One Latina’s Campaign to Turn Around a School

Because she has a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from Fresno State, the following year Edison asked her to serve as the curriculum specialist for all of their schools in California. At the end of that year the company decided to let go of the principal at Brentwood and tapped Espinosa to fill the role in the interim.

“It ended up being a fantastic job. We were able to hold onto every teacher that was asked back that year. I definitely learned a lot,” she says.

At the end of that year, Edison Learning decided it could no longer make a profit on most California schools and pulled out of its role of managing charter schools, including Brentwood. So the school returned to the district and Espinosa stayed on the help manage the transition.

Multilingual and Multicultural

Now in her fourth year as a principal, Espinosa recognizes the important role her background played in shaping her as an educator and administrator. She grew up in Gilroy, Calif., the garlic capitol of the world. The community is bilingual. Her background is multilingual and multicultural. The daughter of a Mexican father and Norwegian and Scottish mother, Espinosa recalls spending Christmases in Mexico but also doing Scottish Highland dancing at the Highland Games. She also attended Norwegian language camps. “We were involved in all three cultures quite a bit,” she says of herself and brother Sid, former mayor of Palo Alto.

However, it is to her Mexican roots that she feels most close. “My dad is first generation. He moved here when he was 23. It was a little easier to make that link, especially since we’re in California and there are so many people who are from Mexico,” she explains.

And that connection serves her well in her Brentwood position. She believes mono-lingual educators approach teaching English learners differently. “It’s a little bit easier for me to relate with parents and with students who have more than one language in their home and in their community. I think that helps me not only as an educator but as a fellow adult with multilingual families even though I’m not completely bilingual,” Espinosa adds.

Getting Her ‘Kid Fix’

For the short term, she is content to work, with the help of the school’s staff, toward her goal of surpassing the 800 mark, but once that’s done, she really wants to get her “kid fix” back in the classroom. “I love teaching. I’m truly an educator at heart,” Espinosa concludes.

In part two of this two-part series, Espinosa shares her thoughts on how to help Latino children do well inside the classroom, which ultimately sets them up to succeed in life.