I am the bilingual daughter of Mexican immigrants, with two bicultural daughters in Mountain View Whisman schools. I spent 20 years as a school principal, classroom teacher and instructional coach serving students and families in East Palo Alto. I am ready to put my experience to work as a Governing Board member. Here is my story.

I am the proud daughter of Mexican immigrants. Soy una hija orgullosa de inmigrantes Mexicanos.

My parents came to this country for the same reason that draws immigrants to the United States from around the world: the promise of a better life. My mother was an educator in Mexico and worked for the Capistrano Unified School District in Orange County. My dad owned a Texaco service station. Together they worked long hours to provide opportunity for me and my siblings. I graduated from UCLA with Bachelor’s degrees in history and economics, later earning my Teaching Credential from San Francisco State University and my Master’s in Educational Leadership and School Administration from San Jose State University.

My 20-year career in education has been dedicated to improving the lives of students and families, especially those that have too often been left behind.

I began my education career as a second grade teacher in East Palo Alto in 2000. Over 90% of the students at my school were from a socio-economically disadvantaged background; the overwhelming majority of my students were English language learners. Together we achieved great things, proving that your ZIP code or parents’ income level does not have to determine your future. I was deeply connected to my students and their families, and I still am. A note from one of my second graders at the time captures our relationship:

Dear Ms. Ramirez,

You are so nice to me. Every morning I see you and you say, “how are you?” You are like a mother to me. You are the best teacher I’ve ever had. You are so sweet and kind.

From your student,

Angelica G.

My leadership yielded exceptional results.

While I was principal at East Palo Alto Charter School, a K-8 public school, we ranked as one of the top-performing urban schools in the country. During my tenure, our school was ranked in the top 10% of similar schools in California every single year. Key to our success: high expectations, innovative practices, and a strong community. This video, recorded in 2010, gives an idea of my work as a school leader.

I have two beautiful daughters in a bicultural home.

My husband, Mike, is also a former educator who worked in East Palo Alto as a middle school teacher, high school administrator and college counselor. We have lived in Mountain View for nearly 15 years. Our world revolves around our two daughters, both of whom are enrolled at Gabriela Mistral Elementary School. We are deeply invested in the district and the broader community.

I have a taken a leadership role in our community and am ready to expand my impact, ensuring that all voices are included and heard.

I have put my experience to work for the benefit of my children and our entire school community. For the past three years, I have served as my daughter’s Girl Scout Troop leader. At Gabriela Mistral, I have volunteered as a room parent and Chair of our Walk-a-thon. I am currently our School Site Council President. In that role I ensure that all families—especially our Latinx population—feel safe, included, and heard.

More recently I have expanded the scope of my community involvement. I served as a Volunteer Co-Chair for this March’s Measure T School Bond campaign, which raised $259 million to fund improvements to school facilities and teacher housing. I currently serve on the district's Parcel Tax Oversight Committee.

It would be an honor to continue serving my community as a Governing Board member. I also believe it is important for our leaders to reflect the diversity of our community; my daughters and other children of color should see community leaders that look like them.

Learn more about me and what I can bring to this work at lauraramirezberman.com

What I’ve learned as a highly effective education leader, mother of two elementary school students, and active community member will inform my priorities on the Mountain View Whisman School Board. We must view all policies and practices through the lens of equity and inclusion. As a bilingual daughter of Mexican immigrants, I will ensure that all voices are heard. Most of all, I will keep our focus on getting results for students.

Narrow the achievement gap with rigorous, culturally responsive instruction for ALL students.

During my tenure at East Palo Alto Charter School, our school was known as one of the top urban schools in the country. In 2011, we ranked first among all schools in the state serving a similar population. We achieved these results by raising expectations across the board and innovation in data-driven instruction, education technology, and STEAM. Fully implementing research-based, culturally responsive teaching practices in MVWSD will allow us to promote engagement, instructional rigor and academic growth, which will benefit ALL students and narrow the achievement gap.

Foster a resilient learning community through best practices in equity, inclusion, social-emotional learning, and mental health.

Education expert Zaretta Hammond states, “relationships are as important as the curriculum,” since they are “the foundation of all social, political and cognitive endeavors.” Especially in today’s environment, as we struggle with systemic injustice and a global pandemic, students must have the support they need to thrive as learners, and as people. This means investing in mental health services and social-emotional learning as foundational elements of our instructional program. We must rigorously examine data to surface and address disparities, and equip all district staff with the tools and training to build a strong, inclusive culture that celebrates diversity.

Attract, develop and retain exceptional staff members from diverse backgrounds.

Research clearly shows that teacher effectiveness has an enormous impact on student learning and growth. We must recruit talented professionals to lead our schools and classrooms, compensate them generously, and equip them with resources and professional development to ensure their success. Research also demonstrates the positive impact of a diverse teacher corps on all students. We must adopt and implement policies that attract diverse talent and ensure that our community is a place where great teachers and administrators want to stay.

Plan thoughtfully for our future.

As a school principal, I set and managed the budget for my school site. My tenure as principal coincided with the Great Recession, so I had to make hard choices. My guiding principles were: 1) students are the center of every decision, 2) analyze the data – everything is subject to rigorous scrutiny so that we can maximize impact and efficiency, 3) decisions are informed by impact we want to make, not by how things have been done in the past, and 4) think long-term – we should consider the impact of our decisions on our students, our team, and the environment over the course of time. 

I will bring this mindset to the important work of planning for the long-term success and stability of our district, especially as we spend our Measure T bond funds and look to grow in North Bayshore. Schools are the foundation of a thriving community - they need to be foundational to our city’s growth plans, not an afterthought. I will foster strong relationships with our city council, staff, and private sector partners to ensure that our school district has a prominent place at the table as we chart the future of our city.

Learn more about my experience and positions on my blog at lauraramirezberman.com.

Like most teachers, I've taught remotely since March. I also led a summer in-person pilot course to test COVID-19 procedures for reopening. I have created remote teaching training materials watched by thousands of teachers.

Where I've Taught 
Keys School (Middle School)
Hillbrook School (Middle School)
Khan Lab School (Middle School)
Sacred Heart Schools (Middle School)
Kehillah Jewish High School
Monta Vista High School (FUHSD)
Arcadia High School (AUSD)
Seward Park High School (NYCDOE)

SEL Certifications
-Department of Defense Military Family -Teacher Support Teacher Residency
-Responsive Classroom (Elem School) Level 1 SEL Certification
-Developmental Design (Middle School) Level 1 SEL Certification
-RULER SEL Training (Marc Brackett)
-Maytiv Center Positive Psychology Teacher Certification (Tal Ben-Shahar)
-Challenge Day Teacher Facilitator
-Challenge Success/SOS MVHS Founding Taskforce Member

EdTech Certifications
-Google Certified Teacher
-Google Apps for Education Certified Trainer
(served as one of the first class pilots for Google Docs in 2007 and first pilots for Chromebooks in 2011, provided MVWSD its first training in Google Suite)
-Microsoft Innovative Educator
-PBS Digital Innovator
-Common Sense Media Certified Educator
-Code.org K-5 Computer Science Certified Trainer  

 I am running because of this crisis, and how it can be an opportunity for more progressive education.

I believe I bring unique value in my 16 years of teaching (twice teacher of the year), including teaching remotely from March to June, leading a pilot on in-person hybrid teaching this summer, and now teaching remotely again. Teachers see a growing disconnect from the challenges they and parents face and the school leaders making the decisions that affect their lives.

I am also an educational technologist who piloted the classroom use of Google Apps in 2007 and piloted Chromebooks in schools in 2011. I provided MVWSD it's first Google Apps training when it was a beta product over a decade back, and I am worried we aren't supporting our teachers now. I understand the proper and improper uses of these tools, and I worry the policymakers don't know enough. Ultimately, this mass expansion of technology can lead to more project-based learning. I don't yet see the district supporting teachers to make that evolution, and I worry we confuse online testing with online learning.

I am determined for MVWSD to elevate social-emotional learning to the same level as the other core subjects. I am a certified teacher in Responsive Classroom and trained in Ruler. My professor, Marc Brackett, who created Ruler is speaking at MVLA's speaker series. I'd highly recommend parents check out his event at LAHS on 10/29 or his book "Permission to Feel." As a middle school teacher, I led efforts to use restorative justice at Hillbrook School. I launched the Khan Lab School's first middle school program, and I now teach at Keys School, where my wife also teaches, and where our 4th-grade daughter attends.

I served as past board president, VP, and clerk for 3-years, and I believe the parents I worked with at that time can attest that I served with kindness and open engagement. I responded to every email and met with every group that had concerns, always with a desire to learn.

I don't hide my concern with many current board decisions. I believe MVWSD can be so much more than it is, and for this reason I run.

As 16-year residents of Mountain View, my wife and I have had kids in the Mountain View elementary and middle schools for the last 9 years (and still counting).   I served as the School Site Council Chair at Monta Loma Elementary (2015-2017), focusing on addressing our achievement gap, improving academic performance, and implementing anti-bullying plans.  I served on District-wide facilities committees implementing Measure G improvements: the Board Facilities Committee (2013-2014) and District Facilities Committee (2015), taking a balanced view of priorities, driving recommendations within budget constraints, finding areas of consensus, and ensuring a minimum facilities standard was met across all schools.  With extensive work experience in strategy, operations, and project management, I will drive strong execution and fiscal discipline to see us through the impacts of COVID-19 and still reward our teachers for the great work they do.  I am passionate about laying the foundations for academic excellence in the early years of kids’ education, creating an inclusive culture, and ensuring MVWSD graduates are ready for both scholastic and socio-emotional success in high school.

Growing up in Massachusetts in one of the top public school districts in the state, my family sought out opportunities to do more for our schools, and I learned at a very young age what it meant to do special events, be an activist in the community, teach, and help run a school district.  Whether it was creating and teaching a 3rd grade computer programming class as a 5th grader, running off hundreds of flyers to protest proposed cuts to our music programs, creating new school policy as part of our high school student council, improving school pride as a leader of our marching band, building out a new school store for my Eagle Scout project, or interning for our superintendent, I sought out ways to be more involved and do more.

After graduating high school as the class valedictorian, I moved to California to attend Stanford University, earning a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and a M.S. in Materials Science & Engineering.  Along the way, I took jobs as a teaching assistant for undergraduate engineering classes and research assistant in the experimental physics lab.  I found ways to give back to the school through leadership roles for spirit events and musicals.  Following graduation I served as a fundraising lead and chair of an alumni advisory board, where I was closely involved in the search and hiring of a full-time Band Director.

Fast-forwarding to life as a Mountain View parent, I engaged in the debate over Measure G facilities priorities and successfully pushed for the prioritization of the auditorium construction at Graham and Crittenden.  I pushed back on community-impacting concepts like two-story school buildings in the Monta Loma neighborhood, helped build consensus for moving forward on elementary school improvements that brought our schools to a more consistent standard, and presented the final recommendations of the District Facilities Committee to the Board.  With two years leading the Monta Loma School Site Council and leadership roles on eight annual Walk-a-Thons under my belt, I've enjoyed giving back to our neighborhood school - and take great pride in being married to a former PTA president, historian, vice president, and parliamentarian who has has left her own mark at Monta Loma.

I have 22 years of experience working in Silicon Valley in a variety of fields including business operations, product development, manufacturing equipment development, sales & marketing, and strategy.  This has included experience in contract negotiation, management of large capital and direct spending budgets, project management, communications, effective meetings, diversity & inclusion programs, leader recruiting, and performance management - experience that can complement the other skills we have on the MVWSD board and help our district operate better.  Having managed teams and guided large organizations during good times and challenging times, I've learned how to apply the right tools for the situation and how to make the tough calls.

As a technology innovator with multiple patents and other contributions which have advanced the state of technology in our world, I'm excited to help keep innovation alive within our district.  We can look for new ways to use technology to make our schools better; having personally worked on developing education technology hardware for classrooms in bandwidth-constrained regions, I have direct experience with understanding school technology needs and limitations.  Having someone with a broad-based technology background on the board can help provide the right level of sponsorship and oversight as creativity, entrepreneurship, and the state of technology continue to evolve in Silicon Valley.

I started playing alto saxophone in the 5th grade, and helped grow a resurgent public school music program, including teaching music lessons to other students, serving as drum major for my high school band, and having a front-row seat to what it takes to rebuild and grow music in schools.  Music is now my very enjoyable 37-years-and-counting hobby and service opportunity.  This has included competitive marching, jazz, and concert band, college band, arranging and composing music for the field, the arena, the stage, and clubs.  I currently play trumpet in a local soul/funk band (we are on hiatus right now due to COVID-19), and am helping raise a violin player.  Along the way, I've gained an appreciation for what it takes to strengthen and grow performing arts programs, and the importance of elementary and middle school programs in starting people down a path that includes music and the arts.