Lorena Hernández urges Vallejo school district to prioritize bilingual, multicultural education

Lorena Hernández, director of the Academia de Lenguaje CAVE, recounted her decades of experience teaching in the city and urged the Vallejo school district to prioritize multicultural, bilingual education.

Hernández said she moved to Vallejo to be near her parents and to work in a community that reminded her of the multicultural neighborhood where she grew up in San Francisco. "Hola, soy Lorena Hernández, la directora de la Academia de Lenguaje CAVE," she told listeners, framing her remarks around long-term local ties and professional development.

Hernández said she has "25 años en educación" and described a career path that began without advanced degrees, teaching second grade and advancing with district-supported development to teach up through fifth grade. She credited local school leaders with supporting her transition from teacher to director and with asking her to open a school focused on multilingual instruction.

Explaining the program's approach to language, Hernández said it emphasizes literacy in students' first languages to support learning a second language: "usar tu primer idioma para apoyar el segundo, sea inglés, sea español, sea de otros idiomas." She argued that bilingualism and multicultural education give students tools to communicate and to connect communities.

As an example of the program's practical effect, Hernández described a former student who sent a letter and photograph after graduating. She said the student was not Latino and that the student's mother appeared to be Filipino; the student wrote that she "usó su español para apoyar un migrante de Guatemala." Hernández said that exchange made her emotional and illustrated how the school opened opportunities for students to help others and advance.

Hernández framed her work as rooted in the community: she said she has been linked to Vallejo since 2001 and called it her responsibility to support local children. She closed by asking listeners to "piensen en el distrito escolar de Vallejo primero," urging the district to keep multicultural, bilingual programs central to its priorities.

There were no formal motions, votes, or policy actions recorded in this transcript. The remarks functioned as a personal testimony and appeal for continued district attention to bilingual and multicultural education.