Alumni Spotlight - Issue 13 - ExLA

Sarah Popek was born in St. Paul, Minnesota. At an early age, she knew that she wanted to become an elementary school teacher. She created a school in the basement of her childhood home, providing lessons to her younger brother and sister on the weekends, using materials from her retired first grade teacher and spending her allowance at the local teacher store. Years later, she attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, earning a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education and a minor in Spanish. Not wanting to start as a substitute in Minnesota, the usual route to a teaching job in the smaller districts that surrounded her hometown, she accepted an offer from the Clark County School District in 2001, having never been to Las Vegas.

She began as a Second Grade teacher at Marion E. Cahlan-Edison Elementary School, eventually becoming the Dance and Drama Specialist, a Learning Strategist, and then the Technology Integration Specialist, before being named the Assistant Principal of the school. After serving at Cahlan-Edison for nine years, she spent two years at Dusty Dickens Elementary School, before being named the Principal of Myrtle Tate Elementary School in 2012.

As evidenced in her employment history as an educator, her passion is working with students in at-risk neighborhoods, not only providing them with a quality education, but also giving them opportunities that they might not otherwise have. Here are some of the initiatives and programs she has implemented:

• Zoom Schools: As one of the original Zoom Schools, Myrtle Tate Elementary School has provided Pre-K for all zone students, full-day Kindergarten with a 21:1 student-teacher ratio, a Reading Center designed to provide ELL students with language and literacy support, and an extended school year of 15 additional instructional days in the summer. Tate ES served as a model Zoom School, hosting site visits for the State Superintendent of Schools, Nevada Legislators, Nevada Assemblymen, and other international, national, and local visitors who are interested in the Zoom School model.
• TIGER Club: In 2014, she wrote a 21st Century Community Learning Center Grant, providing students with two hours of after school programming for about 250 students. Students participate in clubs such as intramurals, STEAM, student council, dance, cheer, robotics, Legos, and Disney Musical, followed by an hour of reading and math tutoring. Tate has been recognized as one the the top programs in Nevada and has continually received this funding because of the program’s success.
• REACH: In an effort to expose the most students to highly effective teachers, four teachers with a proven record of academic achievement and growth are involved in the REACH project. These teachers have higher student-teacher ratios, but are provided with an Instructional Assistant and a stipend for the responsibility of additional students. Over the course of the program, teachers in this program had more than double the proficiency rates in both reading and math on SBAC, despite the higher class numbers.
• Professional Learning: In order to ensure that all teachers participate in ongoing Professional Learning, teachers are compensated at their contracted rate of pay using Title I funding for one preparation period a week. During this period, they receive training as a grade level from the Administration, Learning Strategists, district supports, or other trainers on site-specific needs or initiatives. As a result, teachers benefit from approximately 40 hours of Professional Learning a year during the contracted day.
• BoysTown School Initiative: Recognizing the needs of an at-risk population, she collaborated with BoysTown Nevada to design and implement a grant funded initiative that provides direct support for families in need. In-Home Services provide students with behavioral concerns with six weeks of in-home support and counseling. Care Coordination assists families with economic concerns with access to resources as well as training on how to be more self-sufficient and stable. In addition, BoysTown provides Common Sense Parenting classes for all families on the campus throughout the year, training them on how to set proactively routines and expectations in the home. This model is currently used in CCSD and across the nation.
• Lawyer in Schools: After noticing that several of the parents at her school had custody arrangements that were not court ordered and difficult to enforce, she co-wrote a grant with Nevada Legal Services to provide free legal support to her school community through the Lawyer in Schools program. After getting grant funding in 2022, Nevada Legal Services began meeting with parents at the school during the school day to address legal issues such as custody, eviction, records sealing, immigration, and other needs. In 2023, she received the Partner in Pro Bono Innovation Award from Nevada Legal Services Incorporated.

As a result of these efforts and programs, Tate Elementary School has greatly decreased staff transiency, increased parental participation and satisfaction, and reduced behavioral concerns on campus. In 2017, she was named the Nevada National Distinguished Elementary Principal and joined principals from across the nation in Washington, D.C. to receive this reward.

She was accepted into LION’S Executive Leadership Academy during the 2016-2017 School Year. This experience not only changed her outlook on education and introduced her to leaders from across the community, she worked with a team to make a significant change in how teachers were evaluated in CCSD. For the ExLA Capstone Project, she partnered with Barry Bosacker, Transformation Network Superintendent, Viginia “Holly” Ratliff, Principal of Josh Stevens Elementary School, and Lindsay Tomlinson, Region 1 Superintendent, to reduce the amount of time writing the Summative Evaluation for the Nevada Educator Performance Framework so that administrators could focus on observations and coaching. Prior to their work, the evaluation was 16 or more pages long and required hours of work to format and edit the narratives. The team worked with the district and state to create a format that summarized a teacher’s performance and reduced the written document to just a few pages. The template they proposed got approved at the district and state level is still in use today.

In reflecting on the impact the PEF’s ExLA program had on her career, she began nominating teachers for the Teacher Leadership Academy with the goal of strengthening teacher leadership in her school. Since 2018, 14 Myrtle Tate Elementary School teachers have completed the program. The impact of their learning and projects are seen across the school community.

Outside of school, Ms. Popek enjoys distance running and spending time with her husband, Chris, the Principal of Monaco Middle School and her son, Trystan, a Junior at Shadow Ridge High School.