As the new school year starts and offers a fresh beginning of new opportunities, Malden is joined by many new staff members, one of which being Dr. Yvonne Endara, the new ELL Director for Malden Public Schools.
Endara is originally from Puerto Rico, where she lived until she was around the age of ten, when she moved to New York. She graduated from Hunter College, where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Elementary Education with a major in studio art. Endara lived in New York until she was 21, then moved to Massachusetts to pursue a career in education. She taught high school in Northborough for 11 years, then went on to become the ELL Director for Watertown Public Schools, a position in which she stayed for four years before coming to Malden.
When asked why she chose to go into this field of education, Endara had a very thoughtful answer, “I was first asked many, many years ago to tutor some students from Guatemala, who ended up not having had any education, so I was coming in as a tutor just to help them out, and that began this journey. Since then, I realized that this is a special niche, and it’s important to do whatever we can to help these students [that are coming from other parts of the world].” She then went on to say, “I didn’t have that kind of support when I came to the United States, so it’s available now and I like to be apart of it.”
Endara cited the diversity of Malden Public Schools to be one of her main reasons for choosing to work in the city. “Malden is amazingly diverse, … so having lived in the city, where everyone is from everywhere, it’s really nice to again be in a district that is so rich in diversity.” She continued, “it was also a bigger district than the one I came from, so it gave me an opportunity [also] to spread out my wings, so to speak.”
While Endara’s main position is the Director of the ELL program, she is also the Director of Title III. When asked what it was like to be in charge of both this and the ELL program, she responded, “it’s a nice marriage, because the funds are exclusively for English language learners, so it’s nice to have a say about the grant. … so it gives me another opportunity to see how to really spend the funds that we get, to enrich the programs and support the programs that we already have.”
Superintendent John Oteri described Endara as “dynamic” and “a very hard worker” when asked about the traits that made her stand out during the hiring process. Assistant Superintendent Kelly Chase said of Endara, “She brings [just] a kindness with her to the position of understanding the students with whom she works and a really strong desire to work with teachers in the community, and bring them into the work that she does.”
Jessica Haralson, an ELL teacher leader, has had the chance to work very closely with Endara. Haralson has said about her that, “she seems to really be a good listener, and that is a very rare quality in a leader, and it’s a good quality for a leader to have.”
Endara added, “I think I’m in the right place at the right time, with people who really want the best for all our students.” She later went on to say, “I’m really excited to be here, [that] I look at it as a growth opportunity, professionally and personally, and I welcome all kinds of ideas and suggestions to how I can best serve the district.”
