After interviewing each candidate for an hour on Tuesday, Douglas County School Board trustees offered the superintendent’s position to John Ramirez Jr. in a 4-3 vote despite public opposition. Trustees David Burns, Katherine Dickerson, Susan.
Relying on Community Values: How One School Leader Advocates for Vulnerable Families 7 min read
Carissa Purnell, director of the Family Resource Centers for Alisal Union School District in Salinas, Calif., provides essential services and critical information to vulnerable families.Nic Coury for Education Week
Carissa Purnell
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Growing up in a large Filipino immigrant family in Sacramento, Calif., Carissa Purnell didn’t feel like she really fit into the local community. But that changed in 2010 when she started teaching English at a library in Salinas, Calif., while she was in graduate school.
“It just felt like home as soon as I got here,” Purnell said of Salinas, a city roughly two hours south of San Francisco where nearly 80 percent of the residents are Hispanic.