Retired Tacoma superintendent urges stronger mentorship, empowerment for women in schools

Carla Santorno, retired superintendent of Tacoma Public Schools, said she recognized her aptitude for teaching as a child and urged school leaders to do more to mentor and promote women into leadership roles.

"My mom told me that I was a quintessential teacher from the beginning," Santorno said in remarks recorded in the meeting transcript. She described teaching neighborhood children in her basement and recalled neighbors asking, "when's Carla gonna go do school?"

Santorno said opportunities were limited when she was growing up. "My mom wanted me to be everything I could be, but there weren't a lot of opportunities for a young black woman at the time. And they were pretty much, you're gonna be a teacher or you were gonna be a nurse," she said.

She framed women's history as an integral part of American and world history and pointed to the influence of women who have pursued justice and equality. "We need to celebrate and reflect on what we can do to inspire, empower, look at the resilience of women," Santorno said. She added that Black women principals in Tacoma sent her a photograph of themselves together and described that mutual support as enriching women’s history and strengthening local schools.

"We just we don't mentor enough," Santorno said, urging existing leaders to identify and support teachers and staff with leadership potential. She described the need for more active encouragement in schools: "We should be watching students that are in the classroom, we should be watching teachers that are starting ... and tapping them on the shoulder and say, you know, what else do you want to do? Let me help you."

Santorno said she fought for opportunities to be a principal and administrator and advocated for systems that make those pathways easier for others. "I want to be that person that is, part of the machinery that gets women, you know, moving toward their passion and what they wanna do," she said.

The remarks are a personal appeal highlighting mentorship, representation and informal networks among Tacoma educators rather than a proposal tied to a specific board action or policy change.