415-314-7144
mark_sanchez@earthlink.net

Mark Sanchez is an openly gay Latino public school teacher and a long-time Mission resident and activist. He has twice been elected to serve on the San Francisco Board of Education. For the past two years he has been elected unanimously by his colleagues to be Board President based on his ability to unify a historically divided board.

During his tenure on the School Board, Mark has worked tirelessly to implement a vision of social justice and to hold the school district accountable to progressive San Francisco values while managing a half a billion dollar budget. This work is challenging in the face of constant education cuts by conservative forces in Sacramento and Washington.

Mark is also one of the most prolific legislators on the Board, authoring proposals to promote educational achievement, social justice, sound fiscal management practices, open government, environmental justice, immigrant rights, youth and parent rights, and teacher housing. He authored legislation on the small schools by design initiative; the LGBT family diversity curriculum; opposition to the War on Iraq and military recruitment in public schools; the construction of "green" school buildings; and the rights of immigrant parents to vote in school board elections.   

Mark helped shape the Public School Enrichment Fund approved by San Francisco voters in 2004, bringing librarians back into our schools, promoting the arts, sports and music.  When fully ramped up, the Public School Enrichment fund will add $60 million in services to our public schools annually. Additionally, it provides for universal high quality pre-school education and adds nurses, therapists, and violence prevention programs to our schools. Mark also worked for the passage of two successful bond measures totaling more than $790 million that are upgrading facilities, improving physical safety and increasing disability access for all students and staff.  This school year, Mark lead the Board in hiring one of the best qualified superintendents in the country, Carlos Garcia, who has inspired a sense of renewed confidence by both district employees and families.

His School Board activities have always been informed by his last sixteen years as a teacher.  Mark has dedicated his life to working with low-income and immigrant youth. In San Francisco, he taught at Glen Park Elementary, Paul Revere Elementary in Bernal Heights, and Edison Elementary in Noe Valley. Since 2002, he has taught Latino youth eighth grade science at Garfield Charter School in the Redwood City School District.

Mark co-founded Teachers 4 Change in 1999, an activist group of teachers that picketed in front of San Francisco City Hall to shed light on the lack of public school funding, classroom conditions and the eviction of teachers throughout the city caused by the dot com boom. In 2000, he co-founded Teachers 4 Social Justice, an organization that provides educators opportunities for development, leadership, and community building to promote substantive change in the classroom, school, community and society. At one action with Teachers 4 Change, Mark met D9 Supervisor Tom Ammiano, who urged him and other progressive teachers to seek a seat on the Board of Education. It was at that point, that he decided to take his experience in the classroom to the boardroom. In 2000, Mark was elected to the San Francisco Board of Education and was subsequently re-elected in 2004.

On a personal note, Mark was raised in a working and middle-class neighborhood in Santa Monica, California. He is the second eldest of four, raised by his mother, Lorraine, a nurse and hospital administrator. Mark attended UC Santa Cruz, graduating in 1987 with a B.A. in English Literature, and in 1992 with a Teaching Credential. Mark moved to the inner Mission that same year.  Mark enjoys his few moments of free time playing racquetball, cheering on the Golden State Warriors, watching women’s tennis, and like Barack Obama, viewing “The Wire.”