Lori Ramos Ehrlich
High School Academy
Lori Ramos Ehrlich – Vice-Chair
Lori Ramos Ehrlich currently Vice President/COO of Center for Training & Careers Inc (CTC). CTC has been providing education and training services to the community since 1977. Ms. Ramos Ehrlich is active in the local community and serves on many boards including Escuela Popular Accelerated Family Learning Center, San Jose Job Corps Advisory Council, the NCLR California Regional Board, and a member of the Mayor’s Gang Prevention Task Force.
Lori Ramos Ehrlich
Lori Ramos Ehrlich
Pablo Reguerin
High School Academy
Pablo Guillermo Reguerín, M.A. – Chair, Board of Directors
Pablo Guillermo Reguerín currently serves as the Executive Director for Retention Services and Educational Opportunity Programs at the University of California, Santa Cruz, providing leadership and oversight to a cluster of student services offices charged with retaining and graduating students with a focus on educational equity.
Since September 2009, Mr. Reguerín has led to integrate student services to develop student care teams, increased case-management of vulnerable student populations and data-driven intervention programs. These efforts have resulted in Individual Success Plans for cohorts of EOP students, intensive advising services for immigrant and undocumented/AB540 students, a newly launched Textbook Lending Library for students facing financial hardship and a Laptop pilot program for students that arrive to campus without a laptop or computer. In collaboration with faculty partners and the Office of Institutional Research, Pablo has launched an evidence-based evaluation process of the retention services units through the use of logic models to further deepen the utilization of research based practices and continuous improvement.
Mr. Reguerín has worked at UCSC for over 15 years, previously serving as the Deputy Director of the Educational Partnership Center and as a Senior Admissions Counselor with the Office of Admissions. Mr. Reguerín received his Bachelor of Arts degree from UC Santa Cruz in Latino and Latin American Studies and his Master of Arts degree from Teachers College, Columbia University in Educational Leadership and Administration.
Mr. Reguerín serves on the board of directors for the Escuela Popular Family Learning Center Charter School in San José and as the Co-Chair of the UC Santa Cruz Latino Alumni Network.
Pablo Reguerin
Pablo Reguerin
Lidia Reguerin
High School Academy
Founder of Escuela Popular
High School Academy
Founder of Escuela Popular
Lidia Reguerin was the beloved and admired educator and champion of love and service to others. The crowning achievement, (logro mayor) of the life of this amazing woman—Lidia Reguerin, is the founding of Escuela Popular, which continues to grow and evolve.
Today, it can proudly boast about being the only school in the nation that provides access to a high quality education for infants, children, adolescents and adults. Lidia held a Masters in Education from Stanford University, and was an educator for 56 years. Her legacy will live on through the generations she has mentored and empowered through her lifelong work to transform lives through education. Lidia believed in her students and taught them that no goal was impossible for them to reach.
Proof of her success is that many of them are now educators themselves. She always celebrated learning, the diverse Latino culture and her community. Lidia wanted to make sure that the Latino voice was not drowned out, but that their concerns would be addressed. The hope and inspiration she left in us, will continue to keep her example of living in this world.
Born in a rural town in Bolivia, Lidia prided herself in her indigenous roots and native Quechuan tongue, and this pride was revealed through the sincerity in the eyes, as well as through her warm and deeply meaningful words.
Lidia was passionate about her family who supported her vision and mission to act with love. Jorge, her husband of 59 years, and her children, Jorge, Roger, Patricia and Pablo and her five grandchildren will continue their lives carrying a piece of Lidia’s legacy of love and hope inside their hearts.
Her beloved students knew Lidia as Maestra Lidia. They describe her as a woman of great heart because besides teaching with inexhaustible patience, she was known to support them as they solved some of their personal problems. She would buy books for them, and was also known to give them money out of her own pocket for transportation. Most importantly, she provided shelter for students who would otherwise have been homeless. A testament to the high regard in which Lidia was held is evidenced by the fact that on the afternoon of before her passing, nearly 200 of her students gathered at her home, while her family surround her bed to pay their last respects, and to uplift her in prayer and song.
We were privileged and blessed to have known this extraordinary woman who chose to live her life fearlessly, with a great sense of faith and who always acted with a deep sense of love.
(Compliments of The San Jose Mercury News)
Patricia Reguerin
High School Academy
High School Academy
Executive Director
Born in Bolivia, Patricia Reguerin is currently the Executive Director of Escuela Popular, but originally migrated with her family to the United States when she was 5 years old. Her experience as an immigrant student gave birth to her passion for equity in education. Patricia began her career as a childcare provider at Escuela Popular in 1986. It was then that she realized she wanted to become a teacher. In 1991, Patricia graduated from the University of California at Santa Cruz with a Bachelor’s in Sociology and decided to continue for an additional year to obtain her Multiple Subject Bilingual Credential. Her first teaching assignment was as a bilingual kindergarten teacher, and she has taught bilingual and dual immersion grades K-2, served as a migrant education resource teacher, and a Title VII coordinator. Patricia has a Master’s in Bilingual/Bicultural Education from Teachers College, Columbia University.
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Years at EP
What attracted you to EP?
What’s the best part of your job?
How does your passion align with EP’s vision?
About Escuela Popular
Our Academies
Our Vision
Our family learning center builds on students’ social, linguistic, and cultural strengths with the intent to develop bilingual, biliterate, bi-cultural students fully prepared to continue on to higher education and empowered to pursue their stated goals. Our community of teachers, students, parents, and staff believe that teaching is an act of love and learning is a life-long activity.
- Childcare Academy (For the infants and children of the High School students for AM and PM sessions)
- TK-8th Dual Language Academy (90/10 Immersion Program)
- High School Youth Bilingual Academy (Under 19 years of age)
- High School Adults Bilingual Academy and Vocational Training (AM and PM sessions)
Escuela Popular (EP) began as a community based grassroots school to address a growing need for English instruction in East San Jose and as a consequence, has been providing educational services since 1986.
Within the first year of its operation, the demand for learning and schooling grew rapidly and Escuela Popular continued to expand in numbers of students, classes, and services to meet the growing need.
In 1999, Escuela Popular was invited to operate a satellite campus of a new charter school organization. We seized upon the opportunity to expand our services to the community at large by providing a dual language kindergarten through eighth grade academy, along with a high school academy for youth, and in keeping with our vision of EP as a family learning center, an academy for parents and adults. In 2002, Escuela Popular was able to function independently and acquired its own nonprofit status, assuming the name Escuela Popular del Pueblo.
A Crowning Achievement: a six-term accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.
Three successful charter renewals testifying to the confidence of East Side Union High School District in the work that we do.
Escuela Popular’s philosophy is to enhance the opportunity for achievement “before, throughout, and beyond” high school. We are also committed to providing meaningful learning experiences in a small school setting.
Believing that learning is social and connected, we have established interdependent academies:
- Childcare Academy (For the infants and children of the High School students for AM and PM sessions)
- TK-8th Dual Language Academy (90/10 Immersion Program)
- High School Youth Bilingual Academy (Under 19 years of age)
- High School Adults Bilingual Academy and Vocational Training (AM and PM sessions)
We welcome children and adults of all ages to build on their social, linguistic and cultural strengths to develop bilingual, bicultural students fully prepared for higher education and empowered to pursue their life-long goals.
Our balanced curriculum includes English instruction as well as other fundamental courses required by the State of California. Our staff are nurturing and responsive to the needs of each student, making Escuela Popular a well-known center for high school education.
Escuela Popular
Childcare Academy · K-8 Dual Language Academy · High School Youth Bilingual Academy (Under 19 years of age) ·High School Adults Bilingual Academy and Vocational Training ·
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Believing that learning is social and connected, we have established interdependent academies:
Escuela Popular Childcare Academy’s mission is to stimulate the different areas of a child’s development. Its curriculum was inspired by Waldorf’s pedagogy, which uses teaching methods that seek to build a balance between the children’s intellect, imagination, and will. The purpose is to prepare children to reach maturity in all aspects.
The dual language proficiency that is offered to Escuela Popular students is a priceless resource that provides children with the self-confidence to believe that they can, indeed, succeed as students. This belief motivates students to continue their careers as life long learners. A bilingual individual contributes many skills beyond that of speaking another language.
Escuela Popular’s High School Academy under 19 provides intensive English Language Development so that students are able to meet their goal of graduating bilingual and biliterate. Students benefit from the individual attention afforded by a 20:1 student-to-teacher ratio.
Escuela Popular's Center for Training and Careers (EP/CTC) serves several groups of over 19 students. Escuela Popular seeks to serve the community in the best way possible. The overwhelming majority of our students are primarily Spanish speaking.
Vision
Escuela Popular Educates to Transform Lives.
Mission
Our Family Learning Center believes that teaching is an act of love through which learning is reciprocal.
We develop bilingual, bi-cultural students fully prepared to continue onto higher education and empowered to pursue their goals in a global society.
Escuela Popular's community of teachers, students, parents, and staff believe that teaching is an act of love and learning is a lifelong activity.
Escuela Popular is a family learning center that serves Pre K-12 children and adults who are seeking a high school diploma. Escuela Popular was founded by Lidia Reguerin -- an educator of over 50 years of experience.
We believe teaching is an act of love; therefore, we work to liberate and empower participants for self-determination. Love is an inward development of compassion and the capacity to believe unconditionally in self and others.
The majority of our staff is reflective of the student body. Accordingly, Escuela Popular provides a smooth transition in what is often a new culture for students.
Contact Escuela Popular
Contact Escuela Popular
149 North White Road
San José, CA 95127
(408) 275-7191