The Governing Board is primarily responsible for decision-making concerning the operations of Voices College-Bound Language Academy.
Frances Teso (President): Mrs. Teso holds a Bachelor of Science in Child Development and a Masters of Elementary Education from San Jose State University. Her graduate work focused on studying the effects of language, culture and society on schooling. In particular her research examined a new transformational model for staff development. Mrs. Teso is a National Board Certified Teacher committed to serving children in urban school settings. She has worked as a principal coach, elementary school administrator, instructional facilitator and Dual Immersion teacher. Mrs. Teso has been married to her fabulous husband Greg for 14 years and has three young sons.
Nick Meier (Secretary): Mr. Meier is currently a professor of education at California State University, Monterey Bay. He previously taught as a lecturer at San Jose State University. He received his PhD. (2005) from Stanford University, his Masters in Teacher Leadership (1998) at San Jose State University , and his B.A. in Psychology (1984) and Teaching Credential (1985) from the University of California at Santa Cruz. Mr. Meier spent 14 years as an elementary teacher working with predominantly minority students in bilingual settings in Hollister, Oakland, Salinas, and San Jose, California. His present research is in the area of teacher collaboration and teacher professional communities.
Alice Miller (Treasurer): Ms. Miller is a co-founder of California's first charter school, the San Carlos Learning Center, and a founder of two charter high schools. Ms. Miller worked for the California Network of Educational Charters from 1996-2003, and most recently was CAENC's Bay Area Region Coordinator. She was also the Administrator and CFO for Aurora High School. Currently Ms. Miller is the director of Knowledge Management for the California Charter School Association. She is married to her highschool sweetheart, is the proud mother of three sons and bakes a mean apple pie.
Cathy Holley (Trustee): Ms. Holley, lifetime resident of San Jose, earned her undergraduate degree at the University of California Santa Barbara culminating with a Speech and Language Pathologist graduate degree and education credential from San Francisco state University. Cathy's public elementary career spanning twenty years started as a speech and language therapist and has evolved to specializing in early literacy acquisition. She has led seminars for elementary teachers focusing on oral language development within the mainstream classroom. Cathy was wholeheartedly involved in the development of Sherman Oaks Community Charter School, a Spanish/English dual immersion school in the Campbell Union School District and the first elementary charter school in Santa Clara County. Cathy plays guitar in her church's folk group, leads a monthly book club, and enjoys life's adventures with her partner Peggy and 19 year old son, Chris.
Maribel Martinez (Trustee): Ms. Martinez, a San Jose native, earned her undergraduate degree from San Jose Sate University in Political Science and Sociology. While at SJSU Ms. Martinez was highly involved in student and community organization; often creating innovative partnerships and diversity awareness programs. Those experiences propelled her to create youth leadership curricula focused on social justice and change. Mostly recently, she coached parents in east San Jose to advocate for new small learning communities in their school district. Maribel plays guitar and enjoys writing poetry and performance pieces.
Alica Henderson (District-Trustee):
Ruth Strickland (Parent-Trustee):
Rebecca Hernandez (Parent-Trustee):