Diversity and Equity Champion

2021-22 Diversity and Equity Champion:

Sary Portillo, Newcomer Youth and Family Advocate

While Sary’s position supports secondary schools, she is consistently going above and beyond. Sary collaborates outside of her specific school assignments to work with family outreach liaisons and schools across the district to build capacity and create equitable opportunities for our students across the district. 

One of the key ways that Sary works to support students and families that are new to our country includes taking the lead in the implementation of the newcomer intake process, which welcomes and builds wrap-around support for newcomer families to our district. She continually advocates for equitable pathways to graduation for our new arrivals and initiates conversations with admin and counselors to determine pathways and the best scheduling options for students. Sary has hosted parent education nights, FAFSA nights, high school credit, and transcript nights. She has distributed resources, materials, and supplies to families of new arrivals and completed countless home visits welcoming families into our district and community. 

Sary has offered extensive community-building opportunities and events for the students who are new arrivals. She also recently organized an Afghan Mother’s Tea at the Educational Support Center. Sary drove from house to house to pick up participants and arranged for child care for preschool-aged children. The mothers were thankful to have a space to share their stories, including stories about Sary’s home visits. One mother said “We are so thankful for Sary. I can only hope my daughters grow up to be like her.”