” Alton said. “Any limitations on our ability to operate good and successful schools means there is less opportunity for students, families, and communities that are underserved.”

“We know the stakes are high,” he said. “And we really, really, really are committed passionately to making sure that this door to opportunity stays open for families.”

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